The International League of Peoples’ Struggle commemorates Nakba Day in remembrance of the genocide perpetrated by the war criminal David Ben Gurion on May 15, 1948, for the creation of the state of Israel. We strongly condemn the gruesome violence of Israeli forces against Palestinians at the Al Aqsa Mosque, in Gaza, and Sheikh Jarrah.
Seventy-three years after Nakba, ‘the catastrophe’, where over 600 towns and villages were destroyed by raids and 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their native lands, Zionists are once more expelling Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrahneighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
In Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinians are faced with a nightmare not unlike Nakba as Israeli settlers have been forcing them out of their homes. Protests have erupted over the years as Palestinians resisted the eviction, which has been dispersed violently. On the last Friday of Ramadan, Israeli forces attacked the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, firing tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians, injuring hundreds of Palestinians. The groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired rockets at Israel after the Zionist state ignored their demands to withdraw forces from Al Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah. The Israeli army afterward carried out aerial bombardments on the Gaza Strip killing 48 Palestinians, 14 of which are children.
Since 1948, Israel has passed legislation such as the Absentees’ Property Law of 1950, the Legal and Administrative Matters Law of 1970, which sanction wholesale theft of Palestinian lands. Palestinians have been oppressed by the US-Zionist Israeli regime since its inception, and in commemorating Nakba Day we remember the pain of the countless victims of Israel’s brutal occupation.
Since World War II, Israel has been the primary recipient of military aid from the United States. This military aid sustains Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, finances Jewish settlements, funds annexation of Palestinian land, and consequently, funds the violation of Palestinian human rights. As of November 2020, data from the US Congressional Research Service, concludes that Israel has received a total $146 billion of US taxpayers’ money. Washington will support Israel to the tune of $38 billion for the financial years 2019-2028: $33 billion to upgrade its military and an additional $5 billion for missiles.
Apart from this, the US also sends donations to charities such as the United Israel Appeal, which passes it on to the Jewish Agency Israel is part of the United States’ precious military-industrial complex, and it has been engaged in a proxy war against Iran. The US, threatened by Iran’s nuclear program, relies on Israel to exert politico-military pressure on the region of West Asia.
The ILPS stands in steadfast solidarity with Palestinians in the assertion of their right to return the homes taken from them and their ancestors, in their resistance against systemic displacement and oppression. The ILPS believes in the just cause of the Palestinians, that Palestinians will inevitably return to the land which has been forcibly taken from them, and that the schemes of imperialist-backed Zionism will ultimately fail.
We affirm that the spaces of Palestine, Jerusalem, and Al Aqsa are at the heart of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, justice, and human rights. We assert that return to Palestine is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people. We denounce the calls to cede these spaces and the normalization of Zionist Israel’s occupation, and we reject initiatives and projects which rationalize the crimes and abuses against Palestinian people, and which are designed to diminish the issues of Palestine.
We salute the unfaltering resolve of Palestinians in Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, in the diaspora, and of those unjustly imprisoned by the Israeli state. We call on member organizations to provide all possible forms of support to the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
We urge the peoples of the world to unite against US war and militarism which bankrolls Israeli aggression in West Asia. The international community must act to end the slaughter of Palestinians, to end Israeli settler colonialism, and to call for accountability for these horrific violations against basic human rights and dignities.
Stop US-backed Zionist Israel’s siege and occupation in Palestine!
No to US-led wars!
Free Palestine!
Struggle for the right of return!
Support the Palestinians’ tight to resist!
Down with US imperialism!
Signed:
Len Cooper
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
14 May 2021