Palestinian Youth Movement: We have an active role to play in the Palestinian struggle for liberation

The violence we are witnessing in Palestine today is the culmination of 75 years of Israel’s ongoing settler colonial project that has perpetrated military occupation, home demolitions, mass surveillance, imprisonment, and the murder and maiming of Palestinian civilians. Since 2007, the Zionist regime has imposed a blockade on  Gaza by land, air, and sea, imprisoning its residents, half of whom are children. 80% of Gaza’s population are, in fact, refugees who were displaced from the north of Palestine in 1948.

Since the events of 7 October, we have seen the most violent attacks on Gaza in the Zionist entity’s 75 year history.

Today, we are bearing witness to an unfolding genocide in Gaza. This is not hyperbole nor is it a secret – rather, these intentions have been explicitly stated by Knesset members such as Ariel Kallner who shamelessly declared “right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48”. We are witnessing brutal violence waged onto homes, schools, universities, hospitals, and sites of worship. We have seen videos of ambulances being deliberately targeted, heard first-hand witness accounts of paramedics being murdered in cold blood, and seen footage of babies on life-support machines connected to generators that are quickly running out of power.

''The people of Gaza are the greatest victims of Zionist violence, and they are also the greatest heroes of our liberation struggle. They pay the greatest price for our collective liberation, and we must rise up to meet their sacrifice.''

While white phosphorus and cluster bombs were dropped onto Gaza, the Zionist entity bombed the Rafah border crossing, stopping aid coming from Sinai to Gaza.

Last night, at midnight in Gaza, the Israeli army ordered 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza to ‘evacuate’ to the South within 24 hours. This being half the population of the Gaza strip makes such an ask logistically impossible. Moreover, it is a deliberate act of psychological warfare meant to sow panic and confusion amongst Palestinians and result in further displacement and ghettoisation, not dissimilar to the massacres and forced expulsions of 1948.

These are nothing short of war crimes, as stipulated by international law, and have been enabled by callous and hateful reporting by the mainstream media, that has been complicit in white-washing Zionism’s crimes against our people.

Palestinians, particularly those living in Gaza, are being pushed out of humanity by the force of the political class, liberal and fascist, and their propaganda machine to manufacture consent for the imperial war on terror. We witnessed these tactics in use both in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In the face of such inhumane abuses, we must remember one thing: the indiscriminate attack on civilians in Gaza is a form of collective punishment. The people are targeted because they dare to resist, and because they unequivocally support resistance. During every war on Gaza, families come out of the rubble declaring their support for resistance.

Yesterday, a video emerged of a man whose home was bombed and, against all odds, made it out alive. He declared “the Palestinian people won’t be defeated. No matter how much more they mercilessly murder us. We will not surrender and we will not leave this land”.

The people of Gaza are the greatest victims of Zionist violence, and they are also the greatest heroes of our liberation struggle. They pay the greatest price for our collective liberation, and we must rise up to meet their sacrifice.

Contrary to international law, Western media outlets are conspiring to deny Palestinians inalienable right to resist their oppression. Instead, they are pushing a rhetoric that dehumanises Palestinians to manufacture consent for the erasure of Gaza and the genocide of its people. We have seen such outlets absorb blatant, unverified lies while invisibilizing facts on the ground.

Where are the images of demolished homes and schools? Where is the reporting on entire families that have been completely wiped off of the civil registry? Where is the footage of children being pulled out of the rubble? Where are the images of Palestinians digging mass graves to bury their loved ones? Where is the reporting on the 500 children who have been murdered by the Zionist regime since the beginning of this onslaught? Instead, Western media is preoccupied with creating propaganda to justify this genocide.

The US, UK, and EU governments have not only withdrawn humanitarian aid from Gaza, but also vocalised their material support for the Zionist entity despite the war crimes currently being committed. In Britain, the UK government has deployed Navy ships to support Israeli crimes. In the United States, Biden has affirmed that his commitment to the Zionist entity as ‘unshakeable’. As Arab people living in these countries, we have a responsibility to confront Zionism and its enablers in our locales. We have a responsibility to uplift the struggle for liberation, building on our long history of organising and mobilising against Zionist violence.

We have been calling for an end to the violent blockade on Gaza and an end to Western funding of the Zionist project for decades. This historic moment requires us to build on this work – it is a moment for us to reaffirm that we are not bystanders in the Palestinian struggle but have an active role to play in advancing our struggle.

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) has been organising protests and rallies in cities across the United States, Canada, and Britain. This moment requires that we recall the millions who marched around the world in opposition to the Iraq war. We must demand the same public outcry until the genocide of Gaza ends and siege is lifted.

The Palestinian Youth Movement is a transnational, independent grassroots movement of young Palestinians and Arabs dedicated to the liberation of our homeland and people. We currently comprise of 14 chapters across North America and Europe.

Follow them on Twitter: @palyouthmvmt

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.