Gathering Held in Mauritius to Stop the Genocide of the People of Gaza
16.10.2023
LALIT, together with the common front SOMALP (Solidarity with the Palestinian People) gathered on Saturday night, 14 October, in front of the LALIT offices on the Main Road at Grand River North West in Port Louis to call for the end of the genocide the Israeli State is perpetrating against Palestinians in Gaza.
Speakers blamed the Israel State outright for the genocide.
They described it as being a potential new Nakba, or cataclysm like that of 1948 when Palestinians were expelled from their homes, and a new mass exodus like during the 1967 mass expulsion, that already make a total of over 6 millions Palestinian refugees, or even today an actual genocide. Today this genocide is right now unfurling cruelly before our very eyes – with the Israeli leaders actually announcing it.
Speakers also put both blame and responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the military backer of Israel, none other than the United States of America, for the genocide as it unfolds in all its horror. The USA has told Israel to go ahead, and has supplied billions of dollars of military hardware and advice each year. Now, it is placing an armada at hand, to solidify the already absurdly unequal “war” between the huge Israeli army and the tiny Palestinian people of Gaza. More than half of Gazans are children. Two-thirds are already displaced from 1948 and 1967.
Speakers called for firm stands and diplomatic action from the Mauritian state against Israel and against the USA for this genocide.
Taking the microphone, former President of the Republic, Mr. Cassam Uteem, a SOMALP member, said that we are beholding, as it unfolds, a genocide against the people of Gaza. Alain Ah Vee, presiding for LALIT, too, said that the people of Gaza were being threatened publicly with being literally bombed to death. He said that you cannot encircle people with an army, keep them locked in, and then cut off water, food, electricity, while bombing from above – without this being genocide. Ragini Kistnasamy, speaking for LALIT, made a passionate and resolute speech, saying that over a million Gazans are under orders by the Israeli military to get up and leave their houses and move 10 kilometers away, including hundreds of hospital patients critically injured by Israeli bombing, fighting for their lives on ICU beds. We must oppose this now. We must end this, now. And, when the convoys started for the South of Gaza, she said, the people of Gaza were bombed again, even as they fled in panic. This is genocide, she said, and it is our duty to end it. We stand with the people of Gaza, with the Palestinians of the West Bank being killed and kidnapped every day by the Israeli soldiers, and with the people of East Jerusalem. From, the precision and passion with which both Ragini and Alain speak, it is clear that they have been in Palestine for actions against the Israeli Defense Force in the past.
The 40 - 50 people present afterwards lit candles, and stood on the big Main Road that runs in front of the LALIT offices, with a banner reading “ISRAEL-USA HALT YOUR ASSAULT ON THE PEOPLE: End Siege of Gaza Now!” People passing, called out in support and raised fists in solidarity.
The action was live-streamed by Teleplus and 27,000 people viewed it.
Mosadeq Sahebdin, speaking for the Consumer Advocacy Platform, accused, in addition to the Israeli state, the media, in particular the Western media, for their refusal to see, or their inability to see, the truth of the political situation, one that has endured for decades, if not a century. Deepak Benydin of the Federation of Parastatal and other unions said that, since he has joined SOMALP, on behalf of his federation, he has learnt a lot about the Palestinians’ ongoing struggle, and that he notes that the mainstream parties – in the opposition – have begun to speak out in the past day or two. He undertook to mobilize his membership to support the people of Gaza. Members of the CTSP were present, and of the Muvman Liberasyon Fam, which are also both members of SOMALP.
These kinds of action – at which organizations and individuals express their opinion in public against the genocide – contribute to force the Mauritian Government take note, and to take a harder line against the Israeli State. This is why we must continue the pressure.
In addition, we are part of the whole world. Each of the USA Embassies world-wide have to send in cables to Secretary Blinken and his war-mongering neo-con assistant, Victoria Nuland, every day, so they can, in turn, brief President Biden about public reaction world-wide. Biden is under pressure from the entire world – not counting the colonizers and former colonizers – as well as from his own people.
Young people in the USA are not pro-Israeli unconditionally, despite the ferocious propaganda the media pounds upon their ears and eyes every day. In a National Public Radio survey conducted last Wednesday, 11 October, when asked the deceptive-enough question, “Should the US support Israel publicly” (Note: they are not asked whether the US should support Israel “militarily”), only 48% of those under the age of 45 years, said “Yes”. So, Biden will, by now, after the open threat of genocide, be under much more pressure still both abroad – via all his Embassies – and at home, especially amongst young people.
So, keep up the pressure. It is urgent.
LALIT
