Progressive Alliance for Palestine (Australia): Palestinians have a right to resist

We, the undersigned left and progressive Middle Eastern and Australian organisations, support the right of the Palestinian people to resist the ongoing dispossession, occupation and oppression by the settler colonial state of Israel.

The Palestinian people, like all other oppressed peoples, have the right to organise resistance — including armed resistance — against the violence of their oppressors. They have a right to fight for their liberation from occupation and Zionist Apartheid and a right to national self-determination.

In 1974, UN General Assembly Resolution 3246 (XXIX) reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, and the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property, and to struggle for liberation "by all available means, including armed struggle".

We reject the propaganda by the far-right government of Israel and the rich and powerful imperialist states that back it that tries to paint all Palestinian resistance as “terrorism” and we call on the Australian government to end its misplaced support for the occupying entity’s war on the Palestinian people.

We call for the Australian government to support the calls from a majority of the world’s nations and from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for an immediate ceasefire.

We call for the immediate and complete lifting of the blockade of Gaza and for an international mobilisation for the immediate delivery of urgently needed supplies and aid to Gaza.

We support a just political settlement of the conflict that recognises the Palestinian right to national self-determination and the Palestinian people’s right to reclaim their homeland.

The Australian government allows the occupying entity to recruit Australia-Israeli dual citizens to its military to oppress the Palestinian people while it treats support for the Palestinian resistance as a crime.

We call for an end to this double standard and for the Palestinian resistance groups to be removed from the list of proscribed “terrorist” organisations under Australian law. 

Initial signatories: Palestinian People's Party, Lebanese Communist Party, Sudanese Communist Party, Baghdad Cultural Association, Boycott Divest Sanction Australia, Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP), Jews Against the Occupation, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity.

Groups wanting to endorse can email Shamikh Badra: shamikhbadra@gmail.com