General Defense Committee

Demands From Palestinian Youth Movement

Since 2007, Gaza has been an open air prison.

Israel has imposed an illegal land, air, and sea blockade on Gaza: a siege which has had devastating impacts on the 2.3 million Palestinian people who live inside of the blockaded territory.

The Israeli army regularly launches bombing campaigns against Gaza to prevent its infrastructure from ever being fully rebuilt: bombing ports to prevent imports or exports, airports to stop movements, and power plants to disrupt electricity.

The war you see on the news today did not begin on october 7th. For over 75 years, the Palestinian people have been fighting against the colonization and occupation of their land.

Millions of Palestinians in neighboring Arab countries and worldwide are refugees, waiting to return home to Palestine. Inside Occupied Palestine, thousands are held hostage in Israel’s colonial prisons, detained for months or years without charge or trial.

In the occupied West Bank, millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, having to cross army checkpoints every day to go to work, school, or visit loved ones.

Each year, thousands of Palestinian homes are demolished by the Israeli occupying army as part of a long-term project to dispossess Palestinians of their land and force them into exile.

It’s time to put an end to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. Today, we are witnessing an unfolding genocide on Gaza, one that is backed by western powers.

Since october 7th, thousands of palestinians in Gaza have been killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced. There is no electricity and fuel is nearly out. Medicine and surgical supplies are scarce. Gaza’s hospitals – which the Israeli army is indiscriminately targeting – are on the brink of collapse. People in Gaza, half of whom are children, have been subjected to the constant terror of indiscriminate bombing, day and night, for weeks on end. Food and water are scarce, and will soon run out as well. People in Gaza cannot wait any longer – the siege must end now!

Israel has been able to maintain the siege due to unconditional financial support and veto power from the US and its allies. This complicity can no longer go unchallenged.

The siege of Gaza is propped up by the US, Canada, the UK, and EU, who apply diplomatic pressure through the UN and aid through taxpayer dollars to fund the technology that keeps 2.3 million people imprisoned inside of the tiny territory. As a taxpayer whose taxes are directly funding the genocide in Gaza, you the reader have a key role to play in renouncing the occupation and holding your government and elected officials accountable for their complicity in the ongoing genocide.

Now is the time for people across North America and Europe to stand up and say, enough is enough. The media can no longer fool us into mistaking who is the oppressor and who is the oppressed. The siege on Gaza must be lifted once and for all. The collective punishment of Palesiinians for resisting occupation – a right enshrined under international law – must come to an end. Palestinians in Gaza must live.