【STOP THE MASSACRE! GET OUT OF THE SETTLEMENTS!】
Hong Kong People in Solidarity with Gaza
Since 8 July of the year, the 1.8 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have been suffering from a full blown Israeli military attack. The air raid and ground offensive brought nearly 900 deaths, in which more than 600 are civilians. The huge casualties are caused by the attacks deliberately targeting hospitals and schools. At the same time, a hundred thousand of people are displaced and 1.2 million people have limited access to water and sanitation. Gaza is in the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Though Gaza is distant from Hong Kong, the Israeli war crimes have outraged us. Therefore we organize this protest to show solidarity to the people of Palestine, and condemn the violence of Israel.
Setting up a State, destroying others’ homes
The Israel-Palestine conflict could not be understood as a common ‘warfare’. First, in 1947, the United Nation lead by the USA and UK decided to allocate 55% of the land of Palestine to the newly built settler ‘State of Israel’, giving the rest to the ‘State of Palestine’. This proposal was rejected by people of Palestine because they would be kicked out of the homeland. However, once the State of Israel was set up, Palestinians were not allowed to set up their own state. In the following decades, more lands of Palestine were annexed by Israel and continues till today. As a result, 78% of Palestinians’ land were seized and the number of refugee quadrupled to 4 million.
Second, the armed force of Israel is far stronger than the Palestine counterpart. The well-equipped armed force of Israel is now receiving 8.5 million dollars (about 65.45 million Hong Kong dollars) of military aid per day, and even processing nuclear warheads. The strength of the two sides is highly disproportionate.
The intolerable War Crimes
In the previous two weeks, indiscriminate attacks are deployed upon a defenceless civilian population. The use of white phosphorous bombs, depleted uranium bombs, flechette bombs and poisonous gas were reported. It is not an action of ‘anti-terrorism’ and ‘self defence’, but a massacre. In fact, massacre in this scale happened several times in the previous decade, namely in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2012.
At the same time, students in Israel are brainwashed in geography, history and civic education lessons. The textbooks demonized Palestinians and justify massacres. On the other hand, the Israeli government violates the freedom of speech by letting mobs to attack anti-war activists, and even shoot the journalists of Al Jazeera.
What should we do in Hong Kong
People all over the world have been organizing mass protest against the Israeli war crimes. In the previous week, we also held several actions in the Israeli Embassy and the Hong Kong Book Fair. These solidarity actions are not merely showing our stance towards the issue, but also to tell our fellow citizens what is going on in Gaza.
More importantly, Hong Kong as an international city has a special position in supporting Gaza. As the largest trading partner of Israel in Asia, it is possible for Hong Kong to oppose the Israeli violence by cutting all economic ties.
One genocide doesn’t justify another. We urge the Israeli Government to
1. Stop the onslaught in Gaza
2. Retreat from all the Settlements
3. Stop suppressing the dissidents
4. Stop intimidating journalists and attacking media buildings
In the future, we will keep monitoring the conflict in Gaza, and boycott all economic, cultural, academic and sports activities with Israel which would be understood as recognitions of the violence.
Signed by:
Friends of Palestine Hong Kong
Left 21
Socialist Action
Globalization Monitor
League of Social Democrats
Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS)
Contact：
Jack Ulyanov （6388 3486)
May Wong（6187 3401）