On behalf of the European Solidarity Economy Network, we express our horror and deep concern at the massacres of civilians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories by the Israeli armed forces, while denouncing the acts of barbarism claimed by Hamas that took place on October 7 in the Eshkol-Israel region. RIPESS Europe joins the voices of social movements and civil society in calling for an end to the massacre in Gaza and for European institutions and international community to intervene with a peace plan for the region.
Violence as a response to violence is is forcing the Palestinian and Israeli peoples into a dead end. War is a part of a logic that values aggression, occupation, and domination. As Solidarity Economy actors, alongside with many civil society movements, we promote a culture of dialogue, an alternative approach for conflict resolution. We stand for a geopolitics of solidarity, committed to human rights rather than militarism and violence. Therefore, we join RIPESS Intercontinental in condemning “all acts of war and the occupation of the territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as stipulated in the UN resolutions declaring them illegal. We consider that the Palestinian people have the right to exist and to remain on their ancestral land. The international community must guarantee the right of peoples to self-determination”. We as such also support and join the thousands of demonstrations against the war that are taking place around the world.
As a European network, we ask that Europe stop supporting Israel’s illegal occupation, stop sending arms to this region and stop tolerating the systemic violation of international law. We demand that the European commission and institutions immediately intervene with the international community to stop this ongoing massacre by calling for a total ceasefire and other measures to put an an end to the violence, illegal occupation and apartheid in Gaza. As a movement based on nonviolence and cooperation, we also demand that our institutions resolutely and definitively promote a process of peace and dialogue that defends human rights and the self-determination of peoples, through all the means of transnational mutual cooperation and direct involvement of the populations.
We firmly believe in replacing a war industry with an economy that benefits living beings and re-establish forms of economic democracy, of which the solidarity economy for the transition to a world of justice, freedom and peace is a good example. We also encourage to join nonviolent actions such as the campaign to boycott and divest from Israeli apartheid products [BDS movement] through our power as consumers, we can avoid buying products or brands that support Israeli illegal settlements and occupation, while at the same time we can promote and support those that are the fruit of fair trade and cooperation [ICA statement], empowering the efforts of both Palestinian and Israeli anti-apartheid and peace movements.
RIPESS Europe promotes an economy of transition towards a world of justice, freedom and peace. It is this hope that we want to nurture among all human beings whose lives are devastated by the imbecilic power games that plague and bruise bodies and minds instead of encouraging human beings to work together to maintain the fragile habitat that is the planet. All our friendly strength goes to support those who resist barbarism. And immense compassion for all those who lost their loved ones in this murderous madness.
