West Coast LEAF statement of solidarity with Palestine

20/08/2024Access to justice, Criminalization, Economic security, Family well-being, Gender-based violence, Healthcare Update

West Coast LEAF stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. As we bear witness to this genocide with horror, rage, and heartbreak, we cannot remain silent. We recognize that silence is complicity and deeply regret that it has taken us this long to voice our solidarity with the Palestinian people. Collectively, we commit to uplifting and echoing calls for a free Palestine.

For over ten months, the Israeli state has enacted genocidal violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Occupied Palestinian Territories. As we write, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 70% of them women and children. The unfolding genocide is a continuation of 76 years of settler-colonial occupation and apartheid, including a 16-year siege of Gaza. Israel has systematically targeted schools, refugee camps, hospitals, residential areas, and places of worship, and has cut off access to water, food, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies.

As an organization working to uphold gender justice, decolonization, anti-racism, reproductive justice, and disability justice, we have a responsibility to challenge systems of oppression. We work on stolen and continuously occupied Indigenous homelands, and we have a responsibility to work toward the full realization of the rights and liberation of Indigenous Peoples. That means confronting the interconnected and global nature of settler-colonialism and imperialism.

As a feminist organization, we recognize the gendered impacts of this genocide. Palestinian women and people marginalized by gender have experienced targeted gendered and sexual violence. With a decimated healthcare system, the miscarriage rate among pregnant Palestinians has gone up by 300%, and at least 183 people a day are forced to give birth without pain relief. Over 95% of pregnant and nursing caregivers are facing severe food insecurity. Caring for children safely is nearly impossible as Gazans continue to live under the threat of constant state violence, death, destruction, and displacement.

As a legal organization, we advocate for Canada to meet its human rights obligations under international law, as a bare minimum. For decades, the international community has passed countless resolutions and made findings about the violations of international law taking place on Occupied Palestinian Territories. Most recently, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that Israel’s occupation is illegal and must end immediately. All states – including Canada – must use every tool at their disposal to comply with the ICJ’s ruling. Canada has played a critical role in the ongoing occupation of Palestine, and continues to be complicit in the current genocide in Gaza.

As the genocide unfolds, we have seen an emboldening of white supremacy and hate crimes in Canada. We condemn rising anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. And we reject the false equivalency between anti-Semitism and critiques of the Israeli state.

Our struggles for justice and liberation are interconnected. We join other human rights and anti-violence groups, such as Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre, PACE Society, Pivot Legal Society, and BC Civil Liberties Association, in demanding an immediate, permanent ceasefire and an end to the genocide. We also call for lifting the siege on Gaza, ending the colonial occupation, ensuring immediate humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and ending all Canadian aid to the Israeli state.

West Coast LEAF statement of solidarity with Palestine

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