The women and men of the Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera join the millions of people around the world in condemning the genocidal attack by the Israeli Zionists against the Palestinian people. As a CSO of Indigenous Peoples experiencing the ethnocidal impact of plunder of our ancestral land and persecution against those in defense, we associate with the Palestinian people in their aspiration for their right to their ancestral homeland and right to self-determination.
We find it deplorable that Israel’s total siege against the Palestinian people is being supported by the United States of America and that the UN resolution for ceasefire that would have allowed humanitarian aid for Gaza was vetoed.
While we do not condone taking civilian hostages and attacks against civilians by the Hamas, we decry the horrific attack by Israeli forces against thousands of civilian populations, wiping out entire families, women and children; bombing abodes, hospitals and places of worship; cutting off electricity, fuel and water supply; restricting humanitarian aid.
The harrowing human suffering of the Palestinian people impels us to join the reverberating call for peace based on justice. “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless and plead for the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17)