The PNPYO Past Members Association is alarmed, ashamed indeed embarrassed, that Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica while condemning the violence by Hamas and calling for a diplomatic solution, failed to speak to the antecedents of the total violence. 

The Palestinian people are living in literally the largest open-air prison in the world and are subjected to conditions akin to the apartheid system in South Africa.

Incidentally prime minister, as you should recall, the then racist, fascist and apartheid white minority led South African Government, was fully supported by Israel.

The hard and indisputable facts are that the Palestinian people have been detained, beaten, tortured, homes destroyed, evicted and have been subjected to physical, emotional, economic and cultural violence and psychological warfare by the State of Israel, in every imaginable sense of the word.

In response to your rushed and one-sided condemnation of the Hamas attack on Sunday, we deliberately have chosen Wednesday, October 11, to remind you and Jamaicans that when the pathways to justice have been closed, that people struggling for their freedom and against cruelty, injustice and oppression will resort to extraordinary means.

(1/3) The Government of Jamaica condemns in strongest terms the attack by the Hamas group on Israel, resulting in the deaths, injury and abduction of Israeli civilians. We convey our sympathies to the Government and people of Israel and to the families of all those affected.

— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) October 7, 2023

It was 11th October, 1865, that Jamaicans burnt down the Morant Bay Court House which signalled the Morant Bay Uprising and which was condemned by the then governor and the Church of England, today known as the Anglican Church.

Similarly in 1831, when our forefathers chose what the colonial state and Church of England regarded as violence during the Christmas Rebellion and roundly condemned that revolt at the time. It was that action of burning the cane fields, killing the slave masters and families and destroying the great houses that was pivotal in ending slavery in what was known then as the British West Indies. Both leaders, Paul Bogle and Sam Shape went on to be declared our National Heroes.

We further remind you that the same violence you so quickly one-sidedly condemned was similar to the struggles waged by the African National Congress (ANC), which was initially condemned and branded as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the majority of NATO countries, now pledging support for the State of Israel.

The PNPYO Past Members Association wants to make it abundantly clear that our strong and principled position against the State of Israel, is not anti-Semitic or anti-Jew. We oppose all forms of discrimination, oppression and injustice against humanity, whether based on race, ethnicity, religion, culture, nationality or gender.

We are well aware that the retaliation by Israel will be nothing short of wicked and genocidal, but the Palestinian people have again awoken the world to their inhumane plight and predicament over the decades.

The PNPYO Past Members Association and many Jamaicans, if not most, while always regretting violence even as a last resort and the loss of civilian lives, stand in full solidary with the Palestinian people.