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We are not the first & hopefully will not be the last to say this. Using offensive terms like “banana republic” or referring to Iraq/Afghanistan to describe what happened in the Capitol expresses disbelief by degrading other nations & erasing oppressive US intervention.
It is not lost on us that one of the first people to use such language was former US President George W. Bush, whose admin’s “War on Terror” wrought decades of violence & destruction abroad & attacked the civil liberties of Muslims and/or Arabs in the US to “fight terrorism.”
Knee-jerk associations of “terrorism,” a culture of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism all distract from the great damage inflicted by US-backed violence—such as the US’s unconditional support for Israel, despite its anti-Palestinian apartheid regime.
Understandably, many want accountability. But going about it in ways that erase or whitewash the US’s historically and presently unjust role in international affairs ultimately just recreates the spirit of US exceptionalism that makes such actions justifiable in the first place.
Injustice is also domestic. So many BIPOC activists continue to face intense repression for challenging cultures and institutions of white supremacy and settler-colonialism. We need to hold all of these truths together, simultaneously.
Our theory of change holds that delegations to Palestine/Israel are not empty privileges, but the start of a lifelong responsibility to advocate for justice, liberation and equality for Palestinians. That also requires understanding how Palestine is not exceptional:
injustice “out there” is directly related to injustice “over here,” on so many levels. The fight to free Palestine is the fight to end racist and colonial military and police impunity the world over.
#FreePalestine #RacialJustice
#FreePalestine #RacialJustice
And here is a link to an important #thread about why to avoid the “terrorist/terrorism” framework when referring to the occupation of the Capitol—who will be most impacted? https://twitter.com/dialash/status/1347244505100132355?s=21 https://twitter.com/dialash/status/1347244505100132355
