FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC May 11, 2020 – During the last nights of Ramadan, the people of Palestine have faced brutal police violence in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli settlers using prejudicial courts are attempting to displace Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah from their homes. Israeli security and police forces have cracked down on protests violently storming one of the holiest sites of Islam, the Masjid al Aqsa, with tear gas, sound bombs, and steel bullets encased in rubber. Several hundred have been injured, at least one Palestinian has been killed, and a historic house of prayer was violated and desecrated.
Israeli forces escalated their crackdown with a bombing campaign in Gaza which left at least nine children dead.
Many Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah were driven from their homes in 1948, resettled in East Jerusalem in 1950, and have been living in occupation since Israel annexed it in 1967. For them, the Nakba is not a historical memory, but an ongoing living resistance against brazen settler-colonialism and generational displacement.
We call upon our elected leaders in the U.S. to condemn the violence against Palestinians, the occupation, attempted land theft in Sheikh Jarrah, and the actions of the occupying police state which is costing the lives of Palestinians. The United States has provided over $146 Billion in aid to Israel since WW2, almost all of which go to the weapons and machines of war. The rubber encased steel bullets and flash bombs are manufactured in the states. The U.S. is not only complicit, it is actively funding occupation and displacement. The U.S. perpetuates Israel’s militarization here as well, when law enforcement agencies invite training from their Israeli counterparts and the U.S. utilizes Israeli technology at the border and in prisons.
As Palestinians were fighting for their homes, Afghans woke to the horrors of yet another tragedy; the bombing of a young girl’s school, Sayed ul- Shuhada in the Dashte-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul. The attack killed 85 and wounded another 147, mostly children, in the predominantly Hazara neighborhood. The Hazaras are a vulnerable community whom the Taliban and Daesh frequently target, typically for both their ethnicity and adherence to Shia Islam. This is the same neighborhood in Kabul that was targeted last year, in a deadly hospital attack that killed pregnant women and newborns.
There are currently efforts underway to support the victims’ families and support the school.
These deaths are the latest casualties of a decades-long war and part of an uptick in violence following the U.S. military withdrawal announcement. We call upon our elected leaders in the U.S. and allies to condemn the targeted attacks on minorities in Afghanistan and urge responsible withdrawal — including but not limited to continuation of aid and relief amidst a pandemic as well as providing a safe haven for Afghan refugees and those who will inevitably become displaced as the violence continues.
Our fates remain linked: from the people of Palestine to the people of Afghanistan, liberation against oppression, occupation, and war is an ongoing struggle and we recommit ourselves unwaveringly in solidarity with the oppressed.
Afghan Diaspora for Equality and Progress
The Samovar Network
Shia Racial Justice Coalition
Southwest Asian & North Afrikan – LA
Afghan American Artists and Writers Association
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