Interviewing Activists in Support of Palestine

A comrade attending rallies supporting Palestinian resistance to the I$raeli war distributed ULKs this winter and talked to attendees. Here are a couple of the interviews ey sent to ULK.

1.What brought you to this event?

Well, seeing as I am Black and a Christian, I find it important to come out and demonstrate solidarity with the people of Palestine as I believe our struggles are connected. Many people tend to see what is going on in Palestine as a sort of religious conflict, portraying it simplistically as a conflict between Jews and Muslims. Many Christians in this country support Israel because the Church tells them to, when in reality Christians are just as persecuted as Muslims in Palestine. I mean, they just bombed the Church of Saint Porphyrius – one of the oldest churches in the world – last night.

2. Do you see any parallels, either current or historical, between i$rael and the united $tates? if so, can you elaborate?

Yes, I see many parallels actually. The biggest one being that they are both settler-colonial projects. It is important to remember that in both cases, the land was not empty when the settlers arrived. Israel has been waging a war against the Palestinian people in order to clear and settle the land. When the Europeans came to America, the first thing they did was wage war against the Indigenous population to do the same thing. They are both guilty of ethnic cleansing. Think about the Nakba. Think about The Trail of Tears. In Ohio, they said the land was “too good for Indians” – similar justifications were made for the initial Nakba.

I would also say that Israel is almost as racist as the United States. They have different laws for different people. That’s apartheid. Zionists call us anti-semetic, yet they treat non-White Jews like second-class citizens. Look at how they treat Ethiopian and South-East Asian Jews within their borders. You know they sterilized them in the 1970s and 1980s. Zionism isn’t about Judaism, it’s about white supremacy. So I think there are very real parallels to draw between Israel and the United States as they both are rooted in war, ethnic cleansing, and white supremacy.

3. We promote the right to self-determination of all oppressed nations from oppressor nations and imperialism more generally. What do you think about the idea of the oppressed nations (i.e. Chican@/Latin@, First Nations, New Afrikans, and other Third World Peoples) within the so-called United $tates breaking from the United $tates in order to realize self-determination?

I’m not entirely sure if I think it is possible, but I support it. That said, I am very skeptical. The only feasible way I think that could happen is if the American Government allows it to happen by carrying it out themselves, but I really don’t see that happening anytime soon.

4. Finally, what do you think is the best way we could demonstrate our support and solidarity to the Palestinian people?

I think we could demonstrate our support and solidarity by boycotting Israeli products and participating in the BDS movement as a whole. By continuing to protest. By not allowing Israel to participate in soccer. And by not allowing Israeli academics to sanitize what has happened in the past 70 years. It is important that we utilize our legal means and push politicians to support an end to the genocide.

Second Interview

1.What brought you to this event?

I’m here to show support against the repression of Arabs in Palestine, to demonstrate mass support, and to lift the spirits of others who find these war crimes unacceptable.

2. Do you see any parallels, either current or historical, between i$rael and the united $tates? if so, can you elaborate?

Yeah, I see parallels in that they’re settlers, racists, and repress native populations. But I also see parallels between First Nations and the Palestinian people – especially in their emancipatory spirit.

**3. We promote the right to self-determination of all oppressed nations from oppressor nations and imperialism more generally. What do you think about the idea of the oppressed nations (i.e. Chican@/Latin@, First Nations, New Afrikans, and other Third World Peoples) within the so-called United $tates breaking from the United $tates in order to realize self-determination?

Yeah, of course! The first priority is emancipation of those groups, even if that means through violence.

4. Finally, what do you think is the best way we could demonstrate our support and solidarity to the Palestinian people?

I think we can demonstrate our support by continuing to go to these demonstrations and by showing our support for fringe groups such as Hamas, PFLP, etc…the militant fighters.

NOTE: PFLP is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an organization that arose during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, and was one of the Palestinian organizations greatly influenced by the Maoism of the time. In those early years they gained notoriety for hijacking airplanes and remain on the U.$. terrorist list to this day. They took a pan-Arab approach to the revolution, and co-ordinated with many organizations outside the Arab world, including providing training to communists from Azania (aka South Africa). This connection is relevant to why South Africa today has brought charges of genocide against I$rael to the International Criminal Court, as well as the fact that Palestinians today are facing the same apartheid conditions that Africans in South Africa once faced. PFLP took part in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th along with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The latter is also a Maoist-inspired group that came out of PFLP.