Ferguson Protesters Visit Palestine With Intentions To “Build Relationships With Those On The Ground Leading The Fight For Liberation”
A group of Ferguson protesters has visited Palestine in support of activists aiming to to create ties between the two groups and to “see first hand the occupation, ethnic cleansing and brutality Israel has levied against Palestinians.”
The group consists of members from the Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter, and other Ferguson protesters.
The ten day Palestine trip organized by the legal and policy director of the Dream Defenders, Ahmad Abuznaid, offered protesters to visit areas such as the West Bank.
“The goals were primarily to allow for the group members to experience and see first hand the occupation, ethnic cleansing and brutality Israel has levied against Palestinians, but also to build real relationships with those on the ground leading the fight for liberation.”
Activist Cherrell Brown asserted that the police violence carried out on African American is comparable to Palestinians currently living under the “Zionist state.”
“So many parallels exist between how the US polices, incarcerates, and perpetuates violence on the black community and how the Zionist state that exists in Israel perpetuates the same on Palestinians.This is not to say there aren’t vast differences and nuances that need to always be named, but our oppressors are literally collaborating together, learning from one another – and as oppressed people we have to do the same.”
Recently, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter asserted that the attacks in Paris that left four Jewish men dead was a result of the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
On Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, Carter said the following.
“Well, one of the origins for it is the Palestinian problem. And this aggravates people who are affiliated in any way with the Arab people who live in the West Bank and Gaza, what they are doing now, what’s being done to them. So I think that’s part of it.”
Ahmad Abuznaid made reference to past civil liberty protesters and how a relationship between modern civil rights movements in America and those in Palestine needs to be “reestablished and fortified.”
“In the spirit of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael and many others, we thought the connections between the African American leadership of the movement in the US and those on the ground in Palestine needed to be reestablished and fortified.”
The Ferguson protesters hope the visit to Palestine will create a cultural exchange and an everlasting partnership.
[Image via mintpressnews.com]
