Feministinnen legen sich vor der israelischen Botschaft nieder und rufen: „Stoppt das Abschlachten der Palästinenser!“

“We stand in solidarity with Palestine because we are feminists!”

On May 23, 12 feminist women gathered in front of the Israeli Embassy at 11 a.m. to announce the “Declaration of Korean Feminists Demanding an End to the Genocide and Colonization of Palestine,” saying that “the liberation of Palestine is the liberation of women,” in celebration of the International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament on May 24.

Since October 7, 2023, the Palestinian territory of Gaza has been subjected to a genocide by Israel. The death toll has reached 37,000, and the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in March calling for an “immediate ceasefire,” which Israel has refused to honor.

“In 2019, when South Korean women came out in the streets in anger over the Room N incident, Palestinian women also came out in the streets chanting, ‘There is no Palestinian liberation without women’s liberation,’” said Poeok, an activist with the women’s organization Fireworks Women’s Action, who attended the press conference. It was not unlike the feminists in Gwanghwamun Square,” said Kim.

Another activist, Myungsook Myungsook of the human rights network Breeze, said, “As you know, university students are being arrested in Germany and the United States for protesting to stop the massacre of Palestinians. Our international solidarity will not stop because only the end of Israel’s colonization will liberate Palestine and liberate women.”

“The dehumanization of women and minorities perpetuated by the patriarchy is becoming more blatant in the Israeli genocide,” the declaration signed by 71 women’s rights organizations and 854 feminist individuals said. “The fact that 70% of the victims of this genocide are women and children shows that Israel’s genocide is linked to feminicide,” they added.

“We demand an immediate end to the South Korean government and capital’s complicity with Israel. The South Korean government has been expanding its arms trade with Israel since the 1990s.”

Alexandra, 28, a Russian woman who attended the press conference, opposes the war in Ukraine and has been organizing peaceful protests in Russian-speaking neighborhoods in South Korea. “Korean feminists came to give their voice to the anti-war peace protests, and (I) came to give my voice as well,” she explained.

After the declaration, the women staged a performance of lying down in front of the Israeli embassy. They then headed to the Israeli embassy to deliver the “Korean Feminist Manifesto for an End to the Genocide and Colonization of Palestine,” but were blocked at the entrance. The event ended with the participants folding the manifesto into a paper airplane and sending it flying.