Mexican Rebels Stand in Solidarity with Gaza

Mexican Rebels Stand in Solidarity with Gaza

While the APPO marches on the US Consulate in Oaxaca, Subcomandante Marcos declares from Chiapas, "to the Zapatistas it looks like there's a professional army murdering a defenseless population" in Palestine

Your silence hurts me. –Mahumud Darwish, Palestinian poet

When the Zapatistas rose up in arms on January 1, 1994, most of them thought they were going to die. Many did. Their rag-tag Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) set out to reverse 500 years of conquest, and it had a formidable enemy: the US-equipped Mexican military. Indigenous communities were under a constant state of siege and occupation for the next two years. However, the EZLN's rifles and sticks weren't its only defense: Mexicans and the international community mobilized to demand peace in Chiapas.

Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of their uprising, the EZLN is calling for the same solidarity for Palestinians in Gaza. In a speech during the Festival of Dignified Rage in Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos told the crowd gathered there, "We don't know about you, but we Zapatistas from the EZLN, we know how important it is, in the middle of destruction and death, to hear some words of encouragement…. [W]ords from afar might not stop a bomb, but it's as if a crack were opened in the black room of death and a tiny ray of light slips in." So, said Marcos, even though global protests "won't turn into an armored shield so that a 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters 'IMI' or 'Israeli Military Industry' etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world, and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza."

Marcos condemned the Israeli attack on Gaza as a "classic military war of conquest," with one exception: Israel's target is not an opposing military force; its targets are civilians. Speaking on behalf of the EZLN, he said, "According to the news photos, the 'strategic' points destroyed by the Israeli government's air force are houses, shacks, civilian buildings. We haven't seen a single bunker, nor a barracks, nor a military airport, nor cannons, amongst the rubble. So—and please excuse our ignorance—we think that either the planes' guns have bad aim, or in Gaza such 'strategic' military points don't exist."

Marcos lamented the deaths of "men, women, children, and the elderly" in the attacks and commented sarcastically, "surely the hail of bullets that fell on Gaza this morning were in order to protect the Israeli infantry's advance from those men, women, children, and elderly people."

Without specifically mentioning the word "genocide," Marco accused the Israeli government of that crime: "The assault will seek to annihilate that population. And whichever man, woman, child, or elderly person that manages to escape or hide from the predictably bloody assault will later be 'hunted' so that the cleansing is complete and the commanders in charge of the operation can report to their superiors: 'We've completed the mission.'"

Rather than getting caught up in arguments "about if it's "zionism" or "antisemitism," or if Hamas' bombs started it," the EZLN says, "Maybe our thinking is very simple, and we're lacking the nuances and annotations that are always so necessary in analyses, but to the Zapatistas it looks like there's a professional army murdering a defenseless population."

Faced with "the Israeli government's heavily trained and armed" military's "march of death and destruction," Marcos asked those gathered at the Festival of Dignified Rage, "Who from below and to the left can remain silent?"

As fellow insurgents and communities in resistance, the EZLN criticized the demonization of Palestinians and their struggle:

The Palestinian people will also resist and survive and continue struggling and will continue to have sympathy from below for their cause.

And perhaps a boy or girl from Gaza will survive, too. Perhaps they'll grow, and with them, their nerve, indignation, and rage. Perhaps they'll become soldiers or militiamen for one of the groups that struggle in Palestine. Perhaps they'll find themselves in combat with Israel. Perhaps they'll do it firing a gun. Perhaps sacrificing themselves with a belt of dynamite around their waists.

And then, from up there above, they will write about the Palestinians' violent nature and they'll make declarations condemning that violence and they'll get back to discussing if it's zionism or anti-semitism.

And no one will ask who planted that which is being harvested.

The Other Campaign Manifests its "Dignified Rage Against This Genocidal Attack"

The EZLN's call for solidarity with Palestine was precluded by a statement issued by the Zapatista-initiated Other Campaign condemning "biggest Israeli air attack in the past 40 years." Writing from the Festival of Dignified Rage in Mexico City (the Festival took place in two locations in Mexico), participants there wrote, "This crime represents a dangerous increase in the permanent holocaust that is committed against the Palestinian people with United States financing and the world's enabling, hypocritical, and disgraceful silence."

The statement continues:

As always, Israel presents itself as the victim that demands the right of self-defense against terrorism, and the corporate media promotes the lie that the slaughter was in response to the Hamas party's launching of Qassam missiles. In reality these missiles are symbolic and almost never cause Israeli victims. In fact, during the recent truce from June 19 to December 19, the Palestinians in Gaza didn't kill a single Israeli civilian, while Israel killed 49 Palestinians. The argument of self-defense against terrorism is also used to justify the merciless blockade which began in January 2006 immediately after Hamas won the legislative elections.

Their goal? Punish the Palestinians in Gaza for having elected a government that is unacceptable for Israel. Thanks to this effort to starve to death Gaza inhabitants, the hospitals don't have the necessary medicine, medical supplies, electricity, potable water, or food to care for the wounded.

The Other Campaign adherents criticize the global community's response—or lack thereof: "While the world leaders criticize Hamas' provocations, they limit themselves to criticizing Israel's 'disproportional use of force.'"

The Festival participants "call upon the international community to resist the military offensive and exercise continual pressure on the Israeli government in order to stop the crimes against the Palestinian people."

Solidarity in Oaxaca

When federal police invaded Oaxaca City on November 25, 2006, Mexicans compared Oaxacans' plight to that of Palestinians: their land was under siege and later occupied by invading government forces; the invaders wanted to force an undemocratic system of governance on them (that is, the status quo); human rights had been thrown out the window long ago; and the people's resistance wouldn't "be drowned, not even in a pool of blood."

Two years later, those same Oaxacans are standing with their Palestinian compañeros. Nancy Davies wrote in Narco News that various collectives and organizations that are members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO)—the coalition that drove out the corrupt state government and held Oaxaca City and many other cities and villages around the state for six months in 2006—organized a protest at the US Consulate in Oaxaca City on January 3. Police doused the protestors with tear gas. The protest, which demanded an "end to the genocide against the Palestinian people," resulted in 19 arrests, including David Venegas, who is an APPO advisor and one of its more famous political prisoners. His legal case related to the 2006 uprising is still pending; he is out on bail for those charges.

Section 22, the democratic teachers union whose strike sparked the uprising, negotiated the prisoners' release. Upon release, those arrested complained that they were beaten while in custody and that police had stolen their belongings.


Of sowing and harvests: Subcomandante Marcos' speech on Gaza

Two days ago, the same day we discussed violence, the ineffable Condoleezza Rice, a US official, declared that what was happening in Gaza was the Palestinians' fault, due to their violent nature.

The underground rivers that crisscross the world can change their geography, but they sing the same song.

And the one we hear now is one of war and pain.

Not far from here, in a place called Gaza, in Palestine, in the Middle East, right here next to us, the Israeli government's heavily trained and armed military continues its march of death and destruction.

The steps it has taken are those of a classic military war of conquest: first an intense mass bombing in order to destroy "strategic" military points (that's how the military manuals put it) and to "soften" the resistance's reinforcements; next a fierce control over information: everything that is heard and seen "in the outside world," that is, outside the theater of operations, must be selected with military criteria; now intense artillery fire against the enemy infantry to protect the advance of troop to new positions; then there will be a siege to weaken the enemy garrison; then the assault that conquers the position and annihilates the enemy, then the "cleaning out" of the probable "nests of resistance."

The military manual of modern war, with a few variations and additions, is being followed step-by-step by the invading military forces.

We don't know a lot about this, and there are surely specialists in the so-called "conflict in the Middle East," but from this corner we have something to say:

According to the news photos, the "strategic" points destroyed by the Israeli government's air force are houses, shacks, civilian buildings. We haven't seen a single bunker, nor a barracks, nor a military airport, nor cannons, amongst the rubble. So--and please excuse our ignorance--we think that either the planes' guns have bad aim, or in Gaza such "strategic" military points don't exist.

We have never had the honor of visiting Palestine, but we suppose that people, men, women, children, and the elderly--not soldiers--lived in those houses, shacks, and buildings.

We also haven't seen the resistance's reinforcements, just rubble.

We have seen, however, the futile efforts of the information siege, and the world governments trying to decide between ignoring or applauding the invasion, and the UN, which has been useless for quite some time, sending out tepid press releases.

But wait. It just occurred to us that perhaps to the Israeli government those men, women, children, and elderly people are enemy soldiers, and as such, the shacks, houses, and buildings that they inhabited are barracks that need to be destroyed.

So surely the hail of bullets that fell on Gaza this morning were in order to protect the Israeli infantry's advance from those men, women, children, and elderly people.

And the enemy garrison that they want to weaken with the siege that is spread out all over Gaza is the Palestinian population that lives there. And the assault will seek to annihilate that population. And whichever man, woman, child, or elderly person that manages to escape or hide from the predictably bloody assault will later be "hunted" so that the cleansing is complete and the commanders in charge of the operation can report to their superiors: "We've completed the mission."

Again, pardon our ignorance, maybe what we're saying is beside the point. And instead of condemning the ongoing crime, being the indigenous and warriors that we are, we should be discussing and taking a position in the discussion about if it's "zionism" or "antisemitism," or if Hamas' bombs started it.

Maybe our thinking is very simple, and we're lacking the nuances and annotations that are always so necessary in analyses, but to the Zapatistas it looks like there's a professional army murdering a defenseless population.

Who from below and to the left can remain silent?

Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian?

We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza.

We don't know about you, but we Zapatistas from the EZLN, we know how important it is, in the middle of destruction and death, to hear some words of encouragement.

I don't know how to explain it, but it turns out that yes, words from afar might not stop a bomb, but it's as if a crack were opened in the black room of death and a tiny ray of light slips in.

As for everything else, what will happen will happen. The Israeli government will declare that it dealt a severe blow to terrorism, it will hide the magnitude of the massacre from its people, the large weapons manufacturers will have obtained economic support to face the crisis, and "the global public opinion," that malleable entity that is always in fashion, will turn away.

But that's not all. The Palestinian people will also resist and survive and continue struggling and will continue to have sympathy from below for their cause.

And perhaps a boy or girl from Gaza will survive, too. Perhaps they'll grow, and with them, their nerve, indignation, and rage. Perhaps they'll become soldiers or militiamen for one of the groups that struggle in Palestine. Perhaps they'll find themselves in combat with Israel. Perhaps they'll do it firing a gun. Perhaps sacrificing themselves with a belt of dynamite around their waists.

And then, from up there above, they will write about the Palestinians' violent nature and they'll make declarations condemning that violence and they'll get back to discussing if it's zionism or anti-semitism.

And no one will ask who planted that which is being harvested.

For the men, women, children, and elderly of the Zapatista National Liberation Army,

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, January 4, 2009.


--
Kristin Bricker

mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com

Rebel Imports - fair trade artesanry and textiles from Zapatista cooperatives
http://www.rebelimports.com

Narco News: Reporting on Democracy and the Drug War from Latin America
http://www.narconews.com