Solidarity Statement by CCC SJP:
Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia College Chicago mourns the loss of all innocent life. We condemn the violent ongoing israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and hold the Israeli regime responsible for the recent escalation. We unequivocally support and stand in full solidarity with the Palestinian resistance against 75 years of israel’s atrocities. Resistance is justified when people are occupied.
It is crucial to understand that violence does not occur in a vacuum. Violence in Palestine did not start with this escalation and it will not end until the israeli occupation is over. 75 years ago, the israeli settler-colony was born from the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. israel could not be a state today without committing horrific massacres, destroying over 500 villages, and expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land, creating generations of Palestinian refugees.
Many Palestinian refugees traveled to camps in the Gaza Strip before israel built a wall around Gaza, trapping over 2 million people inside under abysmal conditions, making it the world’s largest open air prison. Gaza has been under a land, air, and sea blockade for over 16 years while israel routinely bombs Gazans indiscriminately. israel has committed a mass amount of war crimes including the use of white phosphorus, killing journalists, targeting hospitals and ambulances and more. israel has held over 2 million Gazans hostage for over 16 years.
For 75 years, the Palestinian people have suffered under a brutal military occupation which controls every aspect of Palestinian life. Towfan Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa flood) was a historic revolutionary moment in which Gazans broke free from their cage and walked on land stolen from them for the first time in over 75 years. Against all odds, Gazans took a massive leap towards liberation and launched a counter-offensive on the israeli regime, which receives billions of US tax dollars each year in military funding. Any framing of Towfan Al-Aqsa that ignores the violent military occupation, violent blockade of Gaza, or violent ethnic-cleaning of Palestine is a biased and dishonest one.
For those concerned with the violence in Palestinian resistance, ask yourself: do you truly support peace or do you support Palestinians absorbing violence passively? Do you support decolonization in action? Should you, as someone who has never lived under an apartheid military regime founded in genocide, have a suggestion for how Palestinians can non-violently resist their colonial oppressors, we urge you to consider that Palestinians have resisted through every peaceful means possible. Did you condemn the slaughter of Palestinians peacefully protesting during the Great March of Return? Did you condemn the brutalization of peaceful protesters in Sheikh Jarrah? Did you condemn the routine attacks on Muslim worshipers inside Al-Aqsa mosque? Did you condemn the incarceration of Palestinian artists, teachers, students, and other activists? Did you condemn the Palestinian child prisoners? Did you condemn the demolished schools in Masafer Yatta? Did you condemn the murdered journalists and paramedics? Do you truly support peace or do you support Palestinians absorbing violence passively?
Palestinians will be liberated as the Algerians, Irish, South Africans, Haitian slaves, and all other oppressed peoples are. Throughout history, freedom fighters have not been celebrated but suppressed. Today, in spite of the noise, we stand with the Palestinian resistance. Gaza is the cradle of the Palestinian resistance and the lifeblood of our struggle. We call on all Palestinians in the diaspora and our comrades in the greater struggle for justice worldwide to rise up and support the liberation of our occupied peoples. One step closer to Palestinian liberation is a step closer to liberation for everyone. We will continue to support and advocate for the Palestinian resistance until Palestine is free From the River to the Sea. Long live the resistance and long live Palestine.
Signed,
Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia College Chicago
Signed in solidarity:
National Students for Justice in Palestine
Muslim Student Association at Columbia College Chicago
Muslims for Just Futures
Arab American Cultural Center at UIC
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Students for Justice in Palestine at Northwestern University
Students for Justice in Palestine at Boston University
Students for Justice in Palestine at UC San Diego
Students for Justice in Palestine at San Jose University
Students for Justice in Palestine at UMass Amherst
Students for Justice in Palestine at Irvine Valley College
Students for Justice in Palestine at Miami University
Students for Justice in Palestine at Ohio State University
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Cincinnati
