Dear Sisters and Brothers of Palestine,
We write to you from Goa, a small land on the western coast of India, but with hearts that reach across oceans, borders, walls, and checkpoints to embrace your pain, your courage, and your unbroken spirit. We write not as distant observers of your suffering, but as fellow human beings outraged by the unspeakable violence inflicted upon your people and inspired by your extraordinary resilience in the face of occupation, siege, displacement, and genocide.
At a time when much of the world remains paralysed by hypocrisy, fear, or political convenience, we want you to know this clearly: you are not alone. Across India, and across the world, millions stand with Palestine. Millions refuse to accept the lie that occupation can be justified, that apartheid can be normalised, or that mass killing can be disguised as “self-defence.”
Ongoing Assault on Gaza
The ongoing assault on Gaza is one of the gravest moral crimes of our times. Entire neighbourhoods have been erased. Hospitals, schools, refugee camps, places of worship, journalists, aid workers, women, and children have all become targets in a war machine that has abandoned every principle of humanity and international law. What we are witnessing is not merely a military operation. It is collective punishment on a vast scale. It is ethnic cleansing unfolding before the eyes of the world. It is genocide.
The images from Gaza — children buried beneath rubble, parents carrying lifeless bodies, starving families searching for water and bread, hospitals without medicine, and entire communities reduced to dust — will remain an enduring stain on the conscience of the international community. History will ask how governments, global institutions, and powerful nations watched this horror in real time and failed to stop it.
Israeli Occupation of Palestine/Settlements
We condemn unequivocally the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, the illegal settlements, the siege of Gaza, the apartheid system imposed on Palestinians, and the decades-long denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, dignity, and freedom. Gaza is not a battlefield for imperial ambitions. Palestine is not empty land to be colonised, controlled, or exploited for strategic and economic interests. It is the homeland of a people with history, memory, culture, and an undeniable right to live in freedom on their own land.
Complicity of Western Governments
We are appalled by the complicity of powerful Western governments that continue to arm, finance, and politically shield Israel while speaking the language of “human rights” elsewhere. Their selective morality has exposed the deep racism embedded in global politics — a system where Palestinian lives are treated as expendable and where international law is applied differently depending on who violates it.
The silence and inaction of much of the international community has made global institutions appear morally bankrupt. Repeated vetoes, diplomatic evasions, and performative statements of “concern” have done nothing to stop the massacres. The failure to hold Israel accountable has encouraged impunity and deepened Palestinian suffering.
Palestine Betrayed by the Government of India
We also write with profound sorrow and disappointment over the position taken by the Government of India. India once stood firmly with anti-colonial struggles and the Palestinian cause. The legacy of solidarity expressed by generations of Indians has today been weakened by a foreign policy that increasingly aligns itself with the Israeli state, even as grave atrocities unfold before the world.
India’s growing military, political, and economic cooperation with Israel during this catastrophic period has caused anguish among people of conscience across our country. Arms trade, diplomatic support, silence in the face of genocide, and the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices represent a painful departure from the ethical traditions that many Indians cherish. We refuse to accept that this position reflects the conscience of the Indian people.
Solidarity by the Citizens of India
As citizens, activists, writers, workers, students, people of faith, and defenders of justice, we affirm that there remains in India a living and determined solidarity with Palestine. We reject attempts to criminalise support for Palestinian freedom or to equate criticism of Israeli state policies with hatred toward any people or faith. Our solidarity is rooted in universal principles: opposition to racism, colonialism, apartheid, militarism, and genocide.
The Goa Coalition for Justice and Peace believes that the Palestinian struggle is not an isolated issue. It is part of the broader human struggle against domination and dehumanisation. Palestine has become the moral question of our times. To stand with Palestine is to stand for international law, human dignity, and the equal worth of every human life.
Salute to the Steadfastness of the Palestinian People
We salute the steadfastness of the Palestinian people — the doctors operating without electricity, the journalists reporting under bombardment, the mothers protecting their children amid ruins, the youth who continue to dream despite siege and despair, and the countless ordinary people who refuse to surrender their humanity even under unbearable conditions. Your resistance is not merely political; it is profoundly human. It reminds the world that dignity cannot be bombed into submission.
Global Movement for a Free Palestine
We also honour the growing global movement for Palestinian freedom: students occupying campuses, workers refusing to load weapons, artists and intellectuals speaking out, faith communities demanding justice, and citizens marching in cities across the world despite repression and censorship. These acts of solidarity matter. They are building the conscience that governments have failed to show.
Message From Goa, India
From Goa, we pledge to continue raising our voices against occupation, apartheid, and genocide. We will continue building people-to-people solidarity. We will continue demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire, unrestricted humanitarian access, an end to the occupation, accountability for war crimes, and recognition of the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.
No people should have to live under occupation. No child should grow up under drones and bombs. No nation has the right to erase another people in the name of security or power.
Our Dream for Palestine
We dream of the day when Palestinians will live in freedom and equality, when refugees will return with dignity, when walls and checkpoints will fall, and when justice will replace domination. Peace without justice is merely the silence of oppression. True peace can only emerge from freedom, equality, and the restoration of Palestinian rights.
Until that day comes, please know that your struggle lives in our hearts and in our collective conscience.
From Goa to Gaza, from India to Palestine — we stand with you.
In solidarity and hope,
Memembers of the Goa Coalition for Justice and Peace
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Ranjan Solomon is a writer, researcher and activist based in Goa. He has worked in social movements since he was 19 years of age. The views expressed here are the author’s own and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them. He can be contacted at ranjan.solomon@gmail.com
