It Is Right to Rebel! Filipino Youth for Palestinian Liberation on the 73rd Anniversary of the Nakba Until Victory!

On the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, Anakbayan-USA stands in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people in their fearless struggle against Zionist settler occupation and the recent brutality launched by the U.S.-backed Israeli state.

In the face of this recent wave of attacks by Israeli state forces in Sheikh Jarrah and across the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people have staunchly resisted against Zionist attempts to occupy Palestinian land. Israel desperately aims to crush the Palestinian people’s resistance through air strikes, bombing of mosques, forceful evacuations and arrests, and targeted attacks against women and children. However, the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba reminds us that over seven decades of genocidal, fascist schemes by the U.S.-backed state of Israel have steeled the Palestinian people’s resolve to struggle for a free Palestine within our lifetime, by any means necessary. Even in Israeli security forces’ attempts to storm Al-Aqsa, Palestinians successfully defended the mosque, barricading its entrances to prevent Zionists from coming in.

Israel’s campaign of displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the Palestinian people is made possible by the United States and its financial backing, providing Israel $3.8 billion a year in military aid. U.S. aid, and U.S. imperialism more broadly, are what allow Israel to unleash its brutality against the Palestinian people, while Joe Biden and U.S. politicians either remain silent or even express support for Israel’s crimes. 

As Filipinos here in the belly of the beast, we know that the U.S. also pumps money into the fascist Duterte regime in the Philippines, having provided over $550 million in military aid since 2016. This aid goes toward the murder of the urban poor, displacement of indigenous people from their ancestral lands, surveillance of activists in the Philippines and overseas, and targeted mass arrests and killings of human rights defenders—all to quell the ongoing progressive and revolutionary movements throughout the country. 

This is U.S imperialism at work: pumping money into the wars of puppet regimes—from Israel to the Philippines—to allow for further plunder that will only benefit the United States and its cronies. From Palestine to the Philippines, our people face the same beast, in different forms. 

As U.S. imperialism crumbles and fascist puppet governments work viciously to take everything from the people, a new world free from U.S. imperialism’s shackles is on the verge of being born. It is being built through peoples’ unrelenting struggles in the face of fascist and economic violence. And it is our struggles united—the Palestinian struggle for land and self-determination, the Filipino struggle for national democracy, and the struggles of all the exploited and oppressed around the world—that will strike the final blow to U.S. imperialism once and for all and ensure that all oppressed peoples are free from its chains. 

We commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba with a renewed commitment to struggle alongside our Palestinian siblings who continue to stand bravely against the intensifying violence and repression dealt by the Israeli government. As people and movements all over the world call for the freedom of Palestine and an end to Israeli settler-colonial violence, Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people have come to full-view and can no longer be ignored. Now more than ever must we defend the Palestinian right to resist Zionist violence and occupation, and support Palestinian resistance in all forms and without exception. 

We must call to end U.S. support for Israel as we are calling for the same in the Philippines. As we continue to resist the brutal fascism of the U.S.-Duterte regime and colluding military and police forces, we must also continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people steadfastly resisting on the ground in occupied Jerusalem. We must struggle alongside our Palestinian siblings living in exile all over the world and here in the United States, fighting for the right to return. 

Anakbayan-USA calls on all Filipino youth to join us in mobilizing alongside Palestinian organizations across the country on Nakba Day on May 15th. We call on Filipino youth to join your local Anakbayan chapter, Palestinian solidarity organizations, or other grassroots organizations, as it is only through organizing ourselves that we can express, in strength, our solidarity and persistent support to the Palestinian people’s struggle for land and liberation towards victory within our lifetime. 

LONG LIVE PALESTINE!

FROM PALESTINE TO THE PHILIPPINES, STOP THE US WAR MACHINE!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

#FreePalestine #SaveSheikhJarrah #DefendJerusalem #InternationalSolidarity