Statement of Solidarity with the General Strike: Young Palestinians are Marching for Liberation!

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YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee, 18 May 2021

The Young Communist League of Canada – Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada extends our utmost solidarity with the general strike in occupied Palestine and Israel. Today’s historic action for self-determination is led by a generation of young people who have always lived under occupation or apartheid, and yet have shown the world their strength in unity.

For 73 years the Nakba has not stopped. Numerous United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions have shown that the broad masses around the world stand with the Palestinian people in the struggle for their fundamental right of self determination. The UN Declaration of Human Rights is unequivocal on the right of the oppressed to resist. We must be unwavering in our commitment to this struggle and take the example from the Palestinian youth. 

Israel plays a central role in imperialism’s global arms trade. The Zionist project relies heavily on NATO members, including Canada. Canadian corporations, including some of the largest banks in the country, continue to profit off of illegal Israeli settlements and the forced evictions of Palestinians. Canadian police, military, state and private intelligence use Zionist-led training and technology to suppress peoples’ movements both at home and internationally, including the movements for self-determination led by Indigenous peoples in Canada and occupied Palestine.

We reiterate our longstanding commitment to the campaign for Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on the Israeli state and all relevant entities; this is a clear and basic demand coming from the General Strike. 

As young communists, we need to expose and campaign against investments into Israel like the Canadian Pension Plan; work with our comrades around the world through the campaigns of the World Federation of Democratic Youth; campaign for revoking Canadian citizenship from IDF war criminals and fight illegal IDF recruitment in Canada; support BDS Canada campaigns; help break the blockade; fight the IHRA definition of antisemitism which wrongly equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism from being introduced in our places of work and study, in favour of a definition that is effective and just; stand firmly against all forms of hate and discrimination, whether Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, or Zionism; and work to build cultural and educational relationships with young Palestinians. 

We also wish to express our solidarity with the Young Communist League of Israel who remain strongly committed to fighting for peace, and against occupation, apartheid, and genocide, despite facing state repression. We also express our solidarity with all young people who resist IDF conscription in the name of unity and solidarity with Palestinian people and their struggle. 

We echo the calls coming from the Communist Party of Canada, the Canadian Peace Congress, members of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, organised labour, the student movement, and the Palestinian liberation movement for the end of the Canadian state’s consent and support for the embargo, territorial occupation, apartheid, and genocide against the Palestinian people. 

Freedom for Palestine!

Photo: Abbas Momani/AFP