Young Filipinos call on Israel to boycott as they join the global student movement for Palestine
MANILA: Student organizers on campuses in the Philippines are calling for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel and Zionists, as they joined the global movement to support Palestinians.
Pro-Palestinian student leaders and activists from various Philippine universities have been mobilizing their peers for months to raise awareness of Israel's war on Gaza and organize demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine.
Young Filipinos are drawing attention to the struggle for liberation in Palestine and its similarities to the Philippines' history and experience of occupation and colonialism, as they hope to engage more people and inspire further collective action in their community.
“Filipino youth and students are aware that the (Palestinian) struggle against settler colonialism is similar to the colonial history of the Philippines, and that we perceive a common struggle with the Palestinians today, which is US imperialism,” student organizer Raphael Jourvy Gavino told Arab News .
The Philippines suffered more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, from 1565 to 1898, and nearly five decades of American colonization from 1898 to 1946. Despite independence, activists say that to this day the Philippines remains a “semi-colony” of the United States, referring to the the Southeast Asian country's dependence on the United States economically and militarily.
Gavino, who attends the state-run Polytechnic University of the Philippines, is one of the conveners of the PUP for Palestine initiative. His school is known for its student activism and is the country's largest university in terms of population.
“Thousands of PUP students participated virtually, expressing their support for Palestinians in their struggle against Israel's genocide and apartheid, and calling for justice,” he said.
“Showing solidarity and support for Palestinians is important as students and especially as Filipinos simply because we cannot just stand by while thousands of fellow students, children and women are slaughtered right before our eyes.”
Israel's ground and air strikes over the past nine months have killed more than 39,000 Palestinian citizens in Gaza, according to official estimates, although a study published in the Lancet journal this month estimated the actual death toll could be more than 186,000 victims.
Israeli forces have also destroyed schools, universities and hospitals across the Gaza Strip.
“No educational institution in the country should be in close contact with a state that disregards the future of children by bombing their schools and universities,” Gavino added.
For students at Ateneo de Manila University, one of the country's top colleges, showing support for Palestine is crucial.
“It is important for us, especially as students, to join the global call for liberation and an immediate end to the genocide in pursuit of just and lasting peace because this is the world we will inherit,” A4P told Arab News in A statement.
The group said it was inspired by the courage and determination of students abroad, who have staged camps at their respective universities and called for the divestment of “agents of genocide”.
“We seek to locate links with our own university, if such links exist, and demand that it cease immediately,” A4P said.
“We would also like to call for a cultural and academic boycott of our Israeli universities and Zionist sources and instead uphold and support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions, and advocate just and lasting peace through unequivocal support for the cause of national liberation.”
The Ateneo group, which has more than 5,000 followers on Facebook, also condemned the Philippine government for sending “billions of pesos in arms deals” to Israeli companies, including Elbit Systems, Rafael Advance Defense Systems and Israel Shipyards, as well as the Israeli government .
“These weapons of destruction are also used to perpetrate violence against the indigenous people of the Philippines and extreme state repression against its own citizens,” A4P said.
At Far Eastern University in Manila, student leaders in June founded the Tamaraws for Palestine initiative, which has so far organized demonstrations, fundraisers and held educational sessions and discussions on campus.
“As Filipinos, the terrorism happening in Palestine is not new to us because we also experienced being colonized and threatened by several nations, such as Spain, America and Japan. Even now, by China because of their aggressive actions in the (South China Sea ), Kyla Mae Alzado, Tamaraws for Palestine vice president, told Arab News.
“We are still oppressed by other nations and under threat in our own home. Palestine is currently in this situation and as a nation that understands and is currently in this environment, we must stand in solidarity with them.”
One of their main focuses is to raise awareness in the larger Filipino community about the violence taking place in Gaza.
“What we hope to achieve with our organization is to expand and gain more collective action, which can amplify the voices of the oppressed,” Alzado said.
“Most importantly, we hope that our calls for Palestinian rights can help support their liberation.”
