COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 19 November) – The Bangsamoro Parliament has reiterated its call for “ceasefire now” in Gaza, as its Deputy Floor Leader described the ongoing conflict there as “genocide.”
In a privilege speech delivered Thursday, November 16, Member of Parliament Anna Tarhata Basman, concurrent Deputy Floor Leader,, said the Israeli government’s bombing of hospitals in Gaza and supposed safe zones and passage routes, its attacks on civilians, journalists, and medical professionals, and its refusal to provide access to food, water, electricity, and medical supplies are “war crimes.”
“This is plainly, and without a shadow of doubt, genocide unfolding right before our eyes,” she said.
She cited reports from the United Nations (UN) of more than 11,000 dead, at least 4,630 of them children, 3,130 of them women. She noted the “continuous bombing of hospitals and supposed safe passage routes as well as declared safe zones.”
Members of Parliament of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) at the session hall in Cotabato City in this file photo by FERDINANDH CABRERA
The UN, which has been calling for an immediate ceasefire, has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “catastrophic,” with millions of people in need of food, water, and medical supplies.
A report posted on its website said “grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making.
It said the bombardment and siege of Gaza have reportedly killed over 11,000 people, injured more than 27,000 and displaced 1.6 million persons since 7 October 2023, while thousands are still under the rubble.
Of those killed, “about 41 per cent are children and 25 percent are women” and on average, “one child is killed and two are injured every 10 minutes during the war,” turning Gaza into a “graveyard for children,”
Basman cited there has been “unceasing attack on civilians, journalists, medical professionals – even from inside a hospital complex all throughout the day and night” and the unrelenting refusal to provide access to food, water, electricity, fuel, and much, much needed medical supplies. “
“If these are not war crimes, I don’t know what are,” she said.
“We are Palestine and Palestine is us”
A month earlier, on October 17, the Bangsamoro Parliament adopted consolidated resolutions—with one filed by Basman—calling for the unconditional cessation of hostilities and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for Gaza, and condemning acts of violence and collective punishment against the Palestinian people.
“Now is not the time to be silent … We are Palestine and Palestine is us,” Basman said in her sponsorship speech for a resolution approved by the Bangsamoro Parliament, condemning acts of violence and collective punishment against the Palestinian people and calling for unconditional cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for Gaza.
“As a people who know all too well what it means for others to recognize and echo your call for the right to exist, we the Bangsamoro people, should raise our voices on behalf of those struggling for survival, the people of Gaza, the people of Palestine,” said Basman, a lawyer who previously chaired the legal panel of the Philippine government’s peace panel in the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
In her privilege speech on November 16, Basman called on the international community to play a more active role in facilitating a ceasefire and finding a lasting solution to the conflict.
“This is a threat to international political order … more than that: this is a disgrace. It is unacceptable,” she said.
Basman reiterated her call for an unconditional ceasefire, saying that “there is no other option.”
“The longer this lasts, the farther we are to resolving the decades-long conflict in the Middle East. The longer this lasts, the more we show the weakness and frailty of our international institutions. The longer this lasts, the more we scream to the world that Palestinian lives don’t matter,” she said. (MindaNews)
