ILPS: Resistance Until Return and Liberation!

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement of the ILPS on the commemoration of the Nakba.

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle joins Palestinians all over the world in commemorating the 1948 Nakba, or catastrophe, which dispossessed, displaced, and murdered hundreds of thousands of people in the name of an imperialist and Zionist project—the manufacture of “Israel “as a “Jewish State” in Palestine in order to establish a Western imperialist outpost in West Asia and North Africa.

Nakba Continues

The 78th anniversary of the Nakba marks a significant moment in the ongoing struggle for Palestinian freedom against Zionist genocidal occupation and imperialist war on the peoples of West Asia. The Nakba has become a defining feature of Palestinian and Arab unity and struggle for national liberation and self-determination. The resistance to the Nakba, alongside the 2023 October 7 Al Aqsa Flood, is emblematic of resistance to colonialism, occupation, and displacement.

On this anniversary of the Nakba and the US-Israeli Zionist occupation of Palestine, our hearts are heavy with the continued suffering, loss of life, and devastation. Palestinians in Gaza who are descendants of refugees uprooted during the Nakba continue to endure heinous acts of genocide. This moment also comes as Palestinians in the West Bank – particularly in the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nablus – are under assault by the occupation regime, with tens of thousands displaced and hundreds of homes destroyed. This is an attempt to undermine Palestinians’ inviolable right to return to their homes by liquidating the physical structure of the refugee camps. Of course, it also comes hand in hand with the vicious repression of Palestinians in occupied Palestine ‘48, while Palestinians in exile and diaspora continue to struggle for their right to return home to Palestine, denied for over 77 years. From the refugee camps in the countries surrounding Palestine to the Palestinian communities in every continent of the world, the right to return, to resist and to live free of Zionism and imperialism lives on everywhere. The Al-Aqsa Flood is also a flood of return, of liberation, and of the struggle to undo the Nakba. Palestinians are organizing for their liberation, while Arabs and internationalists stand in unwavering solidarity for their right to self-determination and freedom.

Gaza continues to endure enormous challenges amid an active genocide, including restrictions and a blockade in place since 2007, which have had a significant impact on the territory’s economy and infrastructure. It continues to confront shortages in essential goods such as food, water, and medicine, resulting in a terrible humanitarian situation. It has seen repeated cycles of violence, including military operations, rocket attacks, and carpet bombing of churches, mosques, residences, hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, even during periods of ceasefire and peace talks in the past. The current bombardment of Gaza serves as a stark reminder of the dehumanizing violence and systemic oppression that Palestinians continue to face.

Up with the Global Resistance

Solidarity with the Palestinian people’s resistance for national and social liberation is more critical than ever. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance, the people of Gaza, and the regional Axis of Resistance in Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq in fighting imperialism and Zionism by any means necessary, and for Palestine’s freedom from the river to the sea.

The demonization of the countries in the Axis of Resistance covers up the impact of US sanctions on these nations for defending their sovereignty and national integrity against US imperialist intervention and endless wars. Despite stringent US sanctions that have a crippling effect on its economy and severe economic hardships for its citizens, Iran remains steadfast in providing support to end the brutal Zionist-Israeli attacks on Palestinians. Iraq’s resistance to and defense of Palestine stems from the US invasion in 2003, which the US defended with a brutal campaign against its own false claims of WMDs and the “war on terror.” Yemen’s Ansar Allah has demonstrated steadfast solidarity with Palestine by stopping the transport of bombs and war equipment from imperialist countries to Israeli Occupation Forces, which would have killed thousands more of the displaced Palestinians. Strongly supporting Palestinian freedom, Hezbollah began as a resistance movement against Israeli occupation and has been instrumental in protecting Lebanon’s sovereignty from both local corruption and foreign dominance.

Terrorist tagging of the Axis of Resistance by US-led western imperialism must be opposed at a time when governments in the Arab region have adopted the policy of normalization amidst genocide and imperialist plunder, no war for oil! Terrorist designation of organizations and activists who stand in firm solidarity with Palestine is a fascist mechanism to criminalize dissent and gain consent for genocide.

We salute the governments and peoples of Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and South Africa for their unwavering support to the Palestinian cause and principled rejection of US imperialism and Zionism. We stand in solidarity with anti-Zionist Jewish organizers and communities, who have historically and continue to say, “Not in our name!” to reject the colonial and genocidal Zionist project — the “Israeli State.”

The courageous actions in the western imperialist core of student encampments organized to pressure universities to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and military actions in the region, as well as direct action against weapons production and delivery to Israel, are vital in exposing and opposing the US-led western imperialism’s role in arming and politically shielding Israel—thus enabling the ongoing genocide— and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination.

Our Calls

ILPS enjoins all organizations under the League to amplify Palestinian voices and stories throughout media platforms, schools, churches and faith institutions, rural and urban communities, agricultural spaces, and workplaces. We call on comrades in the League and their allied organizations in their respective regions and countries to tirelessly raise awareness, support organizations providing humanitarian aid and medical assistance to Palestinians, carry out in-depth investigations into their governments’ and other institutions’ relationships with the “Israeli” entity and demand divestment from them, support the cultural boycott of “Israel”, organize massive protests in support of the struggle for national and social liberation and right of return to Palestine, and build an international anti-imperialist, anti-fascist people’s movement for just and lasting peace.

Defeat Zionism!

Defeat US Imperialism!

Free Palestine from the river to the sea!

Signed,

International League of Peoples’ Struggle

#International #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #ILPS #Nakba

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/ilps-resistance-until-return-and-liberation?pk_campaign=rss-feed