The Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples and Struggle for Peace (CEBRAPAZ) vehemently denounces another episode in the ongoing massacre of the Palestinian people by Israel. This regime’s brutality is notorious and not even the mainstream media is able to continue omitting it, or the severity of its repercussions on life in Palestine, which are not only but especially evinced by the reiterated military offensives.
The year has already begun with the intensification of attacks by the Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank and by the Israeli army against the Gaza Strip, the continuous measures of “collective punishment” inflicted on the families and homes of those deemed “suspected” of resistance actions, the massive incarceration, the expansion of settlements in Palestinian occupied territory and the many other policies of apartheid, in Jerusalem included. But over the last days, the world was appalled by the return of air strikes against the refugee camp in Jenin, West Bank, an epicenter of Palestinian resistance, two decades after similar actions were repudiated world-wide, during the Second Intifada (2000-2005).
Jenin’s refugee camp, which was established in 1953 to shelter Palestinians who were expelled from other places by the Zionist militias, is densely inhabited, according to UNRWA, by 23,628 people (33,33/Km2). It is yet another protected site turned target of an extensive military offensive by Israel that mobilizes over 1,000 soldiers, according to international sources, with a land incursion initiated on Monday (July 3).
The serious impact this escalation has over the local population is widely denounced. Moreover, news of this Wednesday morning (5) report 12 Palestinians killed by the Israeli forces in only two days. More news report on other incursions throughout the West Bank, detaining and wounding several Palestinians, including in protests against the offensive on Jenin. On Tuesday (July 4) 20 people were detained, totaling 4,000 people arrested in the first semester of 2023, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
From the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, the West Bank, the refugee camps, and the diaspora, the Palestinians have called on the world to stop Israel in its genocidal course, hold its leadership accountable and finally end the military occupation that lasts almost six decades and became permanent, thus exceeding what is stipulated but an already questionable international norm.
The occupation has ensured Israel’s colonial expansion and the liquidation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, thanks to the United Nations’ powerlessness and the complicity of the imperialist powers, headed by the United States and the European Union. Therefore, the Palestinian resistance, though criminalized by Israel and vilified by its allies, is not only a right recognized by the UN but also an action for survival, provoked by Israel’s military occupation, colonization, and apartheid regime.
Any commitment with peace in the region must be based on an immediate end to this regime.
Free Palestine, now!

On behalf of CEBRAPAZ’s National Board,

Jamil Murad
President of CEBRAPAZ

São Paulo, Brazil, July 5, 2023