MIGRANTE International
Press Statement
25 October 2023
Migrante International condemns Teodoro “Teddy boy” Locsin Jr, Philippine ambassador to the United Kingdom and special envoy to China, for tweeting on the platform X (formerly Twitter), that “Palestinian children should be killed” in response to Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel and online discussions about the attacks.
Such a statement from a government official, even if a “sarcastic response,” is deplorable and unacceptable, given the death of so many Palestinian children in many years past, the death of many Palestinian children now because of Israel’s overkill response to Hamas’ attacks, and the Palestinian people’s long history of suffering under Israeli occupation.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported on October 23 that 5,100 Palestinians, 40% of whom are children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel started bombing the Palestinian territory in response to the most recent Hamas attacks.
Locsin’s tweet actually mirrors the main messages being promoted by the Zionist and fascist Israeli government and its US imperialist elite supporters: It pounces on Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians, turns a blind eye to Israel’s decades-long attacks and brutalities on Palestinian civilians, and justifies Israel’s ongoing massacre of Palestinians.
Locsin’s tweet targeting Palestinian children contributes to the wholesale dehumanization and criminalization of the Palestinian people. If even children cannot be spared from violence, then the entire population must indeed be targeted.
Locsin said “Palestinian children should be killed” because “they might grow up to become as gullible as innocent Palestinians letting Hamas launch rockets at Israel. Not that they could stop them but that’s no excuse. They are Muslims. They could stage mass suicide against Hamas until the latter ran out of bullets.”
Locsin’s apology for the tweet and the Department of Foreign Affairs’ distancing from the Locsin’s statement are not enough. In fact, Locsin’s tweet merely reflects the extreme side of the Bongbong Marcos Jr government’s stand on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It shows the Marcos Jr government’s eagerness to become rabid in aligning with the US and Israel on the issue.
Locsin’s tweet is conduct unbecoming of a top government official. How could he go wrong and even take an extreme position on a very important international issue? He should be barred from holding any important government post. He has gone a long way from being a critic of the Marcos Sr dictatorship and a government official under Cory Aquino to serving the fascist Rodrigo Duterte and Marcos Jr presidencies.###
