Voices of Resistance: Stop the Genocide! | November 14, 2023 Organizers: International League of People’s Struggle and People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty

Razan Zuayter holds an MS in agriculture and is the founder and president of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature. Razan is the founder of the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, co-chairs the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, and is a member of the Committee for Hunger Eradication within the League of Arab States.

Assalam Alaikum, dear comrades. It’s heartwarming to see us all together at this moment. Comrades, after the 7th of October, the world is not the same as it was before. On this pivotal date, imperialism and settler colonialism dropped their masks and divided the world into evil on one side and resistance on the other. In his analysis, American historian Will Durant described the Crusade wars as colonial wars driven by a quest for conquest and economic gains. These were wars that were named as such by their perpetrators, killed Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike in Palestine, forgetting that Jesus Christ was a Palestinian himself. 750 later, the grip of settler colonialism on the region remains strong. The players and motivations are the same, with the only difference being that it is currently orchestrated through the state of Israel rather than the kingdom of Jerusalem back then.

• 1799: the French Napoleon issued a proclamation that called Jews the “rightful heirs of Palestinian.”
• 1907: the British Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bennerman organized a conference in England, attended by France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. They decided that the Arabs, if united, were a very big threat to European countries, and decided to promote division and separation in the region and to establish a buffer state in Palestine populated by a strong foreign presence that would be hostile to its neighbors and friendly to European countries and their interests.
• 1916: the French and the British agreed through the Sykes-Picot agreement to divide the Arab land between themselves.
• 1917: the Jews were only 6 percent of the population of Palestine and they owned only 4% of the land, came Arthur Balfour, the foreign British minister at that time, and issued a declaration promising them to give them Palestine. 
• In 1922, controlled also at this time by imperialist powers, the League of Nations put Palestine under the British Mandate.
• And this was from 1922 to 1948: the British and their allies of the European countries promoted waves of European Jewish immigration into our land, trained and armed terrorist-sized groups, and oppressed through arrests, torture, mass punishment, and execution of all Palestinians who tried to protect the people and their land. Even those who had a single bullet, the British hanged them. Despite the horrific war crimes committed, Palestinians have displayed legendary resilience and resistance all through the 100 years. 1921 was the first uprising in Jaffa, followed in 1929 by the Buraq uprising. 
• The biggest uprising was the Arab revolt, 1936, following the death of the Resistance fighter, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. This name, you might have heard it, was adopted by the resistance movement now in Gaza. It was during this uprising that my father, Akram Zuayter, was the first prisoner by the British, and the final one to be released from prison by British oppression.
• 1937: during the Arab Revolt, Winston Churchill declared the same crusaders’ values: “I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America. Or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.”
• 1939: the British smashed the three-year-long revolution with very cruel measures.
• 1948, the year of the Nakba, tens of massacres took place, slaughtering thousands of Palestinians, demolishing more than 530 villages of earth, and massacring Deir Yassin which displaced more than 750, 000 people out of Palestine into tents outside Palestine. In the same year as the Nakba, UN Resolution 194, calling for the right of return for Palestinians, was approved by all countries but had never been applied, like hundreds of Resolutions for Palestinians. However, the massacres continued.
• In 1956, Kufr Qasim and Khan Yousin massacres took place.
• In 1964 the Palestinians launched a new revolution by founding the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, to liberate their homeland and establish one Palestinian democratic state, where all citizens– Muslims, Christians, and Jews–live as citizens with equal rights and obligations.
• But here comes again: In 1967, backed by the imperial United States, Israel occupied the rest of Palestine as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai.
• 1973: the fourth Arab-Israeli War took place to reclaim the recently occupied Golan Heights and Sinai. This was a victorious battle, but until the states came to the rescue, as usual, their puppet.
• Palestinians revolted against the Israeli occupation in 1987, referred to as the First Intifada, and then the Second Intifada in 2000.
• But before, in 1993, the Oslo Accord was signed between Israel and the Palestinians. It is the curse in our history, it is the worst thing that the Palestinians have done. The Palestinian Authority has since shed its revolutionary skin and transformed into a typical Arab state, if not the worst of them all. 
• Now going back to Gaza: systematic genocide was also all the time through and much before October 7. In 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, a massive 22-day military assault on the Gaza strip, killing 1400 Palestinians.
• 2012: they launched another massacre: Operation Pillar of Defense, they called it. 
• In 2014, Operation Protective Edge took place by the Zionists
• And in 2015 over 1500 Palestinian civilians were killed, 538 of them were children.
• 2021: Israel launched a devastating and intensive 11-day military offense. Over 11,000 Palestinians [have been] murdered till now, 50 percent of them are children. And in just 30 days the bomb dropped on Gaza exceeded three times the magnitude of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. 

Specifically, the weaponization of food now is nothing new. In 2008, the Israeli occupation created a calorie count to limit the food intake of Gazans to levels slightly above death by starvation. The difference now is that the goal is starvation itself, to death. A number of Palestinians have already been reported to have died of starvation and dehydration. Those who have escaped the bombing are dying of starvation, and this number is expected to increase daily. But as always, Palestinians, along with regional resistance movements, have resumed their brave resistance, this time with great casualties for the Israelis.

In Gaza, just before October 7, the Israeli warlords were preparing for a preemptive strike that would destroy the cornerstone of the resistance in the Arab world: Gaza. But to their shock, within a few hours, the power system and the reputation of their undefeatible army collapsed down the drain. And here we are at the gates of the fortieth day of the heroic fighting of the resistance, hitting targets accurately without improvisation or random. In the West Bank, the resistance began to regroup in 2022, through the formation of the Arin of Lions brigade in Nablus, and the Jenin Battalion, where fighters from all military factions joined in a war with the occupation, and whenever a leader is assassinated, a new leader is born. The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, who armed, trained, and financed the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and managed to liberate Southern Lebanon in 2000, and achieved a big wave of victory in 2006, entered the battle on the second day of the war, blessing the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood. This resistance forced the enemy to mobilize one-third of its army to the south of Lebanon and to the north of Palestine. It challenged the United States, which moved aircraft, carriers, and battleships to the Mediterranean coast in preparation for any escalation. The resistance stressed that these forces were under its gaze in direct threat, which prompted Washington to send a nuclear submarine in anticipation of resistance expirations. In Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon announced that US military personnel in Syria and Iraq were attacked 23 times in two weeks. Symbolically, tens of thousands of Iraqis resistance are still massed on the Jordanian-Iraqi border, ready to march to fight in Palestine. In Yemen, the Sana’a Army announced an exceptional front that gave very great moral support to the Palestinian resistance, through bombing the enemy using rockets and drones.

One form of resistance that is very highly appreciated by the Palestinians is the power of international solidarity, which has escalated in the last few weeks. The millions of protesters from all over the world exposed the inhuman inhumanity of the genocide partners. Also, this resistance, including the power of boycotts, gave hope to the Palestinians that they were not alone. What makes this war unlike any other is the retaliation and deterrence by the resistance caused great losses on the enemy’s front. The occupation is grappling with ongoing losses. And despite extensive efforts to impose a media blackout, these losses are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal. An Israeli newspaper has even reported a great crisis, estimating that the economic toll of the war on Gaza could reach 51 billion. Furthermore, morale in Israel is decreasing, with hundreds of thousands of illegal settlers opting to return to their home countries. To conclude, as this region defeated the Crusaders centuries ago, the resistance all over the world will do the same in Palestine. Samih Al-Qasim, the resistance poet of Palestine, best expresses this. He addresses the Zionists by saying, “Invade, invade! Every sky above you is hell. And every land beneath you is hell. Invade. Children and elders die among us. Yet they do not surrender. Mothers fall upon their slain sons. Yet they do not surrender. Invade, invade with your armored vehicles. And your heaps of hatred. Threaten, displace, kill, destroy. You will not break our dust. You will not defeat our longings. We are the final verdicts. Invade, invade.”

Comrades, I thank you a lot for listening, and I hope we all now have a good answer for those who ask us, “Do you condemn Hamas?” Thank you so much.

Razan Zuayter on the following questions:

What is your reaction on the recent Arab Islamic Summit, which condemned Israel’s aggression on Gaza? Is it enough?

Actually, we were very disappointed. The only thing we wanted [was] them to push for an immediate ceasefire and to use the powers they have, the tools they have to do that. They didn’t do that. It was only words and condemnation. Two billion Arabs and Muslims represented this in this summit. It was really disappointing.

How do we share the harrowing news coming out of Gaza without instilling a sense of defeatism without and without engaging with Israeli Zionist propaganda?

I think I tried to answer this through my address today. We should always raise awareness of the root causes of this problem and link it with the heroic resistance that’s taking place. I know it’s very saddening, and what’s happening is morale-killing, but at the same time, there is this heroic resistance and resilience; it’s unprecedented. Like I told you, a hundred years of massacres and still, they are resisting, and still they are not surrendering. So I think we can always link these horrific scenes with scenes of pride and dignity and resistance and hope that the world will wake up and stop this genocide.

The biggest climate conference will be hosted by the Middle East region this year. What is your message to world leaders, sustainability and environmental advocates, as the world prepares for this annual gathering, especially since agriculture, food, and water are expected to feature prominently.

Well, to start with, I think we do not trust these platforms. We feel the imperialist powers and the big corporates control them. I don’t have any hope in them listening to us, especially [because] it is going to be held in Emirates, and Emirates, there is a difficult stage for free opinions. That’s why we are boycotting this platform this year. I think if we’ll try to talk to them, we will tell them that the root causes of climate change lies in their hands, in their destruction of the environment, and in the militarism. For example, in Palestine, uprooting millions of trees increases the climate change problem. It is in all the forests of the world. So even though they call to face this climate change through mitigation and adaptation, they never speak about compensation. Compensating the South for the horrific impact of their development, what so-called development, on the resources of the world, especially the abuse of their power. Only if they stop militarism and support wars in our region will they be helping in the climate change problem. So, there is hypocrisy. Imperialism is even there. I can just tell that the people will never forget them, and we will always resist.

We keep being told by western politicians and media that it is the fault of Hamas that there is no fuel to power hospital equipment, or to operate the desalination plants in Gaza, because they refuse to make it available. How do we counteract these claims that we keep hearing?

This is the black comedy, accusing Hamas. They are destroying and bombarding the plants themselves. It’s a prison, as all we know. There is no way to enter and to enter fuel to Gaza and the plants and even the solar system, the solar system, the panels are being destroyed in Gaza. So, I think I can, you people in solidarity with Palestinians should have these facts. We can help give facts to anybody interested with numbers, with facts, that these lies should be stopped. People should know that Gaza used to have 500 trucks every day coming to Gaza. Now it’s four to five trucks that’s carrying food, that’s carrying medicine, that’s carrying energy supplies, and so on. So how can we face them with raising awareness, with research, with collaborating with the specialized resistance. You know, resistance has many faces. It’s not only—armed resistance is very important, very important, it’s the our right. But also we can resist through facts, through raising awareness. Through helping the media, to have alternative media channels, with financing. You know we have to agree that every every person, everyone, especially in this group, I’m very proud to have around 250 people with us. Every person in this group can be a resistance fighter through so many endless means. Here for this question, just give facts, and help us convey the truth to the people.

Even as we continue to try to pressure our governments, as our governments refuse to listen to us, what else can we do?

 I think the magnificent protest that was seen a few days ago was really heartwarming. I think what I feel what’s happening in the US, two things. I think there’s fear of retaliation you know from Zionist groups, and this can be faced with working together in big groups, on big fronts, so that people who stand for Palestine are not afraid really. I know that Rashida Tlaib, the Congresswoman of Palestine receives lots of threats and if people are around her strongly, this threat will be much less. I think people should be working together. We should also, as I said, inform people the the media. The main in the US is rotten really, like in all of Europe unfortunately. People do not know. We we should collaborate in enlightening this media or creating–you know, we have written a letter to BBC. They asked us several times for interviews about what’s happening in Gaza, especially about food and starvation, and we wrote a very strong letter to the BBC rejecting them, and we did a lot of research about their role as partners in this genocide. I think many media in the US are really partners in this genocide. We have to face them with–maybe we should raise legal lawsuits about how media can be a partner, you know? We were researching, for example, that before the Bosnia Genocide, the media–I think it was the BBC as well–said that the Bosnian people decapitated babies, 41 babies at that time. And then when the massacre happened by the Serbians, of the Bosnians, the Serbians felt they were doing something good. Now, the number 40, which was a big lie: that the Palestinians decapitated 40 babies, also was through the media. And this resulted in more horrific attacks by the people, and it was like a green light given to the world to shut up against this genocide. So and then the BBC also and other US media, maybe CNN and others, were talking about Hamas being in hospitals. And this also gave a green light for genocide. So I think we can do a lot together if we keep on talking to each other, like tonight for example, if we can make it periodic meetings, brainstorming. People are smart, intelligent, creative. But we have to work together, we have to put in common strategies. With ILPS, I think we are doing a lot together, and I hope this can be broadened to include many other people. From our side what we are doing, we are preparing very professional material for people to use, as to starvation and destroying of food resources and water resources and so on. And we’re getting lots of reactions that people did not know. And maybe we could work together as we are doing, but broaden the work to do better impact.

At this moment, how is the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a national front leading the liberation movement in Palestine so far? And what kind of support is needed to strengthen this national front itself?

Yes, I have to be really honest and say the first thing we should do is ask Palestinians. We should unite. Our divisions have really weakened us as resistance movements and have opposed. We have to unite. The other thing is we have to lose hope, all of us in the world, of the possibility of peace with the Zionists. Because their existence is against our existence, there is no possibility. We have tried all means, you know. After Oslo, we lost most of our land in the West Bank. 400 times the settlements increased. There’s no possibility but to win and come back to Palestine. Somebody addressed a question about the two-state solution. There’s no possibility of a two-state solution. The settlements have taken, you know, the West Bank was a small piece of Palestinian. Yet, in the West Bank, the settlements have taken most of the West Bank. So, there’s no possibility of having a two-state solution. Where should you put the Palestinians? There is only maybe three or four percent left where the Palestinians can have their state now. So to lose hope in any peace: there should be either justice, or UN resolutions to be followed, and we should unite as Palestinians. And the third, which in my opinion is very very important, and it has led to the freedom of South Africa, is to institutionalize our comradeship and our networking, and our struggle together with the international people. This is of the utmost importance to carry our voices through them. Our facts, our stories. We are humans, we are not numbers. We cannot reach the world without the help of the international solidarity. So these three points, I think are what I can see best to be done.