The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) joins several states, reputable organisations and prominent personalities, among others, to condemn the latest act of aggression against the Palestinian people by the state of Israel. This latest attack which has been rightly and roundly condemned in all corners of the globe brings once again into focus the plight of the Palestinian people, a people who have had generations growing up in a world experiencing a life of conflict and punishment.
The heartless massacring of some sixty (60) Palestinians, the youngest being eight (8) months old, and the injuring of an estimated 2,700 in the besieged Gaza Strip must touch humanity’s conscience and cannot be countenanced. For the FITUG, it is heart-rending to know that Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian child once every three (3) days over the last 18 years. It also cannot be forgotten that Monday’s (May 14, 2018), heavy handed attack which came on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, or Catastrophe, the day the state of Israel was established on May 15, 1948, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.
In the ensuing period, Israel has colonized ever more Palestinian land. It routinely kills, maims and imprisons Palestinian, including children, as part of its brutal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It rules over millions of Palestinians using a system of colonial apartheid, and denies millions more refugees their right to return to their homes. And, for all of this, it has enjoyed relative impunity. Western governments have refused to take any consistent and meaningful action to ensure that Israel desists from its criminal actions and ensure justice for the colonized Palestinians.
At this time, we express our full sympathy with the Palestinian people, who legitimately and fairly claim the right to have their own homeland, their own state, independent, and sovereign.
The recent decision of the Trump Administration to transfer the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a controversial decision and one which is only adding fuel to the long standing conflict and, which will not help in finding a just solution and Peace for this troubled land. Remaining silent, at such developments, which are taking place is not an option either for peace-loving, and civil and human-rights and democratic forces in these times.
We stand in solidarity with the resisting people of Palestine against occupation. The collective struggle of peoples will invalidate the plans of the obstructionist, reactionary forces and we are confident that the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that had to spend decades as refugees will regain their motherland, the Palestinian people will gain their independent state. The just resistance of Palestinian people will win!
