 Original posted: Nov. 29, 2023 Updated Nov. 29, 2025
Thirty years after the UN resolution 181 II, which partitioned Palestine into two states, the United Nations approved another resolution on November 29, 1977, to establish an annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This day promotes Palestinian rights, the ongoing struggle for freedom and dignity, cultural events, and remembrance that Palestinians have not yet achieved their inalienable rights. The question of Palestine is about colonization, occupation, and policies of the Israeli government targeting Palestinians and their human rights, which the US funds. Since World War II, Israel has been the largest recipient of US foreign assistance, receiving $3.8 billion of American taxpayer dollars in 2020 alone, and during this Gaza war, more than $30 billion, funds that should be directed to alleviate issues affecting the US today. Israel continuously violates international laws and currently keeps five million Palestinians under military occupation. The story did not start on Oct 7th. Unfortunately, the loss of civilian life and ethnic cleansing had been going on before 1948, and intimidation and assaults continue to increase in the West Bank. According to the UN (verified by OHCHR), since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,030 Palestinians, including 233 children. From the Huwara pogrom to the deadly raid on Jenin, the home demolition and the demolition of schools, the attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, arrests and killing of children, West Bank settlements, checkpoints, apartheid system, and pushing annexation policies, Palestinians face injustice in every aspect of their daily life. In the occupied West Bank, raids and settler violence are increasing, and more Palestinians are being detained in prisons. There is also a growing harassment against Palestinian Christians. Another Nakba is unfolding in the occupied West Bank. Gaza, the largest and densely packed concentration camp, is the home of 2.3 million Palestinians, including 1.1 million children, and has been besieged by Israel for the last 17 years. A genocide is materializing while the world watched it with continuous carpet bombing in Gaza. The indiscriminate bombing of multiple hospitals, schools, refugee camps, mosques, and churches, and the use of white phosphorus, have destroyed the whole infrastructure. According to Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, “around 12% of the total population have been killed, injured, or detained since 7 October 2023,” and thousands are still buried under the rubble. Now, despite a so-called peace plan, per Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, “daily Israeli attacks continue, and starvation persists in less visible forms”. How is the world not able to stop it? The Palestinians’ voices are being eliminated. We need a clear path toward ending the occupation and ethnic cleansing, while giving Palestinians agency and a voice over their own future. These stories need to be heard. The dehumanization of Palestinians is not hidden. This war has shown the real faces of those who are on the right side of justice, humanity, and fundamental human rights and who are not. The silence reveals the complicity of genocide. Criticism of Israel and its policies or criticism of Zionism, which is a political ideology, is frequently portrayed as anti-Semitism. A critique of Israel backed with truth and evidence should be understood as a valid critique of an oppressive government. Just as other countries are held accountable for human rights violations, Israel can be as well. Using the same mindset to criticize violence and abuse in the US or in other histories, Israel’s history should be assessed critically as well. But anyone who speaks about Israel and its human rights abuses against Palestinians is deemed anti-Semitic. It is notable and well-recognized that in the history of Jews living in Muslim lands, they were protected, whether in the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, or Al-Andalus. UN resolution 194 officials recognize the 'right of return' of Palestinians who were expelled during 1948. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are respected organizations that agree on the right of return. B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, also documented that Israel is an apartheid state. In the words of Noam Chomsky, "The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve." Besides reports from the UN, Amnesty, the world's top scholars, and B'tselem, the Israeli human rights group, documented the recent atrocities in Gaza as a genocide. How many more reports, investigations, and validations does the world need? So, What’s Next…Acquire Knowledge and Support The biased mainstream media portrayed Palestinians in negative ways, and some politicians fueled hate against American Muslims and Palestinians. This has resulted in increased hatred directed at them. Three Muslim college students were shot. Activists from all walks of life and college students were being censored and silenced, but this did not and will not stop people from standing on the right side of history. It's a struggle for everyone who is conscious of basic human rights. Also, this is a crucial time to counter fear, stereotypes, and suspicions by speaking up as an ally and reaching out to your colleagues and neighbors. Jewish Voice for Peace, along with many other Jewish groups, is commendable for being on the front lines against this war and fighting for justice and liberation for Palestinians. They are taking a stand against Israel's actions in Gaza and are continuously on the streets holding protests, sit-ins, and rallies across the nation. Learn the facts, do research, listen to experts, read books and history and make up your own minds, listen to the stories of Palestinians, hear the other side, and remember that misleading media does not necessarily show the facts. Do your homework. Sign a petition to end the occupation of Palestine and donate to a charity that is helping Palestinian people. We all need to take sides against apartheid, against violence, against killing, against oppression, against injustice. Ask yourself, are you okay with home demolition, checkpoints, separated walls, and ethnic cleansing? The question is, are you up for human rights, dignity, and justice for all? You just need to be human to see the injustice in Palestine. The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People serves as a reminder that Palestinians continue to struggle for their land and rights. This day offers an opportunity for the worldwide community to reflect on why the Palestinians have yet to achieve the inalienable rights recognized by the General Assembly. This day symbolizes the intensely rooted history of the destruction of the native people of this land, but also a struggle for peacemaking and upholding the principles of equity, justice, and dignity for humankind. Watch more stories at: https://www.youtube.com/@qissah.stories Read uplifting stories: https://www.theqissah.org/stories.html
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The Ceasefire Illusion: Life Under Occupation and the Silence Surrounding Peaceful Protests11/14/2025  Professor Ramya Vijaya As the world’s attention shifts elsewhere, violence continues to define daily life for Palestinians. The latest ceasefire has lulled many into believing that the conflict has been resolved. But the circumstances that ignited the violence of October 7th and its aftermath remain unchanged. Despite recent gestures by some European nations recognizing a Palestinian state, the so-called “two-state solution” has become little more than political rhetoric. In reality, there are no two states — only one powerful military state and millions of stateless Palestinians. Around 3.3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and another 2 million in Gaza. Since 2007, Israel’s blockade has cut off the movement of goods and people to and from Gaza. Visitors are barred, and residents are trapped. For nearly two decades prior to October 7th, Gaza’s people lived in what many described as the world’s largest open-air prison — their economy crippled, their borders sealed, their daily lives confined. The West Bank, under Israeli military occupation since 1967, is a landscape of checkpoints, restricted roads, and constant control. These barriers fragment even short journeys to work, school, or family. During an academic fellowship in May 2023, I witnessed the daily trauma of these checkpoints — young, restless soldiers facing civilians trying to get to their lives, an ever-present tension where a single misstep could mean humiliation, disrupted days or worse the ever-present threat of violence. I have recounted these stories elsewhere. Even amid ceasefire talks, violence in the West Bank has only escalated, largely unnoticed. In October 2025, the U.N. humanitarian office reported over 260 settler attacks on Palestinians — the highest number since records began in 2006. Yet much of the world remains silent, often portraying Palestinian resistance as inherently violent while ignoring the ongoing violence of occupation itself. Much of the world also urges Palestinians to protest peacefully. Yet when they do, their struggles go unheard. During my fellowship, I saw this silence firsthand. A planned trip to Birzeit University was interrupted when we heard the news that, Khader Adnan, a former student activist, died after an 87-day hunger strike protesting his arbitrary detention in an Israeli prison. He was never charged with a crime. His death highlighted Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention — the indefinite imprisonment of individuals without charge or trial. According to Amnesty International, the routine and extensive use of this practice violates international law and is applied almost exclusively to Palestinians. In May 2023, of 1,010 people held under administrative detention in Israeli prisons, all but four were Palestinian. Adnan had been part of a Palestinian resistance organization but had himself never been charged with any involvement in acts of violence. He had been arrested several times before and spent a total of six years in administrative detention. His hunger strikes were acts of pure nonviolence — a Gandhian protest against injustice that is common among Palestinian administrative detainees. Yet even this ultimate form of peaceful resistance ended in silence. His death deepened despair among young Palestinians who see little hope for a free or dignified future. Calls for nonviolent protest have repeatedly been met with repression. In 2018, thousands in Gaza joined weekly peaceful demonstrations against the blockade and for the right of return of refugees. Israel’s response, according to U.N. reports, was tear gas and live ammunition. These protests, like so many others, faded from the world’s conscience. To be stateless in a world obsessed with borders is to live with constant restriction and stigma. The occupation enforces a system that denies stateless Palestinians movement, dignity, and agency. Meanwhile, potential leaders and intellectuals — those who might articulate a vision for peace — are imprisoned or silenced. The world often demands that Palestinians prove their commitment to peace, yet it consistently ignores their peaceful resistance. Until the structures of occupation and blockade are dismantled, no ceasefire can bring true peace — only a temporary pause in an enduring injustice. |
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