DOIW: Every Day is the International Day for Support of the Liberation struggle of Palestinian People
In the calendar of significant international events, the 29h November is assigned as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. In 1977, the General Assembly of the United Nations, selected this day to commemorate the UN ratification of the resolution in 1947, based on two states of Palestine and Israel, and the inalienable right of the people of Palestine to their independent state. But the catastrophic war waged by Israel, this henchman of imperialism in the Middle East, and its disastrous consequences for the people of Palestine, continues unabated.
Wars bring destruction and disasters for people, especially women, and against those who are tantamount to the future of any country: the children. Before the 7th of October 2023, human rights organisations had estimated that approximately 2.1 million Palestinians, 49.2% of them being women, living in the occupied territories need some sort of humanitarian aid.
Since the Hamas attacks on 7th of October, the world has witnessed the massacre of more than 44,000 Palestinians, more than 12,000 of them children, at the hands of the armed-to-the-teeth military of the racist regime of Israel – in what is in fact the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. This catastrophe, with tens of thousands disappeared, injured, and maimed, two million homeless, alongside the destruction of 70% of all housing, hospitals and schools, and the total collapse of the infrastructure in the Gaza strip, and the clear objective of starving the remaining population, has appalled the public opinion across the world. In the last year, and to-date, there have been unprecedented protests in most capitals in the world, against this horrific genocide, which is a clear crime against humanity. The uniform support of Western countries for Israel, from the beginning and to-date, must be viewed in the context of the hegemonic plans of imperialism for the Middle East region.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, from 2011 to 2020, the United States has supplied 70.2% of Israel’s conventional arms procurement, Germany has supplied 23.9% and Italy 5.9%. In practice these states have supported the right-wing and fascist Israeli regime in its genocide of the Palestinian people. According to various reports, 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been made homeless, and the Israeli army has ordered the evacuation of 84 percent of Gaza.
The high number of killings of defenceless people and the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, the destruction of their homeland by the Israeli regime, and the open approval of these crimes by imperialist states based on the refrain that “Israel has the right to defend itself,” has once again exposed the hypocrisy of imperialist countries’ claims to respect human rights and international law.
By attacking UNRWA offices (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East), the Israeli army stopped aid to the defenceless people of Gaza, prevented social services such as education and healthcare in the occupied territories, and carried out its ethnic cleansing, with complete disregard for humanitarian values held worldwide, and the warnings of the United Nations, while enjoying the support of brazen imperialist forces.
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza released on Tuesday 26th November, more than 1400 families in Gaza have been annihilated completely. And, of 3,463 families, only one member of the family has survived, and 2,287 families have lost family members but have some survivors.
In this catastrophic war, Palestinian women are experiencing one of the most difficult and inhumane conditions and consequences. Like their predecessors did, they play a prominent role in the struggles of the oppressed Palestinian people for an independent state. Thousands of women have been steadfast activists in the ranks of progressive Palestinian forces such as the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People’s Party, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and progressive and popular organizations and are active parts of the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people in various ways.
The continuation of this devastating war has had disastrous consequences for the displaced, especially women and children who have been forced out of their homes and displaced again several times. The spread of various deadly diseases, including polio, has severely damaged the lives of Palestinian children. Palestinian women and girls are also deprived of access to education, to appropriate job opportunities, healthcare, and the right to medical treatment, as they experience dual suffering. According to the UN agency for the promotion of gender equality, since the start of the war, two mothers have died, every hour. The need for humanitarian aid is now urgent and essential for the survival of people in occupied Palestine.
Despite these conditions, the Israeli army, has tightened the siege aiming at stopping essential services provided by the United Nations and other countries, and continues to pursue a policy of spreading famine in the Palestinian territories, causing catastrophic humanitarian consequences for women and men, children, and the elderly, who rely on these types of relief and essential services.
Not long ago, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that Israel should be held accountable for genocide during the Gaza offensive, based on the case brought by South Africa. On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC), in a historic move, following the complaint by South Africa and the relentless struggles of peace-loving people around the world, issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, and Yoav Gallant the country’s former defense minister, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Although this historic warrant lacks the necessary means of an executive mandate and, like UN resolutions, does not have a guarantee of enforcement, it serves to strengthen and broaden the expanding global front built in solidarity with the suffering Palestinian people.
The progressive and peace-loving forces of the world rightly condemn the collective punishment of the Palestinian people by Israel and the mass killing of civilians – most of whom are women, children, and the elderly. They are victims of the war-mongering policies of global imperialism and its reactionary allies, which are carried out by the right-wing, occupier Israeli regime.
The Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women stands in solidarity with the heroic struggles of the people of Palestine, especially with its defiant and peace-seeking women, for the realisation of their historical and legal right to establish an independent Palestinian state, and in unison with all the peace-loving people of the world, we call for an end to this devastating war and an end to the great humanitarian catastrophe.
No to War, Long live Peace
Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women
28th November 2024
