We, Ukrainian researchers, artists, political and trade union activists and members of civil society, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people who, for 75 years, have been subjected to and resisted Israeli military occupation, separation, colonial violence , ethnic cleansing and land dispossession. and apartheid. We are writing this letter as people to people.
The dominant discourse at the government level and even among solidarity groups that support the struggles of Ukrainians and Palestinians often creates separation. With this letter, we reject these divisions and affirm our solidarity with all those who are oppressed and fighting for freedom.
As activists committed to freedom, human rights, democracy and social justice, and while fully recognizing power differentials, we strongly condemn attacks against civilian populations – regardless of whether Israelis attacked by Hamas or Palestinians attacked by Israeli occupation forces and armed settler gangs. Deliberately targeting civilians constitutes a war crime.
Yet this does not justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, identifying all residents of Gaza with Hamas and the indiscriminate use of the term “terrorism” applies to the entire Palestinian resistance. Nor does it justify the continuation of the current occupation. Echoing several UN resolutions, we know that there will be no lasting peace without justice for the Palestinian people.
On October 7, we witnessed Hamas violence against civilians in Israel, an event that is now being singled out by many for demonizing and dehumanizing Palestinian resistance. Hamas, a reactionary Islamist organization, must be seen in a broader historical context and in the decades of Israeli encroachment on Palestinian land, long before this organization came into existence in the late 1980s.
During the Nakba (“catastrophe”) of 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were brutally displaced from their homes, and entire villages were massacred and destroyed. Since its creation, Israel has never stopped pursuing its colonial expansion. Palestinians were forced into exile, fragmented and administered under different regimes. Some of them are Israeli citizens affected by structural discrimination and racism.
Residents of the occupied West Bank have been subjected to apartheid under Israeli military control for decades. The population of the Gaza Strip suffers from the blockade imposed by Israel since 2006, which restricts the movement of people and goods, leading to increasing poverty and deprivation.
Since October 7 and at the time of writing this article, the death toll in the Gaza Strip stands at more than 8,500 people. Women and children account for more than 62 percent of the victims, while more than 21,048 people were injured. In recent days, Israel has bombed schools, residential areas, a Greek Orthodox church and several hospitals. Israel has also cut off all water, electricity and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip. There is a serious shortage of food and medicine, causing a total collapse of the health system.
Most Western and Israeli media justify these deaths as mere collateral damage to the fighting against Hamas, but remain silent when it comes to Palestinian civilians targeted and killed in the occupied West Bank. Since the start of 2023 alone, and before October 7, the death toll on the Palestinian side had already reached 227. Since October 7, 121 Palestinian civilians have been killed in the occupied West Bank. More than 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners are currently held in Israeli prisons.
Lasting peace and justice will only be possible with the end of the current occupation. Palestinians have the right to self-determination and resistance to Israeli occupation, just as Ukrainians have the right to resist the Russian invasion.
Our solidarity comes from a place of anger at injustice and a place of deep pain at the devastating impacts of the occupation, the bombing of civilian infrastructure and the humanitarian blockade resulting from the experiences in our country. Parts of Ukraine have been occupied since 2014 and the international community has failed to stop Russian aggression, ignoring the imperial and colonial nature of the armed violence, which consequently intensified on February 24, 2022.
In Ukraine, civilians are bombarded daily, in their homes, in hospitals, at bus stops, in queues for bread. Due to the Russian occupation, thousands of people in Ukraine live without access to water, electricity or heat, and it is the most vulnerable groups who are most affected by the destruction of critical infrastructure. During the months of siege and intense shelling of Mariupol, there was no humanitarian corridor.
Seeing Israel targeting civilian infrastructure in Gaza makes the Israeli humanitarian blockade and land occupation particularly painful to us. From this place of suffering, experience and solidarity, we call on our fellow Ukrainians around the world and all people to raise their voices in support of the Palestinian people and condemn the ongoing massive Israeli ethnic cleansing.
We reject the Ukrainian government’s statements expressing unconditional support for Israeli military actions, and we consider the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s calls to avoid civilian casualties to be late and insufficient. This position constitutes a withdrawal of support for Palestinian rights and condemnation of the Israeli occupation, which Ukraine has followed for decades, including through voting at the UN.
Mindful of the pragmatic geopolitical reasoning behind Ukraine’s decision to echo its Western allies, on whom we depend for our survival, we view Israel’s current support and rejection of the Palestinian right to self-determination as being contradictory to Ukraine’s commitment to human rights and its struggle for human rights. our land and our freedom. As Ukrainians, we must stand in solidarity not with the oppressors, but with those who experience and resist oppression.
We strongly object to some politicians equating Western military aid with Ukraine and Israel. Ukraine does not occupy other people’s territories; on the contrary, it fights against the Russian occupation and international aid therefore serves a just cause and the protection of international law. Israel has occupied and annexed Palestinian and Syrian territories, and Western aid to this country confirms an unjust order and demonstrates double standards in relation to international law.
We oppose the new wave of Islamophobia, such as the brutal murder of a six-year-old Palestinian-American child and the attack on his family in Illinois, USA, and the assimilation of any criticism of Israel to anti-Semitism. At the same time, we also oppose holding all Jews around the world responsible for the policies of the State of Israel and we condemn anti-Semitic violence, such as the mass attack on a plane in Dagestan, in Russia.
We also reject the resurgence of “war on terror” rhetoric used by the United States and the European Union to justify war crimes and violations of international law that have weakened the international security system and caused damage. countless deaths, and which were borrowed by other states, including Russia. for the war in Chechnya and in China for the genocide of the Uighurs. Today, Israel uses it to carry out ethnic cleansing.
Call to action
We call for the implementation of the ceasefire call made by the United Nations General Assembly resolution.
We call on the Israeli government to immediately cease attacks on civilians and provide humanitarian aid; we insist on an immediate and indefinite lifting of the siege on Gaza and an urgent relief operation to restore civilian infrastructure. We also call on the Israeli government to end the occupation and recognize the right of displaced Palestinians to return to their lands.
We call on the Ukrainian government to condemn the use of state-sanctioned terror and humanitarian blockade against the civilian population of Gaza and to reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. We also call on the Ukrainian government to condemn deliberate attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
We call on international media to stop pitting Palestinians and Ukrainians against each other, where hierarchies of suffering perpetuate racist rhetoric and dehumanize those who are attacked.
We have seen the world come together in solidarity for the Ukrainian people and we call on everyone to do the same for the Palestinian people.
Signatories:
Volodymyr Artiukh, researcher
Levon Azizian, human rights lawyer
Diana Azzuz, artist, musician
Taras Bilous, editor
Oksana Briukhovetska, artist, researcher, University of Michigan
Artem Chapeye, writer
Valentyn Dolhochub, researcher, military
Nataliya Gumenyuk, journalist
John-Paul Himka, professor emeritus, University of Alberta
Karina Al Khmuz, biomedical programmer engineer
Yulia Kishchuk, researcher
Amina Ktefan, fashion influencer, digital creator
Svitlana Matviyenko, media specialist, SFU, associate director of the Digital Democracies Institute
Maria Mayerchyk, researcher
Vitalii Pavliuk, writer, translator
Sashko Protyah, filmmaker, volunteer
Oleksiy Radynski, filmmaker
Mykola Ridnyi, artist and filmmaker
Daria Saburova, researcher, activist
Alexander Skyba, trade union activist
Darya Tsymbalyuk, researcher
Nelia Vakhovska, translator
Yuliya Yurchenko, researcher, translator, activist
Iryna Zamuruieva, ecofeminist researcher, artist, climate and land policy project manager
Alisha Andani, art history student
Daša Anosova, curator, researcher, UCL SSEES
Lilya Badekha, activist, culturologist, social media manager for Spilne magazine
Anastasia Bobrova, researcher
Anastasiia Bobrovska, DJ, activist, digital strategy consultant
Mariana Bodnaruk, researcher
Yuriy Boyko, researcher, scientific assistant
Vladislava Chepurko
Daria Demia, artist
Olena Dmytryk, researcher
Olha Dobrovolska, teacher, cultural researcher
Svitlana Dolbysheva, artist, filmmaker
Hanna Dosenko, anthropologist
Vitalii Dudin, activist of the NGO Sotsialnyi Rukh
Oksana Dutchak, sociologist
Nastya Dzyuban, choreographer and performer
Kateryna Farbar, journalist
Taras Gembik, cultural worker, co-organizer of SDK Slonecznik at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Anna Greszta researcher, co-founder of Collect4Ukraine
Olenka Gu, sociologist
Tetiana Hanzha, documentary filmmaker
Andrii Hulianytskyi, researcher
Serhii Ishchenko, journalist
Hanna Karpishena
Milena Khomchenko, curator and writer, editor-in-chief of the SONIAKH collection
Daria Khrystych, researcher, activist
…
A full list of signatories is available here.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
