Petition to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
We, members of Latin American communities united by a shared commitment to preserving the memory and dignity of the victims and survivors of the October 7, 2023 attacks, submit this petition to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
On that fateful October 7, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups carried out a brutal attack against Israel. Innocent civilians were murdered, tortured, and subjected to acts of sexual violence. The victims included women, children, infants, and older adults. That same day, 251 people were abducted and taken hostage in Gaza. Many remained there for more than two years. Only after 843 days was the last hostage remaining in Gaza recovered and returned to Israel. Tragically, many of those abducted did not return alive.
Three years later, amid the persistence of antisemitism and narratives that deny, trivialize, or seek to justify the violence committed by Hamas, we believe that remembrance alone is not enough. Memory also demands accountability and action.
We therefore call on the Secretary-General, before the end of his term, to:
- unequivocally condemn Hamas terrorism and the taking of hostages, without justification or relativization;
- ensure that, within the United Nations system, the fight against antisemitism, the denial and trivialization of the October 7 attacks, and all forms of incitement to hatred against the Jewish people receive the priority, institutional space, attention, and resources they require;
- ensure that United Nations bodies and mechanisms uphold the principles of impartiality, universality, and non-selectivity, and that UN platforms are not used to legitimize hate speech, incitement, or dehumanization directed against the State of Israel;
- and provide the appropriate institutional platforms and symbolic space to preserve and amplify the voices of the victims and survivors of October 7, so that their stories become part of our shared international memory.
By signing this petition, we reaffirm our commitment to honoring the memory of those who were murdered, standing with those who survived and continue to recover from visible and invisible wounds, and supporting the families who continue to bear the consequences of October 7.
We also reaffirm our commitment to the right of the State of Israel to exist, to the right of the Jewish people to live in security and exercise self-determination, and to the right of all people in the region to live in peace, security, and dignity.
We raise our voices for those who can no longer raise their own.
Remembrance also means action.
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