End Genocide in Palestine Now!

20 March 2021

To mark the BDS Movement's call for a Global Day of Action on 21 March 2025, WILPF published the following statement calling for an end to Israel's genocide of Palestinians and for the end of all material, economic, and political support to this genocide.

On 23 October 2023, the then Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) warned against potential genocide being committed in Gaza, reminding States and their leaders of the duty to act. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it "plausible" that Israel was committing acts that violate the Genocide Convention and delivered interim measures requiring Israel to take immediate action to prevent genocide. Since then, Israel has continued its horrific acts of violence against the people of Palestine, comprehensively violating the ICJ interim measures. Today, Israel’s unilateral violations of the January 2025 ceasefire agreement have reached new heights: with over 400 killed in Gaza in 72 hours of operations targeting residential premises, and ongoing ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank. 

We call on Israel to immediately cease its operations and comply with the ceasefire agreement.  

We are witnessing a grave escalation of Israel’s genocidal violence against the people of Palestine. WILPF calls upon all relevant bodies in the United Nations and all Member States, to do everything in their power, immediately, so that Israel stops its genocidal operations, and to protect the people of Palestine.  

All States have a duty prevent genocide, and to protect those at risk of genocide. This is the most fundamental international moral and legal obligation. The ICJ has ordered the unconditional end to Israel’s presence in occupied Palestine; the International Criminal Court has issued warrants of arrest for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military minster, Yoav Gallant. Israel is violating its legal obligations, and the international community must act to end the persistent cycle of impunity for its continued violations. 

Particularly with the absolute failure of the Security Council, all other UN bodies and all States must act now to fulfill fundamental responsibilities to prevent genocide, ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, and protect the fundamental human rights for the people of Palestine. Anything less irreparably damages the relevance and legitimacy of the multilateral system.  

We call on all Member States to implement targeted sanctions against Israel in line with those proposed by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement; immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel and impose an arms embargo; and ban trade with Israel that may harm Palestinians. All transfers of weapons and other military support to Israel must end today. States and private companies that continue to provide arms to Israel are complicit in genocide. All political and economic support that enables genocide must cease.

There must be accountability and justice for indiscriminate killings, mass atrocities, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and massive violation of human rights.  This includes the accountability of States and private companies that provide the means through which genocide is committed, through political and economic support, and arming, aiding, and assisting Israel. 

We demand that all States respect the rights of activists and all those who protest genocide and support the right of Palestinians to live a life with dignity: oppressing activists who protest genocide is a violation of their legal obligations to uphold fundamental civil and political rights. Turning people protesting for peace into villains, and those committing war crimes into heroes, can no longer stand! By violating our rights to speak up and protest genocide, States and all individual politicians in power claiming to represent us, embolden all entities that enable the genocide.   

We now face an urgent responsibility to act decisively to prevent these atrocities from continuing and to ensure that there is justice for the people of Palestine. No one can any longer claim that they did not know. The ethical and legal responsibility to prevent genocidal violence transcends borders, and history will judge those who fail to intervene. We call upon all activists and civil society to continue their efforts and solidarity actions to show that we will not stand silently while those in power try to prevent us from opposing war crimes and genocide. Collective action is the only way to uphold humanity's shared values of justice, dignity, and peace. 

End genocide now!

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