An immediate ceasefire, delivery of humanitarian aid and an end to Israeli occupation

 

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