Our opposition to Zionism is first and foremost rooted in its impact on the people of Palestine and the broader region. As such, we struggle against Zionism and its manifestation in the State of Israel’s historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the confiscation of their land. We are also outraged by the role of Zionism in leveraging the European Jewish genocide and US anti-communist targeting of Jews to align “Jewish interest” with US/European imperialist interest. This colonial project has hijacked Jewish histories of resistance. It dishonors the persecution, displacement and genocide of European Jews by using their memory to justify and perpetuate European racism and colonialism. It is responsible for the extensive displacement and alienation of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Sephardi, Asian and African descent) from indigenous identities, languages, histories, cultures and homelands. It attempts to reduce all of our diverse cultural, religious, ethnic and racial identities to one of national identity. As such, it implicates us in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the debasement of our own heritages, struggles for justice and alliances with our fellow human beings.
We understand that Israel’s regional designs have historically been possible, and remain so today, only through a mutually beneficial economic and military subservience to a larger imperial interest – first the United Kingdom and France, and currently the United States. US military aggression in Afghanistan, the military occupation of Iraq, the escalating confrontation with Iran and the destabilization of Somalia are elements of the global quest for corporate capital accumulation. We call out the farce of democracy in the US and in Israel, where differential rights are afforded to people based on race and economic access, and we condemn the undermining of democratic movements and processes in the region and in other parts of the world. US support for Israel places Palestine at the center of liberation struggles in the region, and places liberation struggles within the region at the center of global struggles against imperialism.
To maintain control, the Empire must crush all resistance. Today every challenge, every refusal, is labeled “terrorism.” This tactic is used against the Zapatistas in the Americas just as it is used against popular movements in Palestine, Lebanon and South America. Against the censorship and silencing of this “War on Terror,” we are honored to participate in open discussions with those most impacted by US imperialism and Zionism. We seek to contribute to global struggles for justice as appropriate to our locations and ally ourselves with those who are surviving the most direct impacts and organizing to challenge them.
We are committed to the liberation of Palestine. We reject the Israeli apartheid state as well as the Zionist ideology upon which it is built. We support the Palestinian Right of Return and the call from Palestine for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. We condemn the atrocities Israel and its Western allies are committing in Gaza. We hold our governments accountable for their roles in the crimes against the Palestinian people, the people in the broader region, and the people living in our own countries.
As the 5th anniversary of attacks on Iraq passes, and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel approaches, we are honored to participate in an international campaign against Zionist and American occupation.
