On July 2, over 20 organizations, including Jewish, Palestinian, human rights, and anti-racist organizations, demanded that Los Angeles City Council members vote against a resolution that would provide $1 million of public funds to racist Zionist vigilante groups. Following is the talk given at the protest by John Parker of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice.
If you go to the occupied Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank, you will see a giant 20-foot statue of the late South African President Nelson Mandela. The statue is located in a square named after Mandela.
Mandela said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
In our fight against Israeli genocide, we have good company.
When we are denied our right to protest against Israel’s genocide and the continuing theft of Palestinian land being sold right here in the U.S., right here in Los Angeles, we have good company in our experience of repression and violence. When we are vilified for calling Israel an apartheid state … we have good company.
We are here because we are told that we don’t have a right to protest against genocide for basic human decency. It is especially sad that Black politicians and a Black mayor right here at City Hall do not remember how our history in the U.S. is a long history of the racist theft of land, many times enforced by the Jim Crow birth of the Ku Klux Klan which looks a lot like the Zionist vigilante groups that hire former Israeli Defense Forces that teach warfare tactics. And right here in the Los Angeles City Hall, a motion was presented to gift $1 million of public funds to Ku Klux Klan-like organizations that promote ultra-violent actions for simply trying to stop the sale of occupied Palestinian lands.
Last Sunday, there was a sale of Palestinian land with a picture that looked a lot like Gaza’s shores that Netayanu is clearing out for more settlers by attempting to kill and starve the entire population of Gaza and then the West Bank.
The flyer advertising stolen Palestinian lands says: “Come and meet representatives of housing projects in all the best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel.” – These Zionist real estate agents don’t even have the decency to hide their white supremacist apartheid fascism.
This sale is hiding behind a Synagogue – but if the Ku Klux Klan were selling our land in a Christian church or a mosque or a synagogue, we would still protest that racist sale. But Karen Bass and Joe Biden wanted to encourage a fascist militia to attack us and deny the little constitutional rights that we have left. And we know that this will inspire more racist attacks by the LAPD that prioritize Black and Brown people and now especially Palestinians.
It is odd that Los Angeles is suffering from a housing crisis that continues to increase despite the city’s inadequate band-aids. They would rather use $1 million to gag our calls for justice.
Well, I’ll tell you what. After this press conference, we will be marching to city hall to demand the council members had better not even entertain the thought of funding to violently force our silence – because we have good company in inspiration given by the fortitude of the Palestinian people and all of the fighters against apartheid.
Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel