An Appeal from World Student Christian Federation and the Palestine Youth Ecumenical Movement
Since March 30th, the people of Gaza have been exercising their right to protest by marching for the right to return to their homes. The homes from which they were forcefully expelled to make room for the state of Israel. These land grabs were used to create Israeli settlements as a result of population transfers which under article 7 of the Rome statute constitutes as 'crimes against humanity', resulting in an ethnic cleanse of Palestinians from the land. In 1948 the UN passed resolution 194 agreeing that refugees should have the right to return to their villages, a resolution which Israel continues to ignore.
Since the beginning of the Great Return March, Israeli forces have killed at least 111 Palestinians and wounded about 12,000 people. The worst of these days took place the same day that the US Embassy was moved from Tel Aviv, the recognized capital of Israel, to Jerusalem, as the US recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. On this day, Monday 14th of May, 62 Palestinians were killed with around 2,700 injured.
The US announced their complete support and alliance to Israel and spoke of the importance of human rights to both the US and Israel. They spoke about this as less than 80 kilometers away, 62 unarmed civilians were being killed. These events took place the day before Nakba Day. Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe and this day marks the 70th anniversary of the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Israel celebrates this as their Independence Day.
- We condemn the Israeli systematic targeting of the Palestinian civilians and violating the international Humanitarian Law which mounts up to a crime against humanity and equally denounce the complicity of the US Administration in these violations and the way the UN is made unable to work for justice and peace in the region because of the American hegemony and veto.
- We ask you to stand in solidarity with the Palestine Youth Ecumenical Movement and with Palestinian people to condemn the State of Israel for their crimes against humanity, their illegal land grabs and population transfers. We hope that the international community will not simply say "this is bad" and later turn away to ignore the injustices and violation of rights of the our people. We ask you to stand in solidarity with us and to fight for our human rights and the right of people to live in full dignity.
- We ask you to protest these Israeli crimes and set up, join demonstrations to show your support and solidarity to the people of Palestine in their pursuit for justice and freedom. Write to your government and ask them lodge a diplomatic protest to Israeli’s actions to the UN and make the Israeli Ambassador assigned in your country accountable to show that your country does not condone human rights violations.
Palestine Youth Ecumenical Movement (PYEM)
Georgine Kengne Djuetane (sgd)
Chairperson, World Student Christian Federation (WSCF)
16 May 2018