The situation in Gaza has taken a devastating turn. Israel’s actions have consistently violated and are ruthlessly killing civilians. The use of sniper and drone attacks, as well as the continued blockade, is well been documented by human rights organizations. The same applies to the weaponization of food and medical care. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu argues that Hamas had rejected proposals to secure a ceasefire extension. The Palestinian struggle is an inspiration of resistance/resilience against Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism. Israel pursues ethnic cleansing, displacement, and genocide. But Palestinians refuse to be erased. They resist with every fiber of their being, from the stones of Intifada to the BDS. Their struggle is for their very right to exist. Israel’s oppression is a reminder that colonialism is alive and well. This webinar explores how, even in the face of acute odds, Palestinians stubbornly refuse to surrender. Solidarity with Palestine is a moral imperative for the international community.
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TRANSCRIPTION OF THE WEBINAR ON PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE TO ISRAELI OPPRESSION HELD ON 13TH APRIL 2025
Chandra: I would like to thank MLN for this very kind invitation. My introductory remarks will be brief. I intend to focus on what has happened in the last 18 months, the massacres, and the carnage that has taken place in Gaza. There are a number of dimensions of the Palestinian crisis that have emerged strongly in the last 18 months. I’ll try to highlight two of them and perhaps reflect a little on both these dimensions, which are linked to the theme of our discussion today. What are these two dimensions that I want to emphasize? One, the last 18 months has revealed to the world, the world at large, what Palestinian resistance is all about, the strength of this resistance, its remarkable endurance, the courage of the people, their integrity. This has really come to the fore in the last 18 months. For those of us who are capable of looking at this issue from an objective perspective, Palestinian resistance as a message to the world, as a lesson to the world, that is what has emerged. Why the Palestinians are so steadfast in this struggle, I suppose Palestinians who are with us this evening, they’ll be able to answer this better. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and Amjad Alqasis, I think they’re in a better position to explain this, the resistance of the Palestinians. I can only express my admiration. What the underlying reasons are, perhaps all of us will be able to learn quite a bit from what our Palestinian brothers have to share with us. Let me look at the second dimension of this 18-month bombardment that has shocked all of us in a sense, but it’s an important dimension of the crisis: it’s Israeli immunity. It’s Israeli immunity, and I will draw conclusions from the second dimension in particular, what it means for the larger struggle for humanity. Now, what do I mean by Israeli immunity? It is not that people are not aware of what’s happening. People are, in fact, today more than ever in the past, there’s much greater anger at what Israel has been doing, more than 10 years, 15 years ago, much greater the anger, the depth of disgust at what Israel has been doing in Gaza, the massacre of innocents, almost 60,000 killed, 17,000 of them children, and children deliberately targeted in numerous instances which have been well documented. This is, as others have said so often, the most well-documented genocide in history, and it’s a genocide documented by its victims, apart from others who have witnessed this genocide ….