Young Filipinos Join Global Student Movement for Palestine, Call for Boycott of Israel
MANILA: Student organizers at the University of the Philippines are calling for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel and the Zionists as they join a global movement supporting Palestine.
For months, Palestinian student leaders and activists from several universities in the Philippines have been mobilizing their peers to raise awareness of Israel's war in Gaza and to organize rallies in solidarity with Palestinians.
Young Filipinos note the historical similarities between the Palestinian liberation struggle and the Philippines’ experience of occupation and colonialism, and hope to get more people involved and encourage more collective action in their communities.
“Filipino youth and students recognize that the struggle against settler colonialism has parallels with our own colonial history, and today we recognize the common struggle with Palestinians, namely against US imperialism,” student organizer Rafael Zurbi Gabino told Arab News.
The Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than 300 years, from 1565 to 1898, and a U.S. colony for nearly 50 years, from 1898 to 1946. Despite independence, activists say the Philippines remains a “semi-colony” of the United States to this day, with the Southeast Asian nation relying on the U.S. for its economy and military.
Gabino, who attends the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, is one of the conveners of the Palestine PUP initiative. His school is known for its student activism and is the largest university in the Philippines in terms of population.
“Thousands of PUP students joined virtually to show their support for the Palestinian struggle against Israeli genocide and apartheid and to demand justice,” he said.
“As students, and especially as Filipinos, it is important that we show solidarity and support for the Palestinians, because we cannot just sit back and watch as thousands of our fellow students, children and women, are being slaughtered before our eyes.”
Official estimates say more than 39,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Gaza in Israeli ground and air strikes over the past nine months, but a study published this month in the journal Lancet estimates the actual death toll could be as high as 186,000.
Israeli forces have destroyed schools, universities and hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip.
“No educational institution in the country should be in close contact with a state that ignores the future of its children by bombing schools and universities,” Gabino added.
It is very important for students at Ateneo de Manila University, one of the best universities in Palestine, to show their support for Palestine.
“It is important for us, especially the students, to join the global call for liberation and an immediate end to genocide in the pursuit of a just and sustainable peace, because this is the world we are going to inherit,” A4P said in a statement to Arab News.
The group said it was inspired by the courage and determination of international students who set up camps at their respective universities to demand divestment from “agents of genocide.”
A4P said: “We urge our universities to pinpoint the links and, if any exist, to put an end to them immediately.”
“We also call for a cultural and academic boycott of Israeli universities and Zionist sources, and instead advocate and support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions, and advocate for a just and sustainable peace through clear support for the cause of national liberation.”
The Ateneo group, which has more than 5,000 followers on Facebook, also accused the Philippine government of funneling “billions of pesos worth of arms” to Israeli companies, including Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Shipyards, as well as the Israeli government.
“These weapons of destruction are also used to commit violence against indigenous communities in the Philippines, as well as extreme state repression against its own citizens,” A4P said.
At Far Eastern University in Manila, student leaders founded the Tamaraw for Palestine initiative in June, which has since organized rallies, fundraisers, and educational sessions and discussions on campus.
“As Filipinos, the terrorism in Palestine is not new to us because we have been colonized and threatened by many countries including Spain, the United States, Japan, and even now, China is acting aggressively (in the South China Sea),” Kayla May Alzado, vice-chairwoman of Palestine Tamaraus, told Arab News.
“We are still oppressed by other countries, and we are threatened in our own homes. Palestine is in this situation right now, and we must understand this and as a nation that is in this situation right now, we must stand in solidarity with them.”
One of their main goals is to raise awareness throughout Philippine society about the violence taking place in Gaza.
“What we’re trying to accomplish through our organization is to scale and get more collective action, so that the voices of the oppressed can be amplified,” Alzado said.
“Most importantly, we hope that our appeal for Palestinian rights will help support their liberation.”
