Statement of the ILPS Peasant Commission (Commission 6) and Asian Peasant Coalition
The ILPS Commission 6 and the Asian Peasant Coalition jointly issue this statement of solidarity with the people of Palestine and by extension the people of West Asia, especially in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, facing the relentless and expanding genocidal assault of the Zionist entity Israel.
One year on since the October 7 Al-Aqsa flood which simultaneously showed the impressive force of on-ground resistance by the Palestinian liberation movement, shaped by generations waging the struggle for genuine national liberation on Palestinian soil, and indeed threatened the occupation forces of the Israel Zionist entity in the Arab region, the Palestinian struggle for land, justice, and peace lives on.
From Palestine to Iran and Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, the Zionist entity expands its extreme assault against all forces resisting its settler colonial-cum-genocide project in West Asia. In the guise of ‘defense’ with massive financial and armament support from the United States, Israel has been targeting civilians with a United Nations press release reporting on at least one child killed every two days since October 2023. Death tolls continue to rise at an alarming rate in occupied Palestine and Lebanon.
Apart from the severe loss of life, over 80 percent of the agricultural sector has been deliberately decimated, including the destruction of over 60 percent of agricultural facilities, 60 percent of trees, and 30 percent of water wells. This has resulted in 96% of Gaza’s population facing a food crisis, with the entire territory classified in the emergency phase according to the IPC (Food Security Classification). Among the affected, 64% of Gazans eat only once a day, 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women endure severe food poverty, and 90% of children suffer from malnutrition, facing severe threats to their survival, growth, and development.
Despite findings by the International Court of Justice regarding Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestine and the International Criminal Court’s findings on Israel’s committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, it continues its genocidal war unabated, primarily through the unwavering support of US imperialism and the complicity of its Western allies.
With carnage, destruction, and theft perpetrated by the occupation forces, farmers, rural peoples, and workers of the land make up a significant demographic of those forcibly displaced and violently marginalized. Palestinian economy has long been subsumed and crippled under the dictates of Israel’s occupation state since 1967. 75 percent of agriculture in Gaza is already destroyed and about 43 per cent of all agricultural land is devastated by Israel’s use of chemical herbicide and white phosphorus. This expanding occupation must be recognized for its expressed intention to completely disable and ultimately quash any form of Palestinian self-determination. Hence any Palestinian attempt toward establishing sustainable agricultural production, industry, and food security faces severe road blocks put up by the Zionist occupation.
A year on and the world has seen nothing but the extreme escalation of US-Israel’s genocide in West Asia. With many warning against it developing into a full-scale war by regional proportions, it becomes the responsibility of the entire world to form a broad unity and be clear in identifying and effectively neutralizing the enemy. If the US-Israel occupation project, with no small support from its Western allies, can implement a violent attempt at the complete erasure of Palestine, it is not impossible for it to likewise liquidate by military, economic, and political might any self-determined state especially in the global South.
We call on all anti-war, anti-imperialists, and anti-fascist peoples and organizations to strengthen and consolidate their support and contribution to the struggle of Palestinians in occupied Palestine and in the diaspora a year after the Al-Aqsa flood. On this end, the Commission and the Coalition resolve to reaffirm the justness of Palestinian resistance and amplify its rural peoples’ call for return to their land and re-establish its national agriculture toward industry and food security.
We stand firm on our conviction on the sure victory of the peoples of Palestine.
From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!
Defeat US Imperialism! End the Occupation by the Zionist Israel entity!