Statement on International Human Rights Day
On December 10, 2023, Jews Against White Supremacy (JAWS) Toronto joined the International League of People’s Struggle, Palestinian Youth Movement, BAYAN, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, Tamil Freedom Coalition, Canada-Philippines Solidarity Organization Toronto, and International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines to commemorate International Human Rights Day. Shortly after beginning our peaceful rally, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) assaulted and arrested one of our comrades. After hours of protest outside of the police station, our comrade was finally released. We commend the organizers and community members who refused to leave until our comrade was freed. This is an important reminder that it is our revolutionary community, not the fascist police and military forces of the Imperial Core, that keep us safe, and that the people united will never be defeated.
The violence enacted by TPS today is part of a greater effort by Imperial powers and the government of Toronto to brutally suppress the free speech and expression of pro-Palestinian voices. Just weeks ago, 11 activists were arrested for allegedly postering Indigo and are being persecuted through ridiculous charges of “hate-motivated mischief over $5,000” and “conspiracy to commit an indictable offense.” Indigo is currently being boycotted due to Zionist CEO Heather Reisman’s horrifying support for the genocidal Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). It is unsurprising that TPS and other police agencies so thoroughly stand with the genocidal Zionist agenda given the anti-Black origins of Imperial policing as well as the fact that law enforcement in the Imperial Core, including so-called Canada, have trained with the IOF, with dozens of Canadian police chiefs traveling to Israel so that they can apply Israel’s genocidal settler-colonial tactics to racialized and other oppressed people in the Imperial Core. The necessity of police abolition in the racial liberation movement is directly tied to freeing Palestine from the innately violent Zionist project. But despite the attempts of TPS and other Imperial law enforcers to criminalize and suppress pro-Palestinian voices, we refuse to stop supporting Palestine. Just as we stayed until our comrade was released today, we will continue to advocate for a Free Palestine.
It is unsurprising that TPS and other police agencies so thoroughly stand with the genocidal Zionist agenda given the anti-Black origins of Imperial policing as well as the fact that law enforcement in the Imperial Core, including so-called Canada, have trained with the IOF
In our advocacy, we at JAWS join our organizing comrades in asserting our support for the right of Palestinians and all oppressed people to resist oppression by any means necessary.
Defending the right to resist could not possibly be more important in this moment, over two months into Israel’s most recent ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza, as Israel and its imperial allies, including so-called Canada, continue to justify a genocide that’s slaughtered approximately 20,000 Palestinians by dishonestly claiming that Israel has a “right to self-defense.” This excuse is not only in bad faith but also categorically false. As a settler-colonial occupier, Israel has neither the moral justification nor legal right to “defend itself” against the Palestinian people it brutally occupies.
Palestinians, on the other hand, have the internationally recognized right to resistance, as affirmed by United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 2625, 45/130, and 37/43. Far more importantly given that international law is not an innately accurate determinant of justice, Palestinians have the unquestionable moral authority to resist occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide by all available means.
Over the past two months, anti-Zionists across the world have chanted: “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.” Yet liberals continue to police what resistance is and is not acceptable. Despite what these false allies claim, it is impossible to end genocide while limiting what the oppressed can do to ensure their survival, freedom, and liberation.
Liberals have made the call to end Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, the call for a ceasefire, contingent upon Palestinians abandoning any and all ability to actually resist. This effectively maintains the current imperial power structure and communicates that liberals only believe Palestinians deserve to live if they accept subjugation. We reject these unjust colonial stipulations and demand an unconditional end to the occupation, with Palestinians maintaining their internationally recognized right to resist.
…It is impossible to end genocide while limiting what the oppressed can do to ensure their survival, freedom, and liberation.
We also reject the liberal notion that only Palestinians designated “innocent” by imperial powers deserve to live. Each and every Palestinian deserves to be free. Palestinian women and children deserve to be free, and Palestinian men deserve to be free. Palestinian Christians deserve to be free, and Palestinian Muslims deserve to be free. Palestinian doctors and journalists deserve to be free, and Palestinian resistance fighters deserve to be free. No Palestinian life is disposable, and no human being deserves to be ethnically cleansed and trapped in a concentration camp under constant bombardment. No act of resistance against settler-colonizers warrants genocide, and Palestinians should not have to forfeit their right to resist in order for Israel to stop slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians, including freedom fighters, in Gaza.
In defending human rights, we emphasize that people, not states, deserve rights. Therefore, not only does the settler-colonial State of Israel not have the legal or moral right to “self-defense” against those it occupies; Israel has no “right to exist” in the first place. The genocide we are witnessing today did not begin on October 7. The Zionist project of Israel is built upon the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and such a genocidal project cannot be left standing. True justice, freedom, and liberation for Palestinians, Jews, and all other oppressed people is not possible so long as settler-colonial projects remain. It is only with the dissolution of settler-colonies in favor of Land Back to indigenous communities that we can bring about a free and fair society.
By any means necessary, Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.