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WHY LATINES SHOULD CAREABOUT THE PALESTINE-ISRAEL CONFLICTBYALEXIAJIMENEZWhat is going on in Palestine is inhumane and devastating to say the least. It’s completely reasonable to beoverwhelmed with all these social media posts and Tik Toks showing buildings blowing up, and young children inagony, covered in blood, stuck under rubble. It’s easy to feel that this situation isn’t affecting our lives personally andthat we should just ignore it. Some may think there is no reason we should care, because we are regular civilianswho have no power over this kind of thing. It’s not happening to us, so why should we even bother, right? Mi gente,wake up! This grave issue cannot be ignored. Over 12,000 innocent lives have been lost—this is genocide. People,human beings just like you, like me, with hopes and dreams, are now gone. This can continue on and thousandsmore can die, or we can choose to advocate for those unable to advocate for themselves. Our own homelands havealso fallen victim to Israeli oppression, which is one of the many reasons why we should care. 1If you aren’t aware of what is going on in Israel right now, here’s a brief rundown, but I highly encourage you toeducate yourselves on this issue further, as being informed can help all of us in the long run. In 1947, the UnitedNations voted for Palestine to be split into two separate Jewish and Palestinian states. Jewish people resided in thePalestinian region and wanted their own state: Israel. Given that this land belonged to them, Palestinians opposedthis idea, and they did not want Israelis to colonize and take their land away from them. Conflict rose when Israeltook more Palestinian land and declared itself a nation on May 14th, 1948. Furious with this result, five Arabcountries attacked Israel, who fought back, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of theirhomes. When the fighting ended, Israel controlled most of the territory that once belonged to Palestine. This conflicthas been ongoing for over 75 years.On October 7th, 2023, Hamas fired rockets into Israel and stormed Israeli cities near the border. Israel declared warand administered a “complete siege of Gaza.” That is, the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestanians currentlyreside. Israeli forces have been bombing Gaza City every single day since October 7th. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Theyhave bombed hospitals, schools, churches, homes, ambulances, escape routes. On top of this, Israeli forces havetrapped Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and have limited the amount of aid that can enter. They have cut off water,food, electricity, and the internet, impacting all aspects of daily life and collapsing the entire health system in Gaza.Israel has committed war crimes that should not be hard to condemn. There are thousands of people trapped, whoare low on resources and forced to endure these bombings and massacres every single day, with no place to gobecause of the Israeli government’s inhumane armed decisions. This war has killed over 12,000 Palestinians anddisplaced 1.5 million from their homes. 2This tragedy is happening to Palestinians right now; however, Palestine is not the first country that Israel hasattacked. Israel has been involved in oppression against countries all around the world. These countries includesome of our own. Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Panama, Peru,and the list goes on. 3 Some of our very own homes have fallen victim to Israel.1 Noriega, Christina. “Why Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’ Is Taking a Stand against Israel.” Al Jazeera, November 9, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/9/why-latin-americas-pink-tide-is-taking-a-stand-against-israel.2 Press, The Associated. “Live Updates: Who Official Says Gaza Hospital Situation ‘Catastrophic.’” AP News, November 21, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-11-20-2023-9913a29b48afc4a75e724674fe51bd82#.3 Al Jazeera. “Israel’s Latin American Trail of Terror.” Al Jazeera, June 5, 2003. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/6/5/israels-latin-american-trail-of-terror.10
Visual by Alexia JimenezPalestinian struggle for freedom is connected to struggles all around the world. This is one of the manyreasons we should all care.From 1975 to 1979, 83% of El Salvador’s military imports came from Israel. They also helped train ANSESAL,an infamous death squad that later killed tens of thousands of civilian activists. Israel helped fund ElSalvador’s civil war between the right-wing landowning class against left-wing popular organizations.Continuing in Central America, Guatemalan armed forces who were trained by Israel were responsible for thenow known Mayan Genocide. This mass murder killed over 200,000+ indigenous Mayans and displaced over1 million Indigenous people. Like in El Salvador, Israel also funded Guatemala and gave them over $38billion for arms so that this genocide could continue. Since then, Israel and Guatemala have maintained strongdiplomatic ties, as Guatemala was the first country to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. Thisdiplomatic relationship, like many others, was formed with a far-right wing government that shares many ofits ideals and views with the Israeli state. These ideals ensure Israel’s stay in power and the oppression of theinnocent.A more recent case of Israeli oppression in Latin America occurred in 2021, when Colombians protestedagainst neoliberal policies enacted by the government of the then President, Ivan Duque. These protestorswere met with deadly repression by the police government of Ivan Duque, and hundreds of civilians wereinjured or killed. Israel is Colombia’s military’s chief weapon supplier and is involved with Colombian militarytraining, assisting in the Colombian government’s persecution of innocent civilians. Colombian police andarmy brutally wiped out their own people whilst using Israeli training and weapons. These examples are just afew ways in which Israel has contributed to colonialism across Latin America.Colonization, exploitation, and war are familiar to us. As Latines, our ancestors have endured years ofcolonization and genocide before. They lived through dire times like these, and we would not be here if theydidn’t fight back. This is what’s currently happening to Palestinians. This can be a lot to take in, but living it,as you can imagine, is so much worse. Palestinians need us, they need our advocacy. In order to help, youcan bring attention to what’s happening in Gaza. This includes taking part in protests, marches, and vigils toshow your solidarity with Gaza, as well as participating in the current boycotts. Spreading awareness on thisgrave issue and encouraging others to educate themselves and speak up can also be so much more powerfulthan we realize. We can either sit back and watch thousands more die, or we can do something now.11
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