We, the organizations engaged in the Silenced Suffering campaign, condemn the indiscriminate airstrikes of the US-backed Israeli forces that are currently decimating the besieged Palestinian city of Gaza. Each of our organizations is united against the bombings and indiscriminate shelling of rural communities around the world, and the blatant destruction of civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza, the area known around the world as the “largest open air prison,” is no different.
On October 7th, Palestinian resistance fighters waged a military operation that destroyed and seized Israeli military hardware and vehicles, engaged soldiers and civilian paramilitaries within illegal Israeli settlements, and took hostages in the hopes of exchanging them for the over 5,200 Palestinian political prisoners currently held by Israel. In response, Israel declared war, mustered its troops for a ground invasion, and began airstrikes all throughout the densely urban areas of Gaza.
The airstrikes are following the usual bloody recipes of all Israeli bombing campaigns: leveling multi-story buildings to the ground; targeting hospitals, schools, and civilian infrastructure; giving little to no warning for evacuations; and blocking all entry and exit to and from Gaza. Israel has made it clear that they will most likely send in ground troops to “destroy Hamas’ ability to govern,” suggesting that Israel will once again move in to directly occupy Gaza for the first time since 2005.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed over 5,000 people in nine different bombing campaigns since 2006. In addition, the ongoing Israeli blockade has held back much-needed supplies of food, water, fuel, and medical supplies and threatens a complete media blackout should an Israeli invasion commit further crimes against humanity. This has been possible only because of the nearly $260 billion the US has given to the Israeli military since the catastrophic Nakba conquest of Palestine by Zionist forces in 1948.
While Israel is the number one recipient of US military aid, other recipients include: the Philippines, Indonesia, West Papua, Burma, South Korea, India, and Pakistan, among others. We therefore raise our voices in collective condemnation and collective resistance with the Palestinian people in our fight to expose and oppose the hidden massacres of communities by imperialist and puppet state forces. Let us build an international united front that will fight for peoples’ rights against militarism and wars of aggression from one end of the world to the other!
Silenced Suffering calls on all organizations, rural and urban-based, to join us in building global solidarity against bombings targeted and/or indiscriminately against civilian, rural, and indigenous communities across the world. Oppressed peoples of these territories and areas who suffer the brunt of the colonizers’ and aggressors’ attacks need all the help that movements across the globe can extend. There is a pressing need to strengthen our organizations’ capacities for monitoring, reporting, and campaigning against these bombings, shellings, and airstrikes.
Signed:
International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation
People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty
Asia Pacific Research Network
Resist US-Led War Movement
Karen Human Rights Group (Myanmar)
Sandugo Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples (Philippines)
North-East Affected Area Development Society (NEADS) (Northeast India)
Innabuyog – Alliance of Women’s Organizations in the Cordillera (Philippines)
Tanggol Magsasaka (Philippines)
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Philippines)