From Philippines to Palestine: Resisting rampant rights violations
MANILA – The genocide in Gaza did not start two years ago– Filipino activists say it is a culmination of decades of conflict and illegal occupation by Israel of Palestinian land.
On October 6, Monday, the Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association (PPFA) launched its months-long solidarity campaign to call for the liberation of the Palestinian people amid the ongoing genocide committed by Israel and United States.
A day after, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) led a protest march to commemorate the second year of Al Aqsa Flood – a coordinated operation of the Palestinians to resist Israel’s decades long occupation.
“The genocide in Gaza has escalated into a crisis of global proportions,” says Dr. Delen dela Paz, president of the PPFA.
“What we are witnessing is one of the most brutal genocides in modern history.”
Since the Al Aqsa Flood, Israel has launched relentless bombardment that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Nearly 60 percent of the fatalities were children, women, and elderly.
These numbers do not include deaths of those under the rubble, mass graves, or killed by indirect causes.
Bayan said in a statement that the roots of genocide originated with the rise of political Zionism that was enabled by imperial powers like Britain through the 1917 Balfour Declaration, a public statement by the British government, supporting the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
The dispossession further intensified during the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe), which saw over 700,000 Palestinians forcibly expelled from their homes.
In a landmark ruling in 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem) are illegal under international law.
They called on the Israeli government to cease settlement activities, withdraw settlers, and provide full reparations, including restitution and compensation.
All states are legally bound to recognize Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as unlawful, withhold aid to Israel in maintaining it, and to cooperate to end this situation.
“The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful,” the world court stated.
Shared identity, shared struggle
Amirah Lidasan, chairperson of Sandugo Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination, explained the interlinked struggle of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines to Palestine.
“The right of the displaced peoples to return to their homes is a fundamental principle under the international human rights and humanitarian law,” said Lidasan, citing United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported last month that at least 1.9 million people or 90 percent of the population across the Gaza Strip have been displaced. Many have been displaced twice, some 10 times or more.
“Though we are separated by continents, Palestinian and the Bangsamoro people — who are part of the Filipino people — share Islamic cultural identity, but are often marginalized by dominant state narratives and colonial legacy,” said Lidasan.
She added that whenever they assert their right to self-determination, the government responds with a spate of civil and political rights violations, including aerial bombardment, which disproportionately impacts indigenous communities in the rural areas and constitute violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
In 2017, the residents of Marawi City became victims of forced displacement for five months.
Eight years later, thousands remain unable to return to their homes.
Lidasan said that they are not allowed to return because the rehabilitation program was more focused on building another military camp inside Marawi.
“The refusal to allow people to return is a refusal to recognize people’s humanity and history. We stand for return, reparation, and recognition both for Palestinian people and the Bangsamoro people denied their right to come home,” Lidasan said.
Undeniable famine
One of the aggravating genocidal features of Israel’s systematic aggression against the Palestinian people is the destruction of agricultural lands and food systems.
Recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis states that more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution, and preventable deaths.
“Classifying famine means that the most extreme category is triggered when three critical thresholds – extreme food deprivation, acute malnutrition and starvation-related deaths – have been breached,” the report states.
It also adds that 98 percent of cropland in Gaza is damaged or inaccessible.
Regional network PAN Asia Pacific in Penang, Malaysia emphasized in August that the famine is deliberately linked to the destruction of Palestinian agricultural systems and denial of humanitarian aid, including food.
In Gaza, around 2.29 million olive trees were lost in the past three years, which amounts to 74% of cultivated olive areas destroyed.
This is not limited to Gaza as Israeli forces have uprooted more than 52,300 olive trees in the West Bank since 2023.
Read: Gaza famine began with Israel uprooting olive trees — food advocacy group
Peasant leader Danilo Ramos said that, in the Philippines, farmers are also being affected by Israeli-based companies.
He flagged the Metro Pacific Agro Ventures (MPAV) in their partnership with Israel-based company LR Group Ltd., launching the Metro Pacific Fresh Farm, a 22-hectare property in San Rafael, Bulacan that aims to “modernize” the vegetable production and be the “largest vegetable greenhouse facility in the country.”
“Limiting the Palestinians’ right to their land, including agricultural lands, is also genocidal as no country can exist without their agriculture,” said Ramos.
He also cited that around 7,000 farmers have experienced human rights violations in various forms in Palestine.
In the 2024 year-end report of Karapatan, the human rights group reported that the peasant sector continues to have the highest number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, in the name of the government’s counterinsurgency program.
The famine and the destruction of food systems form part of the starvation as a deliberate method of warfare, which the international law under the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions already banned.
“The famine in Gaza is obviously a direct consequence of US-Israeli policies that have systematically weaponized food as a tool of domination,” said PANAP in a statement.
“The struggle to end the famine in Gaza and assert the food sovereignty of the Palestinian people is therefore inseparable from the broader struggle for liberation and self-determination, as well as justice and accountability from the war criminals.”
Imperialist aggression
The United States has given at least $21.7 billion in military support to Israel since the start of their relentless bombardment in October 2023, ??according to policy analyst William D. Hartung. In terms of diplomatic support, the US also blocked the resolution in the UN Security Council demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza strip for the sixth time.
US President Donald Trump, together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, proposed a 20-point peace plan. It outlines a ceasefire, return of Israeli hostages, dismantling of Hamas’s military capabilities and role in governance, and the establishment of a transitional government headed by Trump.
“Despite recent diplomatic maneuvers, the US-Israeli war machine continues its brutal assault unabated. In the 48 hours following Hamas’s constructive response to the latest peace proposal, Israeli raids killed over 70 Palestinians, with 47 in Gaza City alone,” said Bayan in a statement.
The group emphasized that any peace plan must recognize the sovereign right of the Palestinian people to determine their own future, their right to self-determination.
“The Palestinian resistance has shown a willingness to negotiate, but rightly insists that core issues—like governance and their right to self-determination—are matters of national sovereignty that must be decided by Palestinians themselves.”
The right to self-determination is a fundamental right and a collective right of the people.
In fact, it is explicitly stated in the UN Charter, under Article 1(2), which should be enforced by all its member-states since it is legally-binding and a foundational document of international law.
“An agreement that does not end the occupation and fulfill the Palestinian people’s aspirations for liberation and independence is illegitimate and unacceptable, Bayan added.
Philippine government complicity
PPFA has denounced the government’s deepening military and economic cooperation with Israel and the US, dubbing it as a betrayal to the Filipino people as victims of US wars of aggression.
“The Marcos Jr. regime signs arms deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with Israeli defense companies like Elbit Systems—the same firms supplying the weapons used in Gaza,” says dela Paz.
“What Israel deploys to bomb Palestinian homes, the Philippines imports to suppress resistance in its own backyard.”
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said in a congressional hearing last month that no new contracts have been signed with Israeli firms.
However, he admitted that the Philippine Army continues to buy munitions from Elbit Systems under existing contracts.
Last August 11, the company was issued a P248-million notice of award to supply 100 rounds of high explosive (HE) 155mm precision-guided munition (PGM).
Read: Philippine army’s munitions procurement from Israel condemned
Dela Paz also called out the local government of Siargao for what she described as “genocidal complicity.”
Just last month, around 80 people, including island residents, conducted a mobilization in Siargao due to an influx of Israeli military-linked visitors – locals fear that some have ties to war crimes – and plans to build a Chabad House on the island.
Read: Siargao locals lead protest for Palestine, warn of Israeli settler threats on island
Meanwhile, she also said that Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte’s recent welcoming of Israeli Minister of Economy Nir Barkat and Israel Ambassador Ian Fluss at a wreath-laying ceremony in the name of friendship, is a disrespect to the Palestinian refugees residing in the city.
“This act is even more insensitive because since 2023, Palestinian refugees fleeing the violence in Gaza have been residing in Quezon City,” said Dela Paz.
“Instead of being centered, their suffering is being lost over in favor of photo ops with Israeli officials and eventually possible trade agreements.”
The Philippine government is also exploring a free trade agreement with Israel as announced by Trade Secretary Cristina Roque at the conclusion of the first Philippines-Israel joint committee meeting on July 29.
They seek to complete the FTA before the end of Marcos Jr.’s term in 2028.
“What Israel perfects in Gaza, the Marcos Jr. government imports to suppress our own people, said Dela Paz.
“Our officials celebrate lies with the genocidal state, whitewashing crimes against humanity in exchange for profit and strategic alignment with US wars.”
Filipino activists also announced the launching of the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine, which is taking place from November 22 to 23 in Barcelona, Spain, a people’s alternative platform to hold accountable those responsible for grave violations against the Palestinian people.
There will also be a series of activities until December this year.
Palestinian Rafea Salem El-Hawi, the president and executive director of Philippine Arab Cooperation Council, joined the launch of the solidarity and told Bulatlat that Palestinian solidarity transcends nationality.
“It is a matter of humanity. You don’t have to be a Palestinian to stand with Palestinians. You only need to be a human,” he said.
“Filipinos and Palestinians have strong ties. We shall be united together. United against the aggressor, occupation, and all the evildoers.” (JDS)
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