By MENCHANI TILENDO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – To the Bangsamoro people, the situation in Palestine may intensify the attacks on Muslims worldwide.
“Like our Palestinian brothers and sisters, we know how it feels to have lost your home and your livelihood because of the siege. Similar to what has been happening in Gaza for the longest time, members of the Maranao community in Marawi continue to experience indiscriminate bombings and displacement,” Drieza Lininding, chairperson of the Moro Consensus Group, said.
Lininding, a 44-year old Maranao and a resident of Marawi, said that what happened in Israel on Oct. 7 is a daily lived experience of the Palestinian people for more than 70 years.
The Palestinian resistance has come a long way from their people’s core struggle for their right to their homeland and self-determination. The enforcement of settler colonialism in Palestine has existed since the French invasion of the Arab world in 1799, followed by the British colonial rule in the 19th century which imposed the creation of a Jewish state on Palestinian land.
The British Zionist movement has orchestrated the declaration of Palestine as the “national home of the Jewish people,” allowing the Jews to have their own army, consequently evicting Palestinians from their homes.
Despite the UN Resolution 194 that called for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland, Israel denies their existence because of their ideology that no people were ever in that place called “Palestine.” The world looked at Palestinians as mere refugees, not as people who were driven out by force. They have always had the historical and legal right to their lands, but the apartheid Israeli regime has time and again denied them of that right.
The Palestinians’ dispossession of their own lands and the creation of the state of Israel supported by Zionist settler-colonialism have sparked unrest and greater resistance from the whole Arab region.
As part of its grand scheme to control the people and resources in the so-called greater Middle East, the US brokered the “normalization” of Arab relations with Israel. However, this rigid US support for Israel received big blows from the surprise attack of the Hamas resistance movement last October 7.
In response to the surprise attack ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ initiated by the Hamas resistance movement last October 7, Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign ‘Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas’. This is not just mere retaliation on the part of Israeli forces, because their response includes cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, aggravating the residents’ already poor living conditions.
Masjid Al-Aqsa remains a sacred place of worship for Palestinian Muslims as it is linked to the story of Prophet Muhammed’s night journey from the holy land of Mecca to Jerusalem.
For decades, Israeli forces have waged violent crackdowns within the mosque’s peripheries, resulting in the Second Intifada or uprising. Some 31 Palestinians were wounded and At least 450 Palestinian men were reportedly arrested when Israeli forcibly entered the mosque back in April 2023. A similar incident happened on Sept. 17, 2023 when three more Palestinians were beaten up by Israeli forces in the Masjid Al-Aqsa.
Such incidents have long been assailed by the human rights community, including UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory, calling it a violation of the international law.
“The historical reason for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine is because of their belief that it was a land promised to them. For centuries, Muslims in Palestine have co-existed with our Christian brothers and sisters. They even protected the holy land and places of worship in Jerusalem. When Israel came into the picture, their forces bastardized not just Islam, but also the Christian people’s places of worship, rituals, and beliefs,” Lininding said.
Escalation of war and its root causes
The Moro people also have their own share of armed conflict.
In recent history, the Marawi siege back in 2017 has displaced thousands of the Moro people. The five-month conflict left a total damages and losses at $348 million, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Read: For Ground Zero IDPs, there’s no going back
Read: How a Moro woman has preserved their culture while helping provide food for displaced families
This became the basis for the declaration of martial law in Mindanao under former president Rodrigo Duterte that resulted in massive human rights violations. Under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, the Moro people continue to seek justice and for internally displaced persons to be able to return to their homes now referred to as Ground Zero.
Read: 800,000 rights abuses recorded in 2 years of Martial Law in Mindanao — rights group
In a solidarity protest for Palestine led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan last Oct. 11 in Manila, Abu Mujahid Maulana Mamutuk, also a Maranao and a member of Ranao Charitable Society, expressed his solidarity with the victims of decades-long colonial settlement in Palestine.
“I have been a bakwit and eventually a volunteer of a charitable organization in Lanao. I have experienced the destitution that came with staying in evacuation centers and shelters without enough food to eat and clean water to drink. During the night, it’s very cold, and during daytime, it’s extremely hot because we only had tarpaulines as our roof. Our community, especially the children and the elderly, has been vulnerable to all kinds of sickness”, Mamutuk said.
Ongoing fight for self-determination and national liberation
Like the Palestinian people, the Bangsamoro people of Mindanao fight for the right to self-determination, national liberation and return to their homeland. They are also experiencing systemic brutal occupation and the longtime neglect in addressing the root causes of wars.
On Oct. 14, various civic groups led by the Moro Consensus Group also held a solidarity program for Palestine in Marawi City, stressing their call to stand with the Blessed Masjid Al-Aqsa.
Two days later (Oct. 16), more than 12,000 people representing different provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) – including Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu held a mobilization organized by the Bangsamoro Actions Against Injustices (BAAI) at the Cotabato City Plaza with the unified call to “Free Palestine”. They have also performed their Salah (ritual prayer obligatory for Muslims to perform) for their Palestinian brothers and sisters.
The Bangsamoro people assailed how 75 years since the gruesome Nakba or “Day of Catastrophe” in Palestine, Israel has continued to impose its apartheid regime through repressive systems, systematic targeting and destruction of the Palestinian communities, lives and livelihood. The Day of Catastrophe refers to the massive displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 war.
“There is no state called ‘Israel’. Israel is a prophet, and it was only his descendants who established Israel. The existing religions in the Arab world actually have more similarities than differences. This is not just a simple political issue, it is much more complicated than that. What we understand for sure is that what Hamas is doing is in response to the settlers who are entering this holy land, settlers who are backed by far-right Israeli politicians like Prime Minister Netanyahu and members of his security council,” Lininding said.
Call for peace and international solidarity
For Lininding, the Philippine government should just focus on the de-escalation of the war and address the roots of the ongoing Palestinian uprising.
“Instead of meddling with Israel’s mechanisms of propping up its aggressive wars in Palestine, the Philippine government should instead focus on how it could contribute to the international call of the de-escalation of war, and in addressing the longtime battle cry of the Palestinian people for justice and peace”, Lininding said.
On Oct. 13, the Philippine National Security Council (NSC) said that it will push for the designation of Hamas as a terrorist group as a show of solidarity with Israel. NSC refers to Section 25 of the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) that arbitrarily designates individuals, groups, persons, organizations and associations as ‘terrorists’.
“The NSC’s plan of terrorist designation of Hamas could have serious implications to us Bangsamoro, especially those who are vocal in expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. The Philippine government should not be too one-sided with Israel because our country also has a long and rich history with surrounding Muslim states such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia”, Lininding said.
“We are a living testimony of how difficult it is to live in a war. This is why we stand in strong solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, and we call on the international community to strengthen the demand to address the root causes of war, so there will be no more deaths and despair,” Mamutuk said. (JJE, DAA) 
