“We are millions, we are billions, we are all Palestinians!” This chant has been a rallying cry for over 42 days. It has decimated the notion that the world has sided with the apartheid state, a far cry from the overwhelming support for Palestine that we’ve witnessed internationally although Western media will tell a different story. They’ve undoubtedly abandoned their journalistic standards and ethics to serve corporate Zionist interests but independent media, global news, and people of conscience have committed to integrity and truth alongside the people of Palestine.
The bombardment of Eurocentric colonialist thinking has historically communicated that the international community has stood with Israel. As writer Rashid Khalidi stated on a recent panel, “This idea acts as if the US, Western Europe, and a few white settler colonies in Japan are the international community.” This moment has exposed this brainwashing as another propaganda tool by the West to assume a hierarchy against the majority of the world, even as the majority of the international community stands boldly apart from the West. Around the world, hundreds of thousands of protestors have resoundingly and collectively demanded a ceasefire, a demand that is shaping an inevitable global societal change. October 7th forced the recognition in the West that solidarity with Palestine has long been a global position, even if it’s been one that has been intentionally silenced.
What has this solidarity looked like then and now?
Ireland-Palestine solidarity
In 1980, Ireland was the first member of the European Union to endorse the establishment of a Palestinian State. This was arguably the first large-scale display of solidarity from Ireland, although many connect IRA member Bobby Sands 1981 hunger strike while in prison at HM Prison Maze as a pivotal shift in global connection between Ireland and Palestine. The use of hunger strikes became a common act of resistance amongst illegally imprisoned Palestinians since the 1980s (Israeli Occupation forces have illegally detained 2,800 Palestinians since October 7th through primarily overnight home invasions bringing the total to over 9,000 people). With their mutual understanding of living under occupation, supporters of the Ireland-Palestine solidarity campaign in Sligo gathered on October 18th to not only mourn but inject this powerful statement:
“Since September 2000, the Israeli regime has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians. Almost one quarter of these victims have been children. All of these atrocities have been committed in full view of the world, and yet in all this time, the international community-the Irish government included-has taken no concrete actions to defend Palestinians or to help them with their freedom and self determination.
..Indeed at a time when Israel’s far right government-the most racist, fundamentalist, and fanatical ever-has been ruthlessly escalating its ethnic cleansing, siege, killings, incarceration, provocations, and daily humiliation of millions of Palestinians, the response of the West has simply been to conduct “business as usual”
..As governments have failed to hold Israel accountable, it is up to people of conscience in every community worldwide to heed Palestinian calls for justice and the right to self determination. In this context civil society in Ireland has an important role to play by supporting the call for an international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel similar to that which helped us bring an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
The Global South and terminating relationships with Israel
People of the global south have continuously been a beacon of international unification over the years. Recently, several Israeli ambassadors have been expelled from respective parts of the global south including: South Africa, Colombia, Jordan, Turkey, Chile, Chad, Honduras and Bahrain. Bolivia was initially one of the first global leaders to break all diplomatic ties with the Apartheid regime in 2008. Though it was restored in 2020 under new leadership, Former President Evo Morales has been unwavering in his support for Palestine and recently publicly criticized the United Nations inability to take action, “From Bolivia we condemn the imperialist and colonialist actions of the Israeli Zionist government”. From a legitimacy perspective, 28 member states of the UN do not even recognize The State of Israel including Cuba and 15 Arab countries comprising the Arab League.
South Africa’s labor and union communities have also remained steadfast in holding local weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems accountable for their role in the ongoing genocide. Elbit Systems is currently Israel’s largest arms producer netting nearly 5.7 billion dollars in profits this year alone, an increase from 2022. They are also responsible for manufacturing large scale military tanks commonly used to bulldoze civilians, farmland, and essential infrastructure in the Gaza Strip for several years. In 2018, Elbit expanded their operations to several African nations including but not limited to Sudan, Tanzania, Morocco, and South Africa. Organizers are demanding and heeding the call from unions in Palestine to end all contracts with defense company Paramount who have close ties with Elbit Systems.
Additionally, workers and organizers in London have been waging their own multi year battle with Elbit Systems through the courts. Known as the Elbit eight, Palestine Action has been successful at closing down two Elbit System manufacturing sites in 2020 but are being charged with blackmail and disrupting Elbits trade operation to Israel. After years of writing campaigns, petitions and attempts to appeal to UK leadership who completely evaded accountability and open communication, Palestine Action took matters into their own hands. Co-founder of Palestine Action Huda Ammori stated, “There’s this constant obstruction or unwillingness to just accept fact..we’d have all of the research, all of the protests, all of the things that back up what we were saying but there was never a willingness from institutions to look like they were supporting Palestine in any way.”
To understand an even broader global institutional perspective, it’s important to look at how the UN, an organizational body whose purpose is to protect human rights, has responded. The United Nations has been mirroring several organizations and institutions (International Criminal Court, Red Cross, etc.) that are exposing themselves as not only ineffective but morally incapable at affecting change when it is imperative. 120 countries have overwhelmingly passed a resolution for a cease fire with the US, Israel, and 12 nations voting against it. Again, the majority of the world is communicating an end to the siege on Gaza which has claimed over 11,000 confirmed lives. Yet these institutions have laid dormant and unable to exert their power, leaning on impassioned speeches that have left the world collectively saying, “what is their purpose beyond posturing?” Regardless, nations in the UN body must continue to push against any pro-genocide and ethnic cleansing stances from the few Western nations and their allies.
These patterns of decades-long solidarity and resistance have not been featured on major Western media outlets but they are well documented by independent news sites and more importantly, by the people themselves. When we chant, “We are all Palestinians!,” it’s a reminder that the people are bound together not only by the shackles of US Imperialism and Colonialism but by the inevitable liberation that will come.
