(Harare, 10 July 2021) La Via Campesina condemns the Israeli military raid, the damage done to the headquarters of its member organisation, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) on Wednesday 7 July. The Israeli military ordered the office to be closed for six months. We denounce the continued persecution and harassment of UAWC in attempt to disrupt their work. The raid and closure order represents a provocative assault on Palestinian sovereignty, considering the fact that UAWC headquarters are located in Area A of the West Bank, which is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli military raid and closure order is part of a well planned aggressive defamation and defunding campaign against not only UAWC but the Palestinian civil society at large. It is aimed at neutralizing any form of peaceful organization of the Palestinian people. UAWC is not only one of the most active organizations in Palestine, but also spearheads the struggle for food sovereignty and peasant rights in the Arab region and North Africa (ArNa). It also coordinates La Via Campesina’s regional articulation process of peasant movements the region. Through its work in and across rural Palestine, UAWC has made extremely valuable and life-changing contributions to the lives of thousands of smallholder peasants, fishers, herders and agricultural workers. Following the recent military attacks against Gaza in May which damaged many infrastructures, UAWC is actively involved in rebuilding the livelihoods of the affected communities.
In response to UAWC success, Israeli entities continuously engage in sustained and brutal incitement campaign against the organisation as it provides peaceful and rightful agricultural support to Palestinian peasants, especially those in area “C”- an area facing accelerated Israeli occupation through land grabbing and annexation.
We call on our members, as well as allied organizations, to raise awareness on the Palestinian situation, and increase their voices in denouncing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and call for an end in violence against the Palestinian people.
We also call on the international community and human rights organisations to demand that the necessary measures be taken to stop the violence and advance in the construction of peace.
In solidarity with the Palestinian people, we increase our call to strengthen the BDS movement to undermine the terrible policy of apartheid that our Palestinian sisters and brothers suffer today. This is urgent, it cannot wait any longer! Lets join and commit to the Boycott Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign in order to end Israeli Apartheid and its war crimes. First and foremost, join BDS now! The boycott is economic, academic and cultural!
La Via Campesina stands in solidarity with Palestinian people and their legitimate organizations as they resist the oppressor!
Globalize the Struggle!
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