As the US and Zionist-Israel continue their genocidal war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, Filipinos joined various solidarity protests and actions in many parts of the world in support of the Palestinian people.
Hundreds of protesters from progressive Filipino groups carrying Palestinian flags and banners reading: “Stop the genocide”, and “End Israeli occupation of Palestine now!”, rallied in front of the Israeli embassy in Manila last 31 October.
“Filipinos should stand against genocide, Filipinos should stand against the oppression of other peoples as a people who have also suffered colonial occupation, colonial subjugation…It is important that we sympathize with the Palestinians who are also experiencing colonial occupation from Israel,” the protesters said.
Four days earlier, the Philippines, the third-largest buyer of Israeli weapons, abstained from a vote at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas. 120 countries backed the resolution. Filipinos have denounced Marcos Jr.’s abstention as a support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestine.
Meanwhile, last 26 October, thousands of Filipino Muslims rallied at the Luneta grandstand in Manila to manifest their support for the Palestinian people. Around the same time, Filipino Moros in Marawi, South Cotabato, Tawi-tawi and Sulu in southern Philippines, joined rallies for Palestine. In South Cotabato, an estimated 12,000 people joined a peace rally Oktubre 16 protesting the genocide in Gaza.
Hundreds of Filipinos in the US joined the National March on Washington for a Free Palestine in Washington DC last 4 November. An estimated 300,000 participated in the march calling for freedom for Palestine, an end to the genocide in Gaza, and an end to US support for Israel.
In large protests not seen since the anti-Vietnam war, Filipinos joined throngs of peoples from London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and many other cities around the world condemning the US-Zionist Israel genocide in Gaza.
Filipino migrant workers and Filipino residents in the Gaza strip were among those trapped when the US and Zionist Israel started the genocidal bombardment in Gaza. Though many have been able to escape and return to the Philippines, many more have been left trapped.
More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in the US-Zionist-Israel genocide in Gaza. Israel’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza have already slaughtered 4,104 children according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
