Last month, the North Carolina Legislature continued their blind support of apartheid Israel with their unanimous support of House Resolution 897, which calls for even more U.S. government funding for Israel and asserts the attacks on October 7th were “unprovoked”.

The loss of any civilian life is tragic, but we must contextualize what is happening in Palestine. Declaring that hostilities started on October 7th is not accurate and will not move us towards a just resolution. We acknowledge the undeniable reality that Israel is a settler state that has been raging violence in Palestine for over 75 years. We want to remind the media and politicians of the peaceful efforts of the Palestinians to ensure the safety of all the people in the region. These efforts include participation in electoral processes, countless nonviolent protests, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), and the Great March of Return. The violent and brutal response to these peaceful means in Palestine is echoed with censorship and blacklisting of those who dare speak the truth about the occupation and apartheid state of Israel here in the U.S.

We stand with the major human rights organizations that recognize Israel is an apartheid state. Like South African apartheid, different laws govern different peoples in Israel resulting in a justice system that has a 96% difference in conviction rates for Palestinians and settlers in the West Bank. Gaza is recognized by almost every nation around the world as an open-air prison that Israel has blockaded by land, air, and sea. Just as the Jewish people who resisted in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the people in Gaza have the right to fight for their freedom.

In Gaza, the death toll has exceeded 22,000, with 9,000 children already murdered and another thousand still buried under the rubble.* Targeting a civilian population, half of which are children is unconscionable. We cannot be silent while our government and our corrupt politicians sponsor and endorse this genocidal and fascist regime in Israel.

The North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) calls for an immediate ceasefire. We call on the Apartheid state of Israel to adhere to international humanitarian law and end the occupation of Palestine. We call on the UN and other global powers to secure the safety and humanitarian rights of the occupied people and condemn the actions of Israel. Gaza has changed from a concentration camp into a death camp for the Palestinians living there. They are deprived of food, water, and electricity, which is unequivocally, collective punishment, a war crime.

We call for an end to all financial and military aid to Israel, and to divert those funds to our communities in need, here in North Carolina. We call on the North Carolina legislature to repeal its anti-BDS law, which violates the constitutional rights of North Carolinians to silence criticism of a foreign state, violating the oaths taken by every single sitting member of the North Carolina Legislature.

The NCGP fully supports the Palestinian people’s right to fight against occupation, as permitted by international law. We defend Palestinian calls for decolonization, the right to return to their homeland, and the right to self-determination, all of which are core American values. We call for the release of all political prisoners who have been jailed for protesting the Israeli occupation, including the children held in Israeli prisons without charges. We demand that the US Government and the NC Legislature recognize the genocide that is taking place in Gaza and stop support immediately.