Originally published on https://www.wftucentral.org/wftu-solidarity-declaration-on-the-occasion-of-palestinian-land-day/
The WFTU on the occasion of Palestinian Land Day, on March 30th, 2024, expresses its full solidarity and support to the heroic people of Palestine, who resist and struggle against the unprecedented brutality of the murderous state of Israel, with the mass murder of civilians, uprooting from their land and ethnic cleansing.
The ongoing and escalating bloodshed since 7 October, which has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and injured many more, makes the need to intensify our actions in solidarity with the struggling Palestinian people more urgent than ever.
The brutal and unacceptable bombardment of every social and institutional structure (hospitals, ambulances, schools, parliament, social services, homes, secular and religious institutions), and the deliberate killing of civilians, amount to crimes against humanity, committed thanks to the support Israel receives from the United States, the European Union and the rest of their allies. A new Nakba is taking place, against which we strongly demand urgent and concrete measures to stop the genocide of the Palestinian people immediately.
The root cause of this situation is the occupation and illegal settlement of the occupied Palestinian territories by Israel and the continuous, daily crimes and blockades of Gaza that have been committed against the Palestinian people for decades. These unacceptable, unspeakable, and constant crimes, injustices, persecution, and war are realized by the Israeli state which is characterized by Zionist supremacist ideology and are supported by the imperialist forces and the capital interests.
The consistent and principled support and solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people had always been a priority for the international class-oriented trade union movement. The only way to guarantee and consolidate peace and security in the region is to immediately end Israeli occupation and settlement on Palestinian land and in other Arab countries such as Lebanon and Syria, as stipulated in dozens of resolutions of the UN and other International Organisations and institutions that have never been respected by Israel, including the decision of the International Court in The Hague for immediate and effective measures to stop the aggression against Gaza after the important anti-imperialist initiative of South Africa, supported by many other countries and organizations. An independent Palestinian state must be established on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
We would like to highlight here a particularly gruesome element of the ongoing genocide, brought about by the Zionist will to uproot the Palestinian people from their land: the systematic elimination of children.
According to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the number of children killed in little more than four months in Gaza is higher than the number killed in four years of wars around the world: over 13,000 children killed, thousands more wounded, amputated without anaesthesia, over 17,000 orphaned. In the Gaza Strip, it is not only under the bombs that people die. The conditions of the civilians, but especially of the children still alive, are deteriorating more and more, with dozens of them starving. As the UNRWA notes ”Let us not forget, that children who survive hunger will have a life marked by health problems such as cognitive deficits and growth retardation.
All this takes place in the context of a humanitarian catastrophe that has so far seen more than 340 health workers killed in the performance of their duties. Despite the tragic situation, Zionist pressure has resulted in 16 countries cutting funding to UNRWA, which has a huge negative impact on life-saving care for over two million civilians, over half of them children.
At the same time, it is also clear as the imperialist aggression intensifies, our solidarity must intensify too. While the Palestinians in Gaza have been living without food, water and electricity for months, while an unprecedented military attack is being launched to make the Gaza territory unliveable, the workers and peoples of the world continue to fight to support the Palestinian people!
The militant, class-oriented trade unions join their voices with the resisting Palestinian people, condemn the imperialist hypocrisy, and demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to the imperialist, Zionist and barbaric occupation.
The WFTU, on the occasion of the 30th of March, observed as the Palestinian Land Day”, calls on its affiliates and friends, class-oriented and militant trade unions around the world to organise initiatives, struggles, mobilizations and demonstrations, under the slogan: “Free Palestine! Stop the Genocide”.
The solidarity action must express the full support of the class-oriented trade union movement with the legitimate Palestinian demands with demonstrations, mobilizations, protests, strikes, initiatives, and struggles of several forms, utilizing the instrument of military boycott as well as commercial, academic, and institutional boycott which was so important in defeating Apartheid in South Africa, and constitutes a very important mean of struggle in solidarity with Palestine.
We struggle with all our forces against the genocidal and colonialist state of Israel, breaking all ties and blocking arms supply, mobilizing in front of arms factories and Israeli embassies, large multinational chains that market Israeli products, in the universities and research centers promoting Israeli propaganda and reports, governments and national and international institutions that continue to maintain privileged relations with this criminal state.
The WFTU Secretariat
