One year after the start of the State of Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, more than 40,000 Palestinian people have been killed, approximately half of whom are women and children, and 90% of the Gazan population has been forced to leave their homes and flee. The Strip has become a concentration camp and a cemetery under the rubble of homes, schools, hospitals and other basic infrastructure that have been destroyed by bombs. But the destruction of Palestine is not enough for the State of Israel, which has expanded its attacks to Lebanon and the West Bank, provoking the reaction of countries such as Yemen and Iran, and taking the region to the threshold of an unprecedented conflict.
This is occurring with the complicity and support of the United States and most European Union countries, as well as many corporations that profit from supplying weapons, infrastructure, food and other supplies to the Israeli army. To date, the UN’s calls for an end to the atrocity have been ignored, which may have serious consequences for its continued role and legitimacy in upholding peace and human rights around the world.
No less troubling is that in the United States and in several European Union countries, demonstrations to condemn the genocide and to express solidarity with the Palestinian people are being banned and repressed, sometimes with police brutality, criminalizing many human rights defenders and infringing on the freedom of expression, the freedom of association and the right to protest. Such events reveal how this conflict goes beyond Israel’s genocidal plan and involves geopolitical interests linked to the capitalist control and plunder of resources such as oil and gas, which are crucial to maintain the Western civilizing order that is driving the world towards social and climate collapse.
As women defenders, we know that war is one of the most brutal manifestations of patriarchy and that at this moment the Palestinian people are victims of a genocide sponsored by the State of Israel’s supremacist colonial project and the capitalist interests of its Western allies. Stopping this atrocity is a moral imperative but also a matter of global urgency, as the escalation of the conflict could trigger consequences worldwide, some of which are economic and already being suffered with particular intensity by the working classes, with specific impacts on women and girls.
We therefore stand in solidarity with and embrace all our sister human rights defenders in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Israel who – confronted with policies of genocide, dispossession and death – continue to strive to be peacebuilders. They are the hope for any viable future in the region, which requires an end to the occupation by the State of Israel and full recognition of the Palestinian State.
We call on governments, international bodies and human rights organizations not to remain indifferent or neutral, and to use all their capacity for action and advocacy for a declaration of ceasefire, the suspension of arms shipments, the release of all hostages and/or political prisoners in Israel and Palestine, and the urgent and diligent guarantee of Palestinian people’s humanitarian rights.
We invite all women human rights defenders around the world to unite our voices against this atrocity and denounce the governments and corporations that promote and sustain it.