“The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but for every revolutionary wherever they are, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in the era.” – Ghassan Kanafani
We stand and act in solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for an immediate ceasefire and end to the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine. Like many of you we are grieving the thousands of Palestinian and Israeli lives that have been taken over 75 years of Israeli-state occupation of Palestine, settler-colonialism, apartheid, and systemic genocide, backed by the US, UK and EU governments. We are feeling the rage and despair as our western governments continue to support, fund, and profit from the occupation and ongoing genocide. We are enraged as media outlets continue to distort the truth in order to dehumanize and oppress Palestinians. We fear and are distressed by the rise in Islamophobia, antisemitism, and anti-Palestinian violence and rhetoric fueled by systems working to keep us divided. We reject the notion that criticism of the state of Israel equates to anti-semitism, and also reject acts by western governments and institutions (including in the US, Germany and France), who are banning protests, firing and threatening arrest of those calling for humanity and an end to genocide and the occupation.
At the same time, we are heartened and inspired by the courage of all who are speaking out and taking action—many of whom are risking their privilege and family and community ties to call for an end to the violence and stand up for humanity. We are inspired by and stand with the Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Black, Arab, Asian, Native American and all other solidarity movements coming together for Palestinian liberation and liberation of all.
This is not the only genocide, war or crisis we are facing. We understand that what is being done to Palestine is a part of the ongoing violent and traumatizing strategies of imperialism, colonization and capitalism that have fueled slavery, resulted in the genocides of indigenous people worldwide, and accelerated the climate crisis and depletion of natural resources from countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. We grieve today for the people of Sudan, the DR Congo, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti and all beings who are impacted by these oppressive and extractive forces.
We feel our interconnection deep in our bones. What is happening to our kin is happening to all of us. We are being called to bring our voices and actions together to stop the genocide and address other interlocking crises of our time. And we are being called to co-create a new loving, just, and liberated world for all.
We will continue to share education resources, calls for action, and voices to listen to on our social media accounts.
And while we work to bring an end to systemic oppression in all its forms, we at Courage will also continue our work of dreaming and building a more just, free and liberated world right now. We invite you to join us in community, in practice, and in solidarity in the coming weeks to resource and strengthen the relational tissue of our network and of our movements for justice and liberation.
May we continue to hold ourselves and each other with compassion and care. May we continue to do the necessary work of revealing and telling the truth. May we hold each other as we heal from the wounds of the systems that try to oppress us. May we hold each other as we continue to envision a liberated and loving future together. May our work together be in service of justice, freedom and liberation for all.
