TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A “die-in” protest was held in Taipei on Sunday (March 24) to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the end to a recently established joint Taiwan-Israel parliamentary group.

Protestors laid at the entrance to Liberty Square to show solidarity with the over 30,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7. Recordings taken in Gaza of drone strikes and aerial bombings were played to represent the “constant threat of violence” people in Gaza face, organizers said.

Organizers For Peace TW (可以自由巴) encouraged protestors to write to their local legislators to call for a ceasefire. The group helped Taiwanese participants write letters to legislators who are a part of the Taiwan-Israel Congressional Association, calling on them to withdraw from the group.

The Congressional Association was established in February. Taiwan has expressed support for Israel since Hamas launched a surprise attack that killed over 1,100 people in Israel in October.

Since the attack, in addition to the over 32,000 Palestinians killed, an estimated 70,000 have been injured. Children are reported to make up over 40% of the injured and dead, while Israeli airstrikes on healthcare systems in Gaza have been described as “unrelenting” and condemned by the United Nations human rights commissioner.

“And let us not forget the 7 million Palestinian refugees who continued to be denied their right to return to their homes,” Palestinian scholar Hazem Almassry said at the protest. He said the United Nations charter "enshrines the right of all peoples to self-determination, to rid the world of colonialism and apartheid."

“Yet the Palestinian people have been denied this right for decades,” he added.

Hazem Almassry and his son paint tears on a banner as a protestor speaks at a ceasefire protest in Taipei on Sunday. (Taiwan News, Jono Thomson photo)

Hazem said losing a family member in a bombing is an experience shared among Gazan families, and some families have been “wiped off the civil registry entirely.” Hazem recently lost his mother in an Israeli airstrike.

He also noted that people in Gaza are unable to find food. On March 18, the UN food program said at least 300,000 people face famine in Gaza, while 1.1 million are experiencing “catastrophic hunger.”

Meanwhile, aid groups said it had become nearly impossible to get food aid into Gaza because of difficulty coordinating with the Israeli military. “I implore you not to overlook their daily struggle for survival,” Hazem said.

Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔), a senior researcher at the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said that the Taiwanese legislators who are part of the Taiwan-Israel parliamentary group should “understand they are not on the right side of history.” He said because of their country’s history of transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy, Taiwanese people should support Palestinians.

Shih said that through Taiwan’s ongoing transitional justice project, the pain of families and victims of the White Terror and martial law is being recognized. He said that Taiwanese people should extend the same empathy and care to the Palestinian people, who have also been repressed by an outside force.

Protestors pretend to be dead to show solidarity with Palestinians in Taipei on Sunday. (Taiwan News, Jono Thomson photo)

Organizers gathered about 200 letters to send to legislators, calling on them to remove themselves from the Taiwan-Israel parliamentary group, which is led by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator for Pingtung Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱). Chung’s office said they had received Taiwan News’ queries regarding protestors’ demands but did not provide a response by the time of publication.

Lala Lau (劉璧嘉) of For Peace Taiwan told Taiwan News that the group started to encourage members of the public to send letters to legislators after the death of a U.S. Air Force member. Aaron Bushnell self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. in late February, saying he “will no longer be complicit in genocide."

“He reminded us that we should not be complicit in genocide, so we started to investigate how Taiwan may be complicit in this too,” she said.

She said that the government has a responsibility to prevent the war in Gaza. “We don’t want to be represented by these legislators," she said.

"We elected them, but now they are doing things we don’t agree with. They are making us complicit by facilitating economic and technological exchange with Israel, which will most likely be linked to the genocide,” Lau said.

Hazem told Taiwan News he supports the public contacting their elected representatives. “Any steps toward making the Taiwan government change their attitude to this situation will be helpful,” he said.

He said Taiwan’s government pays attention to public sentiment, and if it believes the public is shifting away from support for the Israeli government, it will take steps to change its position. “At least to call for a ceasefire, and not show solidarity with the people who are committing the crime now,” he said.

Shih Yi-hsiang speaks at a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in Taipei. (Taiwan News, Jono Thomson photo)