This statement is created and supported by the undersigned organizers within the Southern Movement Assembly, a formation of organizations, groups, workers and Southern frontline assemblies that converge to develop shared action plans rooted in political alignment. The Southern Movement Assembly is grounded in an unwavering commitment to dismantling white supremacy, economic exploitation, patriarchy, and colonialism.  

As Southern organizers, we are in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom from Israeli occupation and the right to self-determination. This solidarity is rooted in our principles of community governance, local leadership, and in our commitment to the liberation of all oppressed people. We believe this right to self determination means the right to self-governance, the right to stewardship of the land and its resources, and the right to freely pursue social, economic and cultural development.

Let us be clear. The State of Israel was imposed on a land where people already resided. Military aggression intended to force out the population or to eliminate it entirely, is described as settler colonialism. The intentional and blatant disregard for the humanity of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government and its benefactors is appalling and heartbreaking and represents a clear example of what ethnic cleansing looks like. The genocidal acts and language of the Israeli government during this crisis are not new and must not be tolerated. Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s siege.

The US invests $3.8 billion of taxpayer dollars each year into Israel’s occupation, while our communities in the South struggle to afford healthcare, housing and education. We resist the recycling of oppressive systems and tactics, such as the ongoing U.S. imperialist interventions that perpetuate instability and violence in Sudan, Congo, and many other places across the globe. Our suffering under continued US settler colonial exploitation is undeniably connected to the suffering of Palestinians. History has recorded the direct transfer of violent segregationist tactics from the Jim Crow South to the architects of South African and Israeli apartheid. In this current moment, our communities continue to resist the conversion of the Weelaunee Forest Preserve into Cop City, a police militarization training camp, informed by Israeli occupation tactics, spurring gentrification, and displacement of the adjacent Black working class community, and expanding militarized police forces across the US South and beyond.

The Southern Movement Assembly is in deep solidarity with all those calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to all US aid to Israel, and an end to the occupation of Palestine! We are in solidarity with all those participating in the BDS movement — boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning the apartheid Israeli government. We are in solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the South and across the world in the demand for decolonization and the restoration of land to indigenous stewardship. We are in solidarity with global movements who are fighting for the liberation of people, land, labor, and resources. We remain committed to liberation in Palestine, across the South, and around the world.

In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free”

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Sign on to the Statement (HERE)

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