This is Social Movement Assembly took place at the World Social Forum Free Palestine on 1 December 2012. The Assembly opened with a presentation by Kali Akuno from Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Mich Levy and Sara Kershnar from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and was followed by testimony by activists from Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Canada and the United States. Part III offers testimony from Loubna Qutami from the Palestinian Youth Movement; Azadeh Shahshahani from the National Lawyers Guild speaking on the Israel-US threats and blockade against Iran; and Suzanne Adely from the National Lawyers Guild speaking on the role of the Israel-US alliance in undermining the Arab Spring.
CONTENT SUMMARY:
Maintaining and expanding an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine requires on-going ethnic cleansing and military repression of Palestinians and military dominance in the region. Through the ongoing colonization of Palestine and the accompanying atrocities, Israel has developed great expertise in repression, and exporting these tools and methods on an industrial scale has become crucial to Israeli economic and political power.
Since the founding of the state, Israel has collaborated with many of the most repressive regimes and forces on all continents. Israel played and/or plays a role in arming and training the apartheid regimes of Southern Africa, colonial and neo-colonial regimes in the Middle East, dictators in Central and South America and police forces in the United States.
Our movements across the globe– in solidarity with Palestine, against war, poverty, colonialism, imperialism, repression and an unjust globalized economy, and for more equitable societies – need to be aware of and increasingly take into account the very real ways the State of Israel contributes to the violence and repression targeting us.
