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29-05-2025 | di COOPI
Tragedy in Palestine. The appeal of the NGOs in LINK 2007
STATEMENT
As a network of civil society organizations engaged in international cooperation, LINK 2007 has always strived to be a space for dialogue, reflection, and proposals, a space that seeks to understand complex contexts through the lens of human development, peace and rights.
We have consistently chosen a position of balance, listening, and mediation, not out of abstract neutrality, but out of a sense of responsibility: the responsibility of those who wish to build bridges rather than deepen divisions. On the ongoing tragedy in Palestine, LINK 2007 has spoken out repeatedly with appeals and position statements. These statements were made with full awareness of our limited power to influence such a conflict or to sway the decisions of those who do hold that power. However, we believe that for individuals, organizations, and political leaders alike, there are thresholds beyond which silence becomes complicity, and caution becomes a failure to uphold moral duty. In light of what continues to unfold in Palestine, we believe that threshold has been crossed.
It has been crossed by the unacceptable number of civilian casualties.
It has been crossed by the systematic violation of international humanitarian law.
It has been crossed by the impunity with which civilian infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and humanitarian workers are being targeted.
It has been crossed by the absence of any real prospect for peace, replaced instead by logics of collective punishment, physical annihilation, and prolonged occupation.
At this moment, moral judgment must take precedence over political caution. There can be no ambiguity in the face of the suffering of a people who have lived for decades in conditions that deny their most basic rights, and who now face a level of violence that defies any principle of proportionality and humanity.
As the LINK 2007 network:
We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks and the kidnapping of civilians by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on October 7, 2023, the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and all forms of indiscriminate violence, regardless of their source. We reaffirm the urgent need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the release of hostages. We urgently call for the full enforcement of international law and respect for humanitarian law. We express our solidarity with all affected communities, and in particular with the Palestinian population, currently enduring an offensive by the Israeli government that violates every principle of humanity. We urge Italian and European institutions to take a clear, courageous, and consistent stance in line with the values they profess, moving beyond diplomatic ambiguity and excessive caution.
Political leaders – even those whose power is objectively limited in a situation that seems increasingly out of control – cannot avoid the judgment of history, which will inevitably come.
We are all weary, often even in despair, at the apparent futility of so many appeals, letters, and statements. And there are moments – like this one – when even organizations like ours, which always strive to work with a concrete, realistic outlook on what can be done, must acknowledge our weakness and our powerlessness, and begin again from there.
The terrible reality before us demands that we do not surrender to a sense of helplessness, and that we do not retreat into silence.
This is the time for civil society organizations, democratic institutions, and what remains of the international community to raise their voices, to defend the universal values of peace and human rights, and to find the courage to say clearly and unequivocally: not everything can be justified, downplayed, or explained away. Those who work in development cooperation know this all too well: there is no development without justice, no justice without rights and no rights without peace.
Press Office:
comunicazione@link2007.org - +39 3271825646
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"LINK 2007 – COOPERAZIONE IN RETE" is a network of NGOs working in international cooperation and solidarity |