Last 26 October, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between the US-backed Israeli forces and the Palestinian armed resistance. The outcome of the said resolution was remarkable for demonstrating how even US imperialism’s closest allies such as France and Spain refused to vote against the motion initiated by Jordan. The 193 members of the UN adopted the said resolution with a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions showing how badly isolated the US and Israel have become amid the surge of support for the freedom of Palestine.
On the other hand, the Marcos regime abstained from the vote following a recent statement in support of the Zionist state of Israel which gained the ire and condemnation of the Filipino people and rightfully so. In the past three years, the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) has become the third largest buyer of Israeli arms amounting to $275 million. This is on top of plans to purchase $114 million-worth of surveillance planes, drones, and tanks to be used in counterrevolutionary operations in the Philippine countryside. In Marawi City and South Cotabato in Southern Philippines, thousands of Moro people protested in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Some Moro leaders even condemned Marcos Jr’s support for Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians.
The history of Palestine spans generations of systemic oppression and dispossession starting in 1917 when the UK declared, with the support of the US (via the Balfour declaration) the plan to build a homeland for the Jewish people on Palestinian land. Following the establishment of the Israeli state, Zionism emerged as the official ideology which committed to the extermination of the Palestinian people. This imperialist-supported Zionist project eventually led to the Nakba (The Catastrophe) characterized the mass displacement of about 750,000 Palestinians from their land to make way for new Jewish settlers.
For Palestinians, the Nakba never stopped. The US has consistently supported Israel through more than $260 billion worth of both economic and military aid since World War II. The US has provided Israel with cutting-edge military technology and weapons of mass destruction used to expand the unjust occupation of Palestinian territories.
In many parts of the world, thousands upon thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are taking it to the streets to condemn the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and demanding for the freedom of Palestine from generations of military occupation. As support for Palestine grows, it becomes increasingly evident that the US and Israel are becoming isolated in their stance. The U.S. government’s unquestioning support for Israel despite the relentless carpet-bombing campaign in Gaza that has killed 7,703 people including more than 3,595 children to date has clearly exposed imperialism’s propensity for war and utter disregard for international humanitarian law.
Moreover, Israel’s continuous expansion of settlements in the West Bank, its violent blockade of Gaza, and its disproportionate use of force against Palestinian civilians are now met with rising global condemnation. International actors are increasingly hesitant to align themselves with a US-supported apartheid state that flouts international law and commits war crimes with impunity.
In this context, the Palestinian people deserves the world’s support. Both the Palestinian and the Filipino peoples have the right to bear arms and choose the path of armed resistance in the face of national oppression. Similar to the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation, the struggle of the Palestinian people against imperialism and its stooges is bound to be victorious.
