National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) Calls for End to Genocide in Gaza
Scores of organisations actively engaged in championing the cause of the rights of the disabled called for stopping the Israeli genocide in Gaza highlighting the assault of the Israeli army as gross violation of disability justice. Several other organisations and individuals involved in the fields of social justice and political activism also joined in this campaign primarily moved by the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD).
Read the full text of the statement published on June 10 here.
Stop the Genocide in Gaza: Solidarity with Palestinians and the Fight for Disability Justice
Joint statement by disability rights organisations/individuals and other organisations/individuals demanding an end to the Genocide in Gaza. Issued on June 10, 2025.
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, express our unequivocal solidarity with the Palestinian people enduring genocide — and with all those across the world who act in resistance and solidarity, including Greta Thunberg, Rima Hassan, Liam Cunningham, Ann Wright, and others intercepted and detained by Israeli forces while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On June 1, 2025, twelve international activists began their journey aboard the Madleen, a British-flagged sailboat organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, carrying essential aid — baby formula, flour, medical supplies, and desalination equipment — to Gaza’s besieged population. The vessel was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters on June 8, the aid seized, and the activists kidnapped. This blatant act of piracy is part of a broader strategy: to starve, isolate, and eliminate Palestinian resistance through siege and destruction.
What is happening in Gaza is not a war — it is a genocide. Backed by Western imperial powers, Israel is carrying out the calculated destruction of an entire people through relentless bombardment, blockade, deprivation and starvation.
Palestinians with disabilities are at the epicenter of this violence. Over 15% of Gaza’s population lived with disabilities before this current wave of genocide. That number is rising rapidly due to Israel’s use of high-impact explosives, chemical weapons, and systematic destruction of infrastructure — leaving behind mass trauma, injury, and the highest rate of child amputees in the world. This my no stretch of imagination can be categorised as collateral damage.
Food systems have been destroyed. Hospitals have been bombed. Clean water and medicine are cut off. Disease is rampant. Mobility aids are destroyed, and medical care is denied. The physical and psychological toll is immeasurable — and disabled Palestinians suffer it most.
Meanwhile, those who stand up in solidarity including the likes of Greta Thunberg, an autistic and neurodivergent activist are met with arrest and repression. Their detention is meant as a threat: to silence dissent and punish resistance. We reject that threat entirely.
As a disability justice movement, we declare:
There is no disability justice without decolonization.
There is no accessibility under apartheid.
There is no liberation in systems built to destroy.
We Demand:
• The immediate release of all political prisoners detained for solidarity with Palestine.
• An immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
• An end to the genocidal blockade on Gaza.
• Full international accountability for war crimes, including those violating the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
• The dismantling of settler-colonial and imperialist systems that uphold this violence.
Disability justice demands nothing less than the complete end of apartheid, genocide, and settler-colonial violence.
For over 75 years, Palestinians have resisted with unwavering courage. Our liberation is inseparable from theirs. We reject all reformist calls to “improve” or “include” within structures of death and oppression.
We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and all oppressed communities resisting imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism.
From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.
Prepared by: National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD)
Endorsements from Disability Rights Organisations & Individuals:
1. Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Sammilani
2. Vikalangalu Hakkulu Jatiya Vedike, Telangana
3. Differently Abled Welfare Federation, Kerala
4. Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled & Caregivers
5. Haryana Viklang Adhikar Manch
6. Madhya Pradesh Viklang Adhikar Manch
7. Delhi Viklang Adhikar Manch
8. Tripura Pratibandhi Adhikar Mancha
9. Karnataka State Disabled & Caregivers Federation
10. Vikalangalu Hakkulu Jatiya Vedike, Andhra Pradesh
11. Shampa Sengupta, Sruti Disability Rights Centre
12. Shashank Pandey, Politics and Disability Forum
13. Abhirupa Kar, Civilian Welfare Foundation
14. Danish Mahajan, Udaan Empowerment Trust
15. Amita Dhanda, Professor Emerita, Head Centre for Disability Studies and Centre for Legal Philosophy and Justice Education, NALSAR
16. Vijay Tiwari, West Bengal National University of Judicial Studies
17. Ravi Ganesan, Disability Rights Activist, Bengaluru
18. Nilesh Singit, Disability Rights Activist
19. Srinidhi, Educator & Researcher, India
20. Advocate Anchal Bhatheja, New Delhi
21. Rashmi, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
22. Lina Pegu, Doctoral candidate, TISS, Maharashtra
23. Amar Pawar, Disability Studies Scholar, India
24. Ekramul Haque
25. Mona Yadav, Sahas Foundation, Delhi
26. Puri Yadav, Sahas Foundation, Delhi
27. Jeeja Ghosh, Disability Rights Activist
Endorsements from Other Organisations & Individuals:
28. All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA)
29. Nisha Siddhu, Gen. Secy, National Federation of Indian Women
30. All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)
31. Meera Sanghamitra (National Alliance of People’s Movements – NAPM), Hyderabad
32. Sudhanya Roy Chowdhury
33. Mahasweta Samajdar
34. Dipanwita
35. Hanoz Master, Head Sales Vibescapes, Thane, Maharashtra
36. SFI – Students’ Federation of India
