As people commemorate October 7 lets not forget what preceded it a century of colonial and imperial violence: The beginning of this “war” actually began on November 29, 1947, with the passing of the UN resolution that led to the creation of the Israeli settler colonial state. For the next seventy-six years, with the backing of Western governments the state of Israel would lead a war of conquest, ethnically cleansing and massacring hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, displacing and maiming millions, and establishing an apartheid state.
The Nakba of 76 years that forced Palestinians from their homes and razed entire villages; the home demolitions that saw illegal settlements rise atop Palestinian land; the arrest, torture, and rape of prisoners; the assaults on Gaza in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, that have destroyed its infrastructure, martyred thousands, and maimed many more; the massacres in Deir Yassin, Sabra, Shatila; the martyrdom of national liberation leaders and assassinations of journalists.
October 7th, 2023, was the tragic yet inevitable outcome of decades of systemic oppression, violence, and injustice endured by the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. For generations, Palestinians have faced relentless humiliation, abuse, and dehumanization.
Their lands had been taken, their homes destroyed, and their communities displaced. The world has witnessed the ongoing apartheid, where Palestinians are denied basic human rights, subjected to violence, and treated as second-class citizens in their own land. The persistent cruelty, murder, collective punishment, and daily acts of aggression which created a reality where desperation and anger grew unchecked. The failure to address their suffering, coupled with the indifference of the international community, made such an eruption of violence almost unavoidable.
It's been a year since the attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed resistance groups in southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 abducted. It also marks one year since the start of an ongoing devastating Israeli onslaught that has killed more than 41,500 people and forcibly displaced over 90% of the population in the occupied Gaza Strip, and now Lebanon and the West Bank with missiles and bombs provided by the UK and US. Hundreds of thousands are dead including thousands of children. We can't even count how many. When will the world stop it?
How should October 7 be remembered? We must grieve for every life lost on that day, over the last 12 months, and the last 76 years. Remember that all human life is precious. For all victims; Muslim, Jewish, Christian. Palestinian and Israeli, we must bear witness. Shalom salaam to all.
We must escalate and invent new ways of disrupting the war machines intent on destroying all life. As Israel creates new thresholds of violence, we must imagine new horizons keep calling for a immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of civilian hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups as well as all Palestinians unlawfully detained by Israel and an end to Israel’s apartheid, and occupation, freedom for Palestinians and continue the pursuit of peace and justice.
