Bulatlat News
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
With reports from Nica Hernaez
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – People all over the world calling for a ceasefire on the attacks in Gaza is a victory for the Palestinian people.
This is how the longtime leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), Leila Khaled, described the huge protests and calls for ceasefire from people around the globe as Palestinians continue to suffer from the sustained attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack of the Hamas resistance movement in Israel’s border.
For her, this is proof that the Zionist’s narrative has been defeated.
She stressed that Palestine was occupied by force and massacre after massacre took place to force Palestinians out of their land.
“They kept us by force from our home and from our properties. Now they are continuing the same way to deal with our people,” Khaled said in a webinar organized by the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) on Nov. 14.
Read: End the Nakba now
“Every one of us sees what’s happening in the world. We see millions marching… It is a victory for us. Now the Palestinian narrative has beaten the Zionist narrative that (has dominated) for 100 years,” Khaled said.
Calls for a ceasefire from different parts of the world started pouring with news of a four-day ceasefire where Israel will reportedly release 150 Palestinian prisoners and will allow aid trucks to cross the Rafah border in Egypt to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza. In a report, Hamas will also reportedly release 50 women and children hostages.
Years of resistance
In her talk, Razan Zuayter, co-chairperson of People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty and founder and president of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature and Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, highlighted the resistance of the Palestinians against its occupiers.
She also rooted the occupation of Palestine from the 1907 Imperial Conference where, she said, European countries saw the strength of the Arabs, and, if united, saw it as a “very big threat” to them.
“They then decided to promote division and separation in the region and establish a ‘buffer state’ in Palestine populated by strong foreign presence that would be hostile to its neighbor and friendly to European countries and their interests,” Zuayter said.
From 1922 to 1948, she said, the British and the allies of European countries promoted waves of European Jewish immigration into Palestine.
“Trained and armed, terrorist-size groups (were sent to) oppress through arrest, torture, mass punishment and execution of all Palestinians who tried to protect their people and their land,” Zuayter said.
But, she added, despite the horrific war crimes committed against Palestinians, they “have displayed legendary resilience and resistance all through the hundred years.” She cited the 1921 Jaffa uprising, Buraq uprising in 1929 and the Arab revolt.
She also cited the solidarity of the Arab nations in the struggle of the Palestinians such as resistance groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
“In Yemen, the Sanha Army announced an exceptional front that gave very great moral support to the Palestinian resistance through bombing the enemy using rockets and drones,” Zuayter said.
Zuayter also said that international solidarity is one form of resistance highly appreciated by the Palestinians.
“The millions of protestors from all over the world exposed the inhumanity of the genocide partners. Also this resistance including the power of boycotts gave hope to the Palestinians that they are not alone,” she said.
Razan put importance on raising awareness on the root cause of the problem in Palestine and “linking it with heroic resistance.”
“I know it is saddening but, at the same time there is this heroic resistance and the resilience is unprecedented. Hundred of years and still they are there resisting and not surrendering. We can always link this horrific scenes with scenes of pride, dignity and resistance and hope that the world will wake up and will stop this genocide,” she said.
Razan also said that resistance has many faces, it is not only armed.
“One is also through facts, helping the media to have alternative media channels with financing. We have to agree that every person, especially in this group (webinar) can be part of the resistance through so many endless means. Just give facts and help us convey the truth to the people,” she added.
Solidarity
Khaled said there are many ways to express solidarity to the Palestinian people in some ways other than calling for a ceasefire. Boycotting Israeli products is only one, she said.
“Boycott Israel on all bases – diplomat, political, educational, social. Workers can help by blocking their products from coming into the seas and harbors,” she said.
She also said that people should also call for sanctions against Israel. “Until when Israel is dealt with as a state above international law? They are violating every international law and human rights of the peoples. Why not sanction? So we go back to our governments. This is the time to pressure governments and to link the atrocities of those governments against their people with the atrocities happening to Palestine, then the struggle will be globalized,” Khaled said.
ILPS General Secretary Liza Maza meanwhile encouraged fellow Filipinos to show support to the struggle of the Palestinian people by signing the urgent appeal to the United Nations or send a letter expressing condemnation on genocide, among others.
On Nov. 25, progressive groups in the Philippines will also hold a March for Palestine.
Reports said there are already more than 14,000 people killed in the attacks of Israeli forces in the Gaza strip, 2,700 others are missing and believed to be buried under the rubble. (RTS, RVO) 
