by Brian Hioe

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Photo Credit: Brian Hioe

A MARCH TOOK place today in Taipei to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s genocide of Palestine in Gaza.

The march today took place after a vigil last week on October 6th, focusing on the lives and stories of martyred Palestinians, as well as a flash mob outside of the Israeli Economic and Cultural Office on October 7th. As with other demonstrations regarding Gaza, both members of the international community and local Taiwanese participated, though today’s march saw a number of participants from Indonesian and Philippine groups.

October 7th was when a Hamas-led offense into Israel took place after the occupation of the Al-Aqsa mosque by Israeli forces, which was used as pretext for Israel for subsequent military attacks aimed at ethnic cleansing. 2023 had already marked the deadliest year to date for Palestinian children in the West Bank.

The demonstration today began at 1 PM at the Nishi Honganji Remains, a park in western Taipei on the site of a Japanese colonial era shrine, where a stage had been set up. Speeches took place at the Nishi Honganji Remains until 2 PM, before a march began at 2 PM. Among those that spoke were activist Shih Yi-hsiang, senior researcher at the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, who spoke of Taiwan not living up to its proclaimed values in terms of human rights with regards to Gaza and Palestinians. Activist Aurora Chang of the Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine, spoke of supporting Palestine as a supporter of Taiwanese independence, framing this as the basic duty to human rights that those who supported Taiwanese independence should have in light of the parallels between Taiwan and Palestine. This was followed by a speaker from the Labour Party, which is pro-unification, which focused on US empire as backing Israel.

The march began at 2 PM, moving north along Zhonghua Road, before moving into the Ximending area. The march then routed around various commercial streets in Ximen, shouting slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”, “Netanyahu, you will see, Palestine will be free!” and “Biden, you will see, Palestine will be free!” Though there was a lone counter-protestor with an Israeli flag, they later were escorted away by police.

Around 3 PM, the march arrived outside of Exit 6 of the Ximen MRT. The audio equipment from the first stage was moved over for further talks to take place. A banner that had been displayed at the first stage, with the names of deceased Palestinians, was displayed again at Exit 6, with participants encouraged to leave handprints in red paint. A rapper performance by Chen Mian, as well as a die-in to represent those deceased in Gaza, also took place.

At the second stage, talks then continued. MC Yang Kang spoke of the need to stand against occupation and ethnic cleansing, highlighting how Taipei is on occupied and unceded Indigenous Ketagalan land. Yang also spoke of how the territory covered by the march was the size of the territory destroyed by a 2,000-ton bomb and yet Israel has dropped hundreds of such bombs onto Gaza. A representative of Amnesty International emphasized how Taiwan has disregarded international condemnation of Israel on human rights grounds. Hazem Almassry, a Palestinian academic living in Taiwan, highlighted the resistance of Palestinians as self-defense against ethnic cleansing and discrimination, in spite of how Israel has framed itself as a bulwark for democracy in the Middle East, and the US has backed Israel with this claim. Academic Kerim Friedman, a Jewish new migrant in Taiwan, highlighted how Israel’s project toward Palestine was colonial from the onset, aiming to undermine any attempts by Palestinians to seek statehood, and arguing that Taiwan had more in common with Palestine than Israel in light of attempts by China to undermine its democracy.

Similarly, while few political parties have been present at pro-Palestine rallies, the Obasan Alliance spoke to highlight the need for the Taiwanese political sphere to be aware of human rights abuses in Gaza, and how genocide is always wrong. Yahya of Islam Palestine spoke of other cases of ethnic cleansing, including of Indigenous worldwide, to highlight genocide internationally, as well as emphasizing that Palestinians do not hate Jews. Andy from the Taiwan Rave and Punk Solidarity Front For Palestine spoke of music as a tool for solidarity.

More broadly, speakers sought to call attention to Taiwan’s complicity in crimes in Israel. Namely, Taiwanese exports to Israel, including of technology and semiconductors continue, with government officials such as former Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua instead emphasizing how the effects on Taiwanese trade to Israel have in minimal. There have been so analogous measures to as took place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, seeking to avoid the use of Taiwanese parts in the supply chains of Russian weapons systems. Such issues have failed to be discussed despite a Taiwanese pager company, Gold Apollo, being used for the pager attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon last month.

At the end of the rally, an die-in was held, followed by open mic period. During the die-in, the sound of drones was played during as participants were asked to lie on the ground for ten minutes.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

It is to be seen if the demonstration leads to stronger reactions from the Taiwanese government. To date, the Taiwanese government has mostly shrugged off attempts by civil society to call on it to account, even in cases of physical attacks on peaceful pro-Palestine demonstrators.

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