We are writing as a group of scholars, practitioners and activists working towards social justice, state accountability and decarceration to reaffirm our solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. We express our profound outrage and condemn the genocide of the Israeli state against the people of Gaza since 7 October, carried out as a collective punishment and unprecedented massacre of civilians. We are extremely concerned by the dehumanisation of Palestinians by the Israeli state, echoed in Western media as a justification mechanism for their indiscriminate killing. We also denounce the intensification of the processes of ethnic cleansing and killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the blanket silencing and oppression of citizens of Israel, first and foremost Palestinians, but also anti-Zionist Israelis, who attempt to protest against the war. As a group dedicated to the critical study of state violence and harm, in all its forms, we contextualise this latest reiteration of violence within the decades-long Zionist settler colonial practices in Palestine. What is happening now cannot be understood in isolation from the global structures that enable, legitimise and produce oppression, such as racial capitalism, empire and carceral projects.   

We are deeply concerned and outraged by the increasing criminalisation and censorship of those who denounce crimes against humanity and express solidarity with Palestine. We also strongly support the legal action taken by South Africa before the International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, Western countries are silencing and punishing those who speak out against their governments’ complicity, and their financial, military, and political support of Israel. The restriction of the rights to organise, protest, and speak as well as the deplatforming of scholars, artists, activists and workers is a violation of our basic rights and moral and political responsibilities to speak out against injustice. 

We reject the conflation of criticism of the Israeli state or Zionism with anti-Semitism. Many Jewish voices opposing colonial occupation and war around the world have made it clear enough. We recognise anti-Zionism as a legitimate stance against a settler colonial and racist political movement and ideology premised on the subjugation, dispossession and erasure of Palestinians. The weaponisation of anti-Semitism tears apart communities and prevents a united front against all forms of racism. 

We join the calls for an immediate permanent ceasefire and for a prisoner exchange deal. 

We hope this tragic moment can be used to build the space and capacity to think and organise collectively and sharpen the tools to dismantle the structures and denounce the narratives that perpetuate oppression and violence. In the meantime, we continue to stand against the colonial genocide happening in Gaza, against permanent aggressions and human rights violations undertaken across West Bank, and in unequivocal solidarity with a free Palestine.

Ultimately, peace for all can only be achieved by dismantling Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.