From Palestine to the Philippines, Stop the U.S. War Machine! FACES Demands an end to Genocide in Palestine.
Photo by Adrien Salazar.
FACES, the Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, lends our voice among the millions who have risen up in solidarity with the People of Palestine and calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people, and an end to occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, including over 8800 children, and over 1.8 million people have been displaced in the over 90 days of Israel’s siege on Gaza.
FACES was founded as an environmental justice organization concerned with the United States’ toxic legacy of establishing military bases in the Philippines, which poisoned surrounding communities. We feel the tentacles of the U.S.’ colonial campaigns and geopolitical maneuvers from the Philippines to Palestine. As a major funder of Israel’s military, sending over $3 billion a year, the U.S. is sending weapons that are being used in the siege on Gaza. The Philippines has also historically purchased weapons from Israel – extending the U.S.-Israel war machine to our own homelands. We demand not one more penny to this genocide, not one more dollar to war, imperialism, and colonialism.
The struggle against genocide and colonialism in Palestine is the same struggle continuing in the Philippines against U.S. militarism and its devastating impacts everywhere. The fight for environmental justice in the U.S. and across the world demands the dismantling of colonialism and imperialism that prioritizes profit and power over land and people. Environmental justice calls on us to fight for the sovereignty of native communities over their land, air, and waters.
We denounce the ongoing genocide as the state of Israel has usurped lands, destroyed homes, targeted hospitals, universities, schools, and places of worship across Gaza. As Filipino Americans and allies working transnationally for environmental justice in the Philippines and the United States, we deeply understand that this siege occurs in the context of over 75 years of occupation of Palestine characterized by theft of lands, restriction of access to key resources like water, agricultural fields, and sacred olive trees.
The Principles of Environmental Justice recognize the roots of environmental racism in the colonization of indigenous lands that break our bonds with the natural world and cause generational trauma. The attacks on the people of Palestine recall our own historic trauma of the colonization and violence our peoples in the Philippines faced for generations. We rise in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their defense of their land and resources and their fight for full sovereignty and self-determination.
FACES calls for an immediate ceasefire and end to U.S. aid and support of Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza and genocide of the Palestinian people. As Filipinos who celebrate our histories of revolution against colonial powers, who fight for environmental and climate justice, it is our duty to firmly stand against fascism, colonialism, and imperialism, and stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We demand an immediate end to the siege and genocide, and an end to occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Free Palestine. Ceasefire Now. From Palestine to the Philippines, Stop the U.S. War Machine!
