UPD University Council stands with Palestine,
denounces genocide by Israel
The University Council of UP Diliman expresses its
solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle
for liberation and condemns the state of Israel for its
unceasing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Israel’s retaliatory actions against the Islamic resistance
movement, Hamas, have, as of this moment, resulted
in the deaths of 12,000 Palestinians, including at least
5,000 children (Al Jazeera, 2023e). The human toll also
includes 1,200 Israelis (Al Jazeera, 2023d) and four
Filipino migrant workers (CNN, 2023). More than one
million Palestinians have been displaced, fleeing to
Southern Gaza (United Nations, 2023a). However, the
Zionist state has also bombarded Southern Gaza, despite
declaring that it would be spared (Al Jazeera, 2023a).
Following the October 7 attack by Hamas, Israel
conducted airstrikes on civilian homes and public
institutions, including bakeries (Abdulrahim & Samar,
2023), schools (Reuters, 2023), refugee camps (Timsit
& Sands, 2023), mosques, hospitals (Abdulrahim &
Harouda, 2023), and a church (Sullivan, 2023). Among
these devastating incidents was the bombing of the Al-
Ahli Arab Hospital, claiming the lives of 500 Palestinians,
including medical staff and young patients (Elmasry,
2023). On October 31, Israel launched an airstrike on
one of the densest parts of Gaza, Jabalia Refugee Camp,
killing at least 195 (Graham-Harrison et al., 2023). On
November 3, Israel struck a convoy of ambulances right
at the gate of Al-Shifa Hospital, killing at least 15 people
(Carey et al., 2023). On November 18, after weeks of
targeting the hospital on the basis of its claims that it is
a Hamas base, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) entered
Al-Shifa, forcing at gunpoint as many as 500 wounded
and critically ill patients and thousands of refugees to
evacuate the hospital, with nowhere to go (Al Jazeera,
2023f). Days of siege by the IDF have turned the hospital
into a “detention camp, an interrogation centre, a military
barracks and mass grave,” according to Gaza media
officials (Al Jazeera, 2023f).
Given Israel’s overwhelming military capabilities,
unleashing weaponry against the two million inhabitants
of Gaza, of whom nearly 50% are under 18 years of age
(Mohammad, 2023), cannot be justified. Israel’s relentless
and high-powered bombardment in Gaza has led to the
tragic loss of entire families (Al Jazeera, 2023c). The
United Nations Children’s Fund (2023) has estimated that
420 children are killed or injured every day.
The United Nations has declared Israel’s deprivation
of essential services for survival– including food,
water, medicine, and fuel–a violation of both
international criminal and international humanitarian
law (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High
Commissioner, 2023). Amid bombardment, hospitals
are operating beyond overload to aid injured or severely
sick Palestinians, with every hospital also sheltering
thousands of civilians. Medical supplies, staff, and
power are scarce, with 800-1,000 people injured daily,
according to the international medical organization,
Médecins Sans Frontières (2023). Among the 150
women giving birth every day, many are undergoing
C-sections without any pain relief because anesthesia
supplies have run out (Al Jazeera, 2023b). With little
fuel to power critical equipment and inadequate space
that forces doctors to conduct surgeries in unsafe,
unsterile conditions (Brown, 2023), the medical system is
collapsing (Médecins Sans Frontières, 2023). Premature
babies have had to be taken out of incubators and
desperately kept warm through rudimentary means, with
at least six babies dying under these conditions (United
Nations, 2023b).
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 UPD University Council stands with Palestine,
denounces genocide by Israel
Meanwhile, emergency and rescue services are stretched
thin in responding to those trapped beneath the rubble of
their bombed houses (PBS News Hour, 2023). The people
of Gaza are still being starved (United Nations Human
Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2023) and
denied water (United Nations Relief and Works Agency,
2023). As part of Israel’s targets, at least 37 Palestinian
journalists have been killed in the line of duty (Hussein,
2023). However, the lives of foreign media personnel
and aid workers are also being lost (Khadder & Salman,
2023). Many governments and organizations around
the world have correctly called the situation in Gaza a
massacre of epic proportions.
Despite the events being referred to as merely a
“conflict” or “war” between Israel and Hamas, a deep
and just examination of history reveals how the attacks
on October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum,” as United
Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared
on October 24 (Carroll, 2023). They stem from the
uninterrupted colonization, apartheid, and oppression
of the Palestinian people. This oppression has persisted
since Zionist forces, aided by British imperialists,
forcibly evicted and displaced Palestinians from their
lands to cede them to Jewish settlers. Even the most
nuanced perspective demonstrates that since 1948, this
has entailed the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian
villages, the appropriation of Palestinian historical
territory by the Israeli state, the flight and extermination
of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the violent and
illegal establishment of Jewish settlements, and the
military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, where
the Palestinian people live without freedom and basic
human rights.
While we abhor the loss of life resulting from the October
7 Hamas attacks, we echo the United Nations in asserting
that Israel has committed crimes against humanity on the
Palestinian people, from 1948 to this very day. Backed
and funded by its Western allies, Israel not only denies
but retaliates against this assertion, producing grotesque
manipulations of the truth that it uses to legitimize its
assault on the Palestinian people.
Given this, we call for an immediate de-escalation,
particularly on the part of Israel, which has launched
high-powered munitions and white phosphorus
projectiles on civilian areas, as documented by Human
Rights Watch (Sharp & Detsch, 2023). International law
prohibits the use of white phosphorus weapons in civilian
areas (Amnesty International, 2023) because of its lethal
toxicity and devastating effects such as rapid and bone-
deep chemical burns, respiratory and multi-organ failure,
and lifelong agony for survivors. These white phosphorus
weapons find their marks on the bodies of children.
Furthermore, we call on Israel to allow life-saving
humanitarian aid and supplies into Gaza and guarantee
the protection of humanitarian workers.
Our own government voted to abstain from the United
Nations humanitarian truce resolution on Oct. 28 (Beltran,
2023). The resolution, which specified an immediate
ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza,
was approved by 120 countries nonetheless (Lederer,
2023). We are utterly dismayed that the Philippines has
chosen to inhibit this historic reckoning. We urge the
Philippine government to correct its stance and appraise
the actions of Israel for what it is: genocide.
As a people who fought colonial rule and now experience
neo-colonization and imperialism, Filipinos can deeply
empathize with the Palestinian people and offer our
unwavering solidarity and support. We are well aware
that any genuine effort to foster peace must be rooted in
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 UPD University Council stands with Palestine,
denounces genocide by Israel
justice and true reconciliation, where military oppression
can play no part.
As faculty members of the national university, we have
the responsibility to denounce the unspeakable violence
unfolding in occupied Palestine. Intellectuals and
academics can never be neutral or silent; they should, in
the words of renowned Palestinian literary critic Edward
Said (1996), have a “more principled stand that enables
them, in effect, to speak the truth to power” (p. 97).
We earnestly call upon fellow educators and academic
institutions worldwide to stand in solidarity with the
Palestinian people and acknowledge their voices,
names, and faces that are daily being erased and
denied. The courage displayed by the Palestinian people
in the face of dehumanizing oppression affirms that
freedom, as articulated by the anti- colonialist educator
Paulo Freire (2014), is an indispensable condition for
human completion. Therefore, the pursuit of freedom is
undeniably the shared vocation of all humanity.
Note: This statement was adopted by a majority vote.
References
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denounces genocide by Israel
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denounces genocide by Israel
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