The Partido
Manggagawa (PM) joins the majority of the United Nations and the peoples of the
world in campaigning for peace and to call for an immediate ceasefire to the
armed conflict in Gaza to pave the way for a negotiated, internationally
brokered political solution to resolve the question of Palestine.
By means of war,
Israel has dispossessed the Palestinians of their right to existence as a free
country, with their territories effectively occupied and ghettoized by Israeli
forces since the Nakba of 1948. And this horrific condition suffered
continuously by the Palestinian people was also made possible with the
imposition of unimaginable forms of repression, including killings and an
unjust economic embargo, while the Israeli government continues to enjoy
massive military and economic assistance from the US and other Western powers.
The retaliatory
campaign to completely siege Gaza by cutting off food, water, and electricity
supplies to annihilate “subhuman” Palestinians is not simply out of bounds but is
downright genocide that needs to be opposed to avert a colossal humanitarian
crisis.
We continue to
emphasize that the only solution we see for peace to finally reign in this
region is for the peoples of the world, along with institutions such as the United
Nations, to campaign for an end Israel’s occupation and its continued land
grabbing in Palestinian territories, and to guarantee the right to
self-determination of the Palestinian people.
We believe that this kind of international process can gain momentum if
both the Palestinians, the Israeli people, and the whole world demand peace
rather than each other’s annihilation under a condition of perpetual war.
We also learned
from news reports that some Filipinos went missing or have been killed in the October
7 attack by Hamas. We call on the Philippine government to exert all efforts to
determine their actual condition and secure their safe release and
repatriation.
The Philippines
maintains diplomatic relations with Palestine since 1989, thus, working for
freedom and peace and preserving mutual respect with each other as independent
nations will work better than being torn apart by geo-political alignment and
other relations dictated by big powers.
October 12, 2023
