Palestine: Statement from a Solidarity Visit by La Via Campesina’s Delegation
“Israeli occupation forcefully expelling Palestinians from their land, denying them access to water, and depriving them of the means to survive”
From 8 to 18 December, an international delegation of La Via Campesina traveled to Palestine following an appeal by the local member UAWC (Union of Agricultural Workers’ Committees in Palestine).
The need to organise this visit came from the urgency to express solidarity with the Palestinian people in the midst of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and to collect testimonies of the worsening occupation and Zionist apartheid system.
La Via Campesina has expressed longstanding support for the struggles of the Palestinian people and has denounced the gross violation of human rights perpetrated by Israel in Gaza. After several months of preparation a group of peasants traveled to the Occupied Territories. The Via Campesina delegation was composed of representatives of ECVC, the European Coordination Via Campesina, because the visa restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation makes it impossible to guarantee travel and entry from other regions.
As a group of farmers we visited numerous communities – farmers as well as refugees – in the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Jericho, the Jordan Valley and occupied East Jerusalem. We met citizens, governing bodies and civil society organisations including feminist, youth, human rights organisations.
Although deeply aware that the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians began with the Nakba in 1948, the delegation immediately noted the dramatic acceleration of settler colonisation in the West Bank, along with dramatic deterioration of the living, working and security conditions of farmers, shepherds and their families, especially women and children. We are witnessing a precarious moment in history. Imperialist and colonial strategies, which are inflaming the region, are inherently interconnected with genocide in Palestine.
There is nothing hidden about the Israeli settler project to end Palestine: we witnessed large billboards calling for “no future for Palestine” everywhere.
Reflecting on what the delegation has seen with their eyes, it is now clear there is another face to genocide in Palestine. It affects all aspects of Palestinian life: access to land, water and natural resources, freedom of movement, education, health, which impact profoundly the ability to form a viable life and society, and a self-determined future.
In this context, as Europeans, we are ashamed and deeply frustrated to point out the responsibilities of Western governments, which we denounce as completely complicit in the apartheid policies and in the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank.
The level of impunity and violence of the Zionist settlers from the illegal colonies and the Israeli army that aids and protects them has reached unprecedented levels. Over the last 14 months, along with the imposition of hundreds more checkpoints and gates, agricultural infrastructure has been systematically targeted. Thousands of hectares of Palestinian agricultural land , water sources, grazing and food production areas have been taken away from Palestinians. Day after day, settler colonial oppression and violence, and the Israeli legislative framework allows, expulsions, attacks and killings to be planned and carried out before the eyes of the whole world.
Palestinian heritage is deeply rooted in its rural and peasant identity. The Palestinian struggle for dignity and liberation is a struggle for self-determination, over its native land, and thus for food sovereignty. Despite enormous obstacles, agricultural heritage is passed through generations: people want to stay on or return to their land, even if their families are displaced as refugees for 76 years. In front of this we are humbled by, and honour, the steadfastness of Palestinians, known as their indelible sumud.
We witnessed how every day the Israeli occupation tries to forcefully expel Palestinians from their land, denying them access to water, and depriving them of the means to survive. Palestinians – farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolks, or city dwellers- are suffocated by occupation infrastructures, both technological and physical.
UAWC as La Via Campesina member, responds to these realities every day, and are targeted by the occupiers for doing so. Land development programmes implemented by UWAC for over 20 years are key for Palestinian food sovereignty. The Israeli occupation is threatened by UAWC projects for land reclamation to avoid confiscation, concrete support for the livelihood of nomadic Bedouin herders, vocational training and seed banks. These actions undermine the Israeli occupation because they undermine the basis of the Zionist project, which is settlement colonisation.
We are especially alarmed by settler colonial expansion in the Jordan Valley, the food basket of Palestine. When food sovereignty and the survival of an entire population is targeted, indigenous ways of life – farmers, Bedouin herders, Gazan fishermen – are threatened, and along with them the cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, animal breeds and local seeds. Local seeds as saved and made available by UAWC are a crucial, affordable, well adapted way for peasants to feed themselves, their families and communities with certainty. This approach contrasts starkly with the exploitation and disregard for the land expressed through the colonial mindset, which uproots trees, imposes monocultures and factory farms, desertifies the soil, and wounds the land with bombs, bulldozers and massive military exercises.
Therefore, in the face of the speed and scale of the expropriation of Palestinian land and water, we raise our voices saying: let Palestinian farmer’s farm! We call for a boycott of any agri-food products from Israel, sanctions against the Israeli occupation, and a firm rejection of the trade agreements established by Israel and other countries.
We cannot find the appropriate words to describe our gratitude towards the immense hospitality shown to us by all Palestinians. Their welcome, their deep humanity, steadfastness and sense of friendship moved us profoundly. These are fundamental elements of the strength of spirit that will enable the Palestinian people to endure and win their longstanding battle for liberation.
The urgent need to counter the Israeli government’s displacement and land-grabbing spurs us to strengthen LVC’s already strong commitment to the Palestinian cause. As we return to our respective countries, it is our responsibility as members of the delegation to disseminate information and testimonies on the current situation. We will further develop our effective solidarity initiatives and strategies of support for Palestinian farmers and the Palestinian People.
Long live Palestine, and long live Palestinian farmers!