Genocide in Palestine

SANDUGO, a movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination in the Philippines, stands with the world in condemning Israel’s brutal attacks against the Palestinian people. It is unmistakable: Israel is committing genocide.

We share with them the ongoing historical trauma brought about by colonial occupation: large-scale murder, displacement from our homelands, the plunder of our domain, the suppression of our right to self-determination, and the wars of aggression supported by the US imperialist government.

The recent spate of bombings is not new, for these systematic attempts to erase Palestine extend back to 1948, when the Israeli apartheid state was formed. Back then, the Philippines, fresh from direct American colonial rule, was the only Asian country to signify its support for Israel’s creation. Thus, it is vital to distinguish the state of Israel from the land of Israel described in the Bible. One is an important cradle of civilization, sacred to people of various faiths including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The other is an invention of the British empire, creating a “national home” to which the Jews of Europe may be relocated. The Israeli state is an extension of the European empire’s dream of Aryan homogeneity, expropriating the Jewish minority into a distant land where they can live as the majority. In this way, a formerly diverse land became ground zero for a new round of genocide, with the oppressed now acting as oppressor.

The United States considers Israel a key outpost to protect its interests in the Middle East, the same way it sees the Philippines as a strategic ally in the Asia-Pacific. Money talks: the state of Israel is the biggest recipient of American foreign aid–a total of around USD 263 billion from 1946 to 2023, nearly half of which is in the form of military and defense funding. This year alone, the Biden administration has given Israel USD 3.8 billion in military support, including half a billion for missiles in support of the recently-declared war. Amid wars in the past five years, the production and sale of Israeli weapons such as unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, rockets, and air defense systems, has increased 65 percent. Within that period, the Philippines has spent USD 275 million on Israeli defense goods, its third biggest buyer. Air raids in Gaza and in the Philippine countryside come from the same war machine.

Like his father the dictator, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has proven to be America’s boy. From toeing the US line, to material participation in the arms trade, his administration is complicit in the maneuvers of US-backed warmongering. Last month, after Israel declared war on Palestinian forces, Marcos Jr. personally assured the Israeli ambassador that “the Philippines will always stand with Israel.” A few months earlier, his administration expanded joint military drills with the United States throughout more of our islands, making it the largest Balikatan exercises ever. This display of subservience frames the human rights violations of the Philippine government against its people.

It is telling that in the recent United Nations assembly, an overwhelming majority of 120 nations voted to condemn Israel’s violent occupation of Palestinian territory – and in this landmark vote, the Philippine government voted to abstain, the only Southeast Asian country to withhold its condemnation.

Amid the gravity of the situation, an abstention is tacit support for the status quo, an unspoken allowing of Israel’s genocidal crimes. Equally telling is the handful of countries that voted against this resolution: Israel; its two biggest logistical and political supporters the United States and Canada; and a host of smaller Pacific island nations formerly colonized by the US.

We abhor the continued machinations of imperialist powers, which profit economically and politically from the business of war and genocide. Our lands must be free from the military and political interventions of imperialist colonizers. – SANDUGO (Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination), Room 304, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, EDSA, West Triangle, Quezon City sandugo.kmkmsp@gmail.com