JASS is horrified by the ongoing intense violence in Gaza over the last few weeks: the loss of hundreds of Israeli civilians by Hamas and the extreme and disproportionate violence that Israel is now raining down on the Palestinian people. Thousands of children, mothers, fathers, friends, and family members gone.
It does not diminish our outrage and the importance of each and every one of those lives recently lost, to acknowledge the history that they sit in. These recent casualties are but the latest in a long history of violence in Israel/Palestine, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. This sustained violence against the Palestinian people includes state surveillance, imprisonment, border closures, deprivation of basic needs, land grabs , and forced displacements.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has documented that Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,800 Palestinian civilians since 2008 prior to this most recent conflict. This steady violence draws less public attention but is no less condemnable. To understand today, we must understand all the many yesterdays that have brought us here and that demand our attention if we want a different tomorrow.
We call for an immediate ceasefire. However, as an organisation that stands for equality, justice, and liberation, we know that there can be no return to ‘peace’ without addressing the underlying roots of injustice, as that will only be another form of violence. As central to this, JASS stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their long fight for freedom, in support of their right to self-determination, the rights of Indigenous people over their land, and their right to live with dignity.
#StandWithPalestine #StopTheGenocide #FreePalestine #EndViolence #Decolonise
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