OPAWL stands in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
As a power-building Asian American and Pacific Islander organization whose communities have survived the violence of imperialism, colonization, forced migration, and displacement, OPAWL stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people, including our Palestinian American OPAWL members, against the US-backed Israeli occupation. There is no solution for ending the violence without an end to the occupation and the apartheid system. We urgently call on Asian American and Pacific Islander communities to continue our long legacy of fighting against colonialism, militarism, and genocide by standing with Palestinian liberation and resistance.
We know that none of us are safe while one of us is oppressed, and that AAPI liberation is bound to the collective liberation of all oppressed people. Contextualizing the present-day situation in the region means addressing the the ongoing 75-year genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli apartheid regime, which includes dispossession of land, forced displacement, denial of access to sacred sites and relationship with natural ecology.(1) A 16-year long siege has trapped over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, and over the past week they have been completely cut off from food, water, electricity, and medicine. As we write this, the most recent escalation is the forced evacuation (2) of the northern region of Gaza, housing 1.1 million Palestinians, to the southern region, which will further trap all 2.3 million people in a devastating maneuver from Israel. The imminent threat of a full-scale genocide becomes more critical with each passing moment.(3)
What is our role?
The U.S. Congress sends billions of our tax dollars to fund the Israeli state each year despite 75 years of human rights violations and increasingly unlivable conditions for Palestinians. We refuse to allow the U.S. to provide moral cover for the Israeli government’s escalating war crimes. We ask our members to take action by telling Congress to immediately de-escalate, call for a ceasefire, allow humanitarian aid to Gaza, and refuse to send any additional weapons or funding to the Israeli military. As a progressive AAPI organization, this act of solidarity ends the complicit support of rising tyranny across Asia. Israel remains a top exporter of arms to repressive forces in India(4) and the Philippines,(5) and presently enables the displacement of 100,000 Armenians from their ancestral lands.(6)
We ask that all who move in solidarity with movements of migrant, racial and gender justice, decolonization, land back, anti-militarism, and climate justice to consider the longstanding oppression of Palestinians imparted by the state of Israel, the impacts of war and imperialism on our fragile ecosystem, and call for a peace that recognizes the right of Palestinians to pursue liberation from oppression.
OPAWL is a signatory of the Rising Majority’s call to action. It can be viewed at https://therisingmajority.com/palestine-genocide.
Please check back for updates on a future webinar and ongoing education on AAPI liberation and the movement for a free Palestine.
1. “Israel And Occupied Palestinian Territories 2022”, Amnesty International, October 13, 2023.
2. Isabel DeBre, Edith M. Lederer and Wafaa Shurafa, “Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms”, Associated Press, October 13, 2023.
3. “Israel/Opt: Appalling Gaza “Evacuation Order” Must Be Rescinded By Israel Immediately”, Amnesty International, October 13, 2023.
4. Manjari Chatterjee Miller, “Modi’s Statement on the Israel Crisis Demonstrates a Transformed India-Israel Bilateral Relationship”, Council on Foreign Relations, October 9, 2023.
5. “How Big Is Israel’s Military And How Much Funding Does It Get From The Us?”, Al Jazeera, October 11, 2023.
6. Isabel Debre, “Israeli Arms Quietly Helped Azerbaijan Retake Nagorno-Karabakh, To The Dismay Of Region’s Armenians”, Associated Press, October 5, 2023.