It is in this spirit of solidarity that the IDWF expresses its grief for the lives lost in the escalating violence in Palestine and Israel. Many innocent lives lost among which is a domestic worker, Soumya Santhosh, whom we mourn greatly.
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First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jew
– “FIRST THEY CAME” a Poem By Martin Niemöller
It is in this spirit of solidarity that the IDWF expresses its grief for the lives lost in the escalating violence in Palestine and Israel. Many innocent lives lost among which is a domestic worker, Soumya Santhosh, whom we mourn greatly.
We also acknowledge that lives are being disproportionately lost and that violence must be called out. As a movement committed to Human Rights, we cannot but condemn when these rights are breached. We are disheartened with the violent and unlawful evictions of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and elsewhere, with the continuous illegal annexation of land by settlers against international law, and with the institutionalized system of racial domination adopted by Israel. Such practices meet the UN definition of apartheid: it is “a threshold crossed” as recently acknowledged by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
We are a movement of domestic workers who inhabit many identities, coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, formerly colonized contexts, and different ethnic affinities. This teaches us that albeit the differences amongst us, we have one thing in common, and that is the fight against oppression.
We stand in solidarity with the oppressed in these gut-wrenching times.
