Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, urgently calls upon our people and communities, and all supporters of Palestine, to act and organize in defense of the Palestinian people in Jenin city, Jenin refugee camp and throughout occupied Palestine.
In the past day, Zionist occupation forces, with over 1,000 soldiers and 150 military vehicles, including armed aerial drones, armored vehicles, jeeps and bulldozers, have invaded Jenin in an attempt to strike at the heart of the growing Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. Jenin camp is not only a home of Palestinian resistance, it is also a home of Palestinian refugees who have been exiled from their original homes and lands in 1948 and denied their right to return ever since.
Yesterday, over 500 Palestinian families, comprised of 3,000 people, have again been evacuated from their homes in the refugee camp of Jenin by the Red Crescent — even as they came under attack and under fire from the occupation forces, who have failed to enter the center of the camp. This further expulsion of Palestinians is a testament to the ongoing Nakba that has not ceased for the past 75 years.
The assault on Jenin has already taken the lives of 9 Palestinians, and one Palestinian in El-Bireh, as they defended their land and the lives and future of their people. The resistance in Jenin — and throughout occupied Palestine, from the river to the sea, is continuing to fight, to struggle and to resist, to inflict damage on the occupying forces and to make clear that the resistance and the Palestinian people’s quest for freedom will never be suppressed by the bombs and bullets of the colonial occupation.
In the United States, we have a particular responsibility — to bring an end to the $4 billion in military aid that Israel receives every year from the U.S. government. That military aid means that this assault on Jenin — just like every assault on Gaza, every land confiscation in the Naqab and the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem — is being funded and armed by U.S. taxpayers. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu even boasted about the attack on Jenin just today at the U.S. embassy in occupied Jerusale, while “celebrating” the Fourth of July.
This follows the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin (also a U.S. citizen) and the settler rampages targeting the village of Turmus Ayya just last week. The fascist regime in Tel Aviv is being funded by the U.S. government, even as it targets Palestinian Americans and the entire Palestinian people.
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, stands with our people in Jenin, throughout Palestine and everywhere in diaspora, as they resist and struggle to return. It is no accident that a refugee camp is in the heart of the Palestinian resistance, and that the refugee families there, subjected to generational trauma and torture, are once again confronting the ongoing Nakba. The Palestinians of Jenin are fighting for a future of liberation, and of return – to their land and villages, denied them for 75 years. We urge all to join us in organizing, mobilizing and demanding justice and accountability to stop the attack on Jenin and struggle for a free Palestine alongside the brave and heroic resistance.
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