[News] Zapatistas condemn Israel’s "war of extermination" against Palestinians

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Zapatistas condemn Israel’s "war of extermination" against Palestinians

Submitted by Jimmy Johnson on Wed, 08/06/2014 - 20:01
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/zapatistas-condemn-israels-war-extermination-against-palestinians*

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) this weekend condemned 
Israel’s “war of extermination” against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

At the First Exchange of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico with the Zapatista 
Peoples meeting in Chiapas 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/chiapas>, Comandante Tacho expressed 
solidarity between indigenous liberation movements in Mexico and 
Palestine, saying of the Palestinian people, the Zapatistas “embrace 
them today as we have before, as we always do.”

Tacho gave the statement on behalf of the Indigenous Clandestine 
Revolutionary Committee - General Command of the EZLN. The introductory 
statement included a rededication of Zapatista 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ezln> solidarity with Palestinians.

Comandante Tacho’s words were couched in a broader statement about 
indigenous liberation that, even when not referring to Palestine 
directly, are pertinent and insightful. The message follows a message of 
solidarity 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/palestinian-activists-condemn-lethal-attack-zapatista-brothers-and-sisters> 
in the late spring from a group of Palestinian activists condemning 
Mexican <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mexico>-government-backed 
attacks in Chiapas.

Below is an excerpt of Comandante Tacho’s message as translated by El 
Kilombo Intergaláctico <http://www.elkilombo.org/> but I 
recommend reading the full message in Spanish 
<http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2014/08/04/inauguracion-de-la-primera-comparticion-de-pueblos-originarios-de-mexico-con-pueblos-zapatistas-palabras-del-comandante-tacho-a-nombre-del-comite-clandestino-revolucionario-indigena-comandancia-gene/> 
or English 
<http://www.elkilombo.org/inauguration-of-the-first-exchange-of-indigenous-peoples-of-mexico-with-zapatista-peoples/>.

    Compañeros and compañeras of the National Indigenous Congress.

    We come to share our suffering and pain caused by the Neoliberal system.

    But not only this.

    We also come to share valuable knowledge, our experiences in
    struggle and organization, and our goals and challenges.

    We do so in the face of the neoliberal capitalist invaders that have
    done us so much damage.

    These invaders were not satisfied with the theft and looting carried
    out by the conquistadors in 1492.

    Those conquistadors encountered the resistance of the peoples,
    tribes, and indigenous nations of these lands of this country called
    Mexico.

    They killed those who opposed subordination to the Spanish monarchy.

    These wicked invading tormentors stained their hands with indigenous
    blood and stole the richness cared for by our oldest ancestors.

    They persecuted the Indian peoples of Mexico and all of Latin
    America with the goal of eliminating the indigenous peoples
    completely and banishing their existence.

    They did not achieve this. That we are here now is proof.

    However, communication from the communities of our ancestors was
    lost; the relations of these communities were lost.

    But the wisdom and intelligence of our oldest grandparents was
    hidden from the Spanish invasion.

    And with that the indigenous peoples remade their existence.

    We grew, forgotten by the powerful, for 500 years in all of the
    corners of our Mexican homeland.

    We as originary peoples were ignored, deceived, forgotten,
    exploited, and enslaved in their dominion for more than 500 years.

    And now, through the rise of the neoliberal powers, the machine of
    destruction appears once again to disappear our peoples.

    They have made it bigger and more modern, supported by laws and bad
    governments, in order to invade us once again.

    It has a new plan of dispossession, dispossessing us of our mother
    earth using the machinery of the power of money, looting the riches
    that mother earth has held and kept safe for millions of years.

    With this machine comes the death and destruction of our peoples and
    our mother earth.

    When we say these two words so well known by our peoples—these words
    of death and destruction—our heart and our gaze goes to the
    PALESTINIAN people. We hear and read what they say about “the
    conflict in Gaza,” as if there were two equal forces confronting
    each other, and as if saying “conflict” would hide the death and
    destruction such that death would not kill and destruction would not
    destroy.

    But as the indigenous people that we are, we know that what is
    happening there is not a “conflict” but a MASSACRE, that the
    government of Israel is carrying out a war of extermination upon the
    PALESTINIAN people. Everything else is just words to try to hide
    reality.

    But we also know, as the indigenous people that we are, that the
    PALESTINIAN people will resist and will rise again, that they will
    once again begin to walk and that they will known then that,
    although we are far away on the map, the Zapatista peoples embrace
    them today as we have before, as we always do, with our collective
    heart.

    And here on our map, the power of money’s machine of war of is
    without a brain, without memory, wicked, like a savage animal
    unleashed against our indigenous peoples of Mexico.

    They do not care about the destruction and death of our entire
    peoples, tribes, and nations.

    We as the indigenous peoples of Mexico are not protected by laws and
    by bad governments.

    Our hope lies only in ourselves.

    No one is going to come save us; absolutely no one will fight for us.

    Not political parties, nor politicians, nor laws; there is nothing
    there for us.

    Compañeras and compañeros. The political parties, laws, and bad
    governments have demonstrated this clearly.

On the same date, Cuyo Films 
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/CUYO-FILMS/223633051161371> and Pablo A. 
Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes released a video titled, “Mexican Youth Express a 
Message of Solidarity to the Palestinian People. In it, they read a 2009 
statement 
<http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com/2009/01/of-sowing-and-harvests-subcomandante.html> 
from Subcomandante Marcos on the December 2008-January 2009 Operation 
Cast Lead <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-cast-lead> 
attack on the Gaza Strip 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack>.

The youth read the statement in Arabic with subtitles in Spanish, 
English, Portguese and French.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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