The day after ceasefire: Escalate pressure to cease the genocide and help us dismantle apartheid by Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)

A primary objective that this US-Israeli genocide has also failed to achieve is to sear into the collective Palestinian and Arab consciousness a debilitating sense of defeat and despair. Israel and the US wish to make Palestinians forget our historical rights and focus instead only on the extremely urgent and mammoth task of reconstructing Gaza, ending the 18-year-old siege, and ensuring enough humanitarian supplies reach the terribly battered, starved and devastated Palestinians there. 

If the Israeli occupation continues, it would take 350 years, according to UN estimates, to rebuild Gaza, whose ancient history goes back 4,000 years. Recognizing this fact, Palestinians insist on situating recovery for Gaza in the context of escalating our struggle for accountability and liberation. Despite the unspeakable horror of Israel’s genocide, we shall never forget our rights nor forgive those who have deprived us of them for decades and perpetrated war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to make us surrender. We shall continue to resist Israel’s settler colonialism, apartheid and military occupation, insisting on our full menu of rights, especially the right of our refugees, the absolute majority of the Indigenous Palestinian people, to return home and receive reparations.

Another objective of the genocide is to project Israel’s power in the region, prompting the dictatorships that have not yet normalized relations with it to do so out of fear of its and US wrath. The absolute majority in the Arab region and most countries of the Global South, however, support Palestinian rights more than ever and support isolating Israel to make it pay a heavy price for its genocide. Let’s amplify those voices to hinder normalization attempts.