Civil Organizations: Earth Day is an Occasion to Adhere to It, Return to It, and Strengthen Popular Resilience Against Ethnic Cleansing

SadaNews - The Palestinian Network of Civil Organizations affirms, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, its pride and admiration for the creators of this historic and eternal achievement that has become a symbol of adhering to the land, protecting it, and defending it. The uprising of our people in 1976 was one of the milestones of rooting in the land and sensing the looming danger through settlement projects aimed at displacing it from its rightful owners, continuing the plan of 1948.

On this anniversary, the importance of returning to the land and reclaiming it, as well as strengthening popular resilience in the face of annexation plans, is highlighted. The Palestinian land in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip is experiencing continuous massacre and extermination as it remains the focal point of occupation. It also represents the collective identity despite the ethnic cleansing policies perpetrated by the occupying state, which seeks not only to erase its landmarks and seize it but also to eliminate the legitimate national rights to independence, return, and self-determination guaranteed by international legitimacy.

In this context, the network renews its demand for the importance of uniting efforts and rekindling factors of popular resilience in rejection of attempts to erase the Palestinian presence through colonial settlement and the imposition of facts on the ground, in clear exploitation of the regional war initiated by the United States and the occupying state, which uses it as a cover to implement those plans that represent serious violations of international and humanitarian law. This requires a serious international will not only to affirm the illegitimacy of settlement but also to take serious steps to remove what the occupying state imposes by direct military force, and to work on implementing international legitimacy decisions to hold the occupying force accountable and compel it to comply with international law. At the internal level, efforts must be unified locally, officially, and socially by everyone to continue providing support and enhancing presence on the ground, transforming projects in favor of launching resilience campaigns and popular protection to confront forced displacement, and working to encourage return to the land through specialized and practical programs and projects, especially cooperative and household economies, involving the youth generation widely.