Liberation for All!
TW: colonialism, genocide, mentions of sexual violence
Here at Masakhane Center, we advocate for liberation for all communities. The current events happening in the world right now pertain to this: the ongoing genocides in Palestine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan.
The occupation of Palestine by Israel has been a mainstream conversation ever since October 7th, 2023. However, there has been a lot of misinformation and propaganda circulating the media in regards to what led to these events, and why they are happening. So, let’s dive into a mini history lesson:
In 1948, 800,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homeland during the Arab-Israeli war. This was called the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic. Before the Nakba, Palestine was a multi-ethnic and multicultural society, home to Muslims, Christians, and Jewish people alike. This country was also a place of refuge for many people that were fleeing war and famine: Bosnian, Armenian, and Indian Palestinians.
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire fell which left many regions in the Middle East vulnerable to European colonial powers, including Palestine. This led to Palestine officially becoming a British mandate. In the 1930s, the conflict between Arab and Jewish people intensified due to the persecution of Jewish people in Europe, causing a mass migration towards the Middle East. The British saw an opportunity for control and enabled the Zionist movement, promising the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people in Palestine” despite having no actual sympathies for the historically oppressed Jewish people.
In 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that partitioned Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab with Jerusalem under the UN. The people of Palestine rejected this plan, arguing that they had no right to tear their homeland in half, and that it was unfair since it violated the UN’s own regulations. Then militias attacked Palestinian villages, forcing thousands to leave their homes. This escalated into a full war in 1948, ending the British mandate, but led to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and the state of Israel declaring themselves as independent. Israel became a settler-colonialist state, carving out a homeland for themselves in an already existing homeland.
Zionist propaganda began to spread, stating that Palestine was always meant to be their homeland, and that it was their right as Jewish people to take back their land, etc. For the past 75 years, Palestinians have had their homes stolen and destroyed; their resources controlled and diminished by the Israeli state; and their families imprisoned, raped, and killed. Today, Zionism continues to use Judaism and antisemitism as a shield to prevent criticism of their war crimes and the state’s right to exist.
Historically, Palestinians have tried to free their homeland from colonization as peacefully as they could, asking to free Palestine as an independent state without Israel control, or integrate Israel into Palestine. However, Israel refused these options since it meant they wouldn’t be able to control all the land, and they wouldn’t be an ethnocentric Jewish state. Israel continues to use violence against Palestinians: bombing their cities, cutting off their water, and destroying their olive trees. It’s a genocide. Palestinians continue to resist in their own ways when confronted with the violence by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), doing their best to protect their families and communities.
These are the events that led to today, where the United States propagates Israel’s actions so they could have a hand in controlling the Middle East and its resources. Since October 7th, 2023, more than one million Palestinians have been displaced and at least 20,000 Palestinians have been killed due to the ongoing bombing from Israel. Israel has bombed homes, hospitals, schools, and refugee camps.
We should continue to keep protesting for a permanent ceasefire and for a free Palestine. And we should protest for a free Congo as well. There is another silent holocaust going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where there is estimated to be more than six million Congolese deaths, and three million Congolese people displaced from their homes since 1996.
Today, Congo doesn’t have an established government, and instead, is a police state. This is the case due its long history of enslavement, colonization, assassinations of potential leaders, violent dictatorships, war, and invasions. This eliminates any establishment of Congolese institutions.
In 1994, the international community failed to stop the genocide in Rwanda, as well as failed to effectively punish the perpetrators. Because of this, violence in Central Africa escalated. Millions of refugees fled to Congo in fear of the Tutsi-led rebellion that took power in Rwanda. The leader of the Tutsi rebellion, Paul Kagame, became the President of Rwanda, and in fear of retribution and revenge, wanted to kill the Hutu refugees. The United States stayed silent on this matter, allowing a green light for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees in Congo. Eventually, the United States allowed the President of Rwanda to continue to control and invade the people in Congo for political and economic reasons.
These political and economic reasons are attributed to the race for natural resources. Since 1885, Congo has been part of a geo-strategic battle tied with neighboring countries, armed militias, and Western countries (Belgium, the US, UK, France, etc.) to gain the great abundance of minerals throughout Congo. Especially in the West, these minerals are vital to major industries such as the automotive industry, aerospace industry, technology industry, and the jewelry industry.
However, the need for resources doesn’t justify the millions of lives that are being killed, and yet, the West continues to enable it. Thousands of women and children are raped by many violent groups that continue to occupy Congo. Rape is used as a military strategy, dehumanizing Congolese people in order to create broken communities, and repress any hope. This continues to kill thousands more Congolese people each month as a result.
More people need to speak up about Congo so that Congolese people can live freely without ceaseless violence.
And now let’s talk about Sudan, which is going through a genocide of their own.
In 2019, the Sudanese people overthrew their dictator, Omar Al-Bashir, who had been in power for 30 years. Afterwards, the Sudanese people formed a transitional council that was part-civilian and part-military. The plan was to transition to a civilian-led government. However, in October 2021, the military was supposed to hand the government over to the civilians, but a military coup overthrew the transitional council instead. The international community decided to side with the military generals, Hemedti and Burhan, who were known to be genocidal tyrants by the Sudanese people. In April 2023, these generals decided to fight against each other for the seat at the top. Tens of thousands of Sudanese people have been killed and over four million have been displaced.
The militia continues to bomb communities, steal their homes, and deplete vital resources such as food and medicine. Sudanese activists continue to resist through acts of disobedience by chanting revolutionary songs or spray-painting political messages. They have also set up many ‘emergency response rooms’ that do humanitarian aid, mutual aid, and psychosocial support. There are also women’s response rooms that deal with women’s needs, gender-based violence, and sexual violence.
These genocides are happening not only because of political and economic greed primarily from the West, but because of the dehumanization of Black and brown people. Racism and white supremacy are both violent and deadly. It has silenced Black and brown people from being heard, and will persist in suppressing Palestinian, Congolese, and Sudanese voices unless we speak up and protest as much as we can so these genocides can stop.
Write, call, email, or even fax your protests to your local officials. Research any local protests going on in your area, and be sure to stay safe and keep your identity protected. Support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement that calls to boycott companies like HP, Puma, McDonalds, SodaStream, Sabra, and more. Check out their website for more information: bdsmovement.net.
Organize a group in your school, or join an existing organization advocating to end these genocides. Make whoever is compliant with this genocide uncomfortable. Only when we take action like this: revoking support from our local officials, spreading factual information on social media, boycotting major companies that fund genocide, emphasizing oppressed peoples’ voices, and disrupting the peace (such as protestors delaying the shipment of weapons to Israel, disrupting the Thanksgiving parade in New York, and shutting doing the Manhattan Bridge) can we truly make a change.
https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/
https://decolonizepalestine.com/intro/the-mandate-years-and-the-nakba/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLV9szEu9Ag&t=33s
https://borgenproject.org/7-facts-about-the-genocide-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo/
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/21/1206104009/sudan-war
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/sudan-unravelling-from-decades-injustice