On Thursday, May 20, 2021, at 11 a.m., Korean civil society organizations held a press conference in front of the Israeli Embassy at Cheonggyecheon Plaza in Seoul. They condemned Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza and issued a joint statement calling for an end to war crimes.

This statement was released in Korean, English, Arabic, and French.

Background: Gaza in May 2021

Israel is once again carrying out a large-scale massacre in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Since Israel began its bombardment on May 10, 212 residents of Gaza have been killed as of May 18, 61 of them children. Around 1,500 people have been wounded, and the number of casualties is rising rapidly.

Israel claims it launched the strikes in response to rockets fired at Israel from Gaza by the Palestinian political party Hamas. But Hamas had originally demanded that Israel stop its attacks on Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and withdraw its border police.

Israel deployed troops to the Gaza border almost immediately. When Hamas fired rockets after the ultimatum deadline passed, Israel used that as justification to begin a large-scale massacre in Gaza.

What Happened in Sheikh Jarrah and Al-Aqsa Mosque

In Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, Israel has been forcibly evicting Palestinian residents to make way for illegal Jewish settlers. When residents resisted, Israel sent in border police, who operate much like a military force, and cracked down brutally.

These forced evictions and the violent suppression of protests are a smaller-scale version of the mass expulsion of Palestinian indigenous people that began when Israel was founded in 1948. As protests spread, Israeli border police pushed inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and fired tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets at protesters and worshippers alike.

The unrest naturally spread to Gaza and the West Bank, both under Israeli military occupation since 1967, and to Palestinian cities inside Israel itself. Security forces continued to shoot at unarmed protesters, driving up the casualty count. It was in this context that Hamas issued its demand for a border police withdrawal.

It was not only Hamas. Israel has blockaded Gaza by land, sea, and air since 2007, and has periodically carried out large-scale massacres. All resistance factions in Gaza have united in militarily confronting Israel as a result. Israel waits until its own military and police violence against unarmed protesters reaches a peak and Palestinians make a last-resort response, then singles out “Hamas” to frame its own attacks to the world as “legitimate self-defense” against a merciless terrorist organization that struck first.

Deeper Roots: Occupation and Apartheid

Israel’s all-out assault on Palestinians has a much longer historical background. Israel was founded in 1948 by forcibly expelling the indigenous Palestinian population and seizing 78% of what is historically known as Palestinian land. Then in 1967, it militarily occupied the remaining 22%, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and has held those territories to this day.

Even though Palestinians make up about 20% of Israel’s own citizens, Israel has enshrined its status as a “Jewish nation-state” in law. There are more than 50 laws that formally discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

For this reason, Palestinian civil society and the civil society of South Africa, a country with direct experience of apartheid, have long described Israel as an “apartheid state.” Two former UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights in Palestine have also formally designated Israel as an apartheid state. More recently, human rights organizations both inside Israel and internationally have published official positions characterizing Israel as an apartheid regime.

Apartheid is the most accurate term to describe the full reality: Palestinians living under military occupation, Palestinian citizens within Israel, and Palestinian refugees who were expelled in 1948 and are still denied the right to return.

How the International Community and the South Korean Government Have Responded

Palestinian civil society has called on the international community to impose sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, just as the world once imposed sanctions on apartheid South Africa.

Yet the United States supported Israel’s attacks on Gaza as an “exercise of the right to self-defense,” blocked the passage of a ceasefire resolution in the UN Security Council, and went ahead with a pre-scheduled arms transfer to Israel.

The South Korean government signed a Free Trade Agreement with Israel just two days after the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began. It has simply called on both sides to exercise restraint in the armed conflict, turning a blind eye to the reality of military occupation.

As of May 18, Israel was also bombing southern Lebanon, hinting at a possible widening of the war. Even though the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into Israeli crimes this year, Israel has continued adding to the charges against it without hesitation.

Our Demands

Israel must stop bombing Gaza immediately. But as long as the structure of Israeli control over all of Palestine remains unchanged, the bombing can resume at any time. We therefore demand the following:

  • Israel must immediately stop its massacre in Gaza.
  • Israel must withdraw from all occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories.
  • The South Korean government must cancel its FTA with Israel and impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.

May 20, 2021 Korean civil society organizations condemning Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its apartheid regime

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