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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Zapatistas condemn Israel’s "war
of extermination" against Palestinians</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-08-06T20:01:56+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/jimmy-johnson"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Jimmy
Johnson</span> on Wed, 08/06/2014 - 20:01<br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/zapatistas-condemn-israels-war-extermination-against-palestinians">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/zapatistas-condemn-israels-war-extermination-against-palestinians</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
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media-element file-full" style="width:618px;"><br>
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<p>The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) this weekend
condemned Israel’s “war of extermination” against the Palestinian
people in Gaza.</p>
<p>At the First Exchange of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico with the
Zapatista Peoples meeting in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/chiapas">Chiapas</a>, 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.”</p>
<p>Tacho gave the statement on behalf of the Indigenous Clandestine
Revolutionary Committee - General Command of the EZLN. The
introductory statement included a rededication of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ezln">Zapatista</a>
solidarity with Palestinians.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/palestinian-activists-condemn-lethal-attack-zapatista-brothers-and-sisters">message
of solidarity</a> in the late spring from a group of Palestinian
activists condemning <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mexico">Mexican</a>-government-backed
attacks in Chiapas.</p>
<p>Below is an excerpt of Comandante Tacho’s message as translated
by <a href="http://www.elkilombo.org/">El Kilombo Intergaláctico</a> but
I recommend reading the full message <a
href="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/">in
Spanish</a> or <a
href="http://www.elkilombo.org/inauguration-of-the-first-exchange-of-indigenous-peoples-of-mexico-with-zapatista-peoples/">English</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Compañeros and compañeras of the National Indigenous Congress.</p>
<p>We come to share our suffering and pain caused by the
Neoliberal system.</p>
<p>But not only this.</p>
<p>We also come to share valuable knowledge, our experiences in
struggle and organization, and our goals and challenges.</p>
<p>We do so in the face of the neoliberal capitalist invaders that
have done us so much damage.</p>
<p>These invaders were not satisfied with the theft and looting
carried out by the conquistadors in 1492.</p>
<p>Those conquistadors encountered the resistance of the peoples,
tribes, and indigenous nations of these lands of this country
called Mexico.</p>
<p>They killed those who opposed subordination to the Spanish
monarchy.</p>
<p>These wicked invading tormentors stained their hands with
indigenous blood and stole the richness cared for by our oldest
ancestors.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>They did not achieve this. That we are here now is proof.</p>
<p>However, communication from the communities of our ancestors
was lost; the relations of these communities were lost.</p>
<p>But the wisdom and intelligence of our oldest grandparents was
hidden from the Spanish invasion.</p>
<p>And with that the indigenous peoples remade their existence.</p>
<p>We grew, forgotten by the powerful, for 500 years in all of the
corners of our Mexican homeland.</p>
<p>We as originary peoples were ignored, deceived, forgotten,
exploited, and enslaved in their dominion for more than 500
years.</p>
<p>And now, through the rise of the neoliberal powers, the machine
of destruction appears once again to disappear our peoples.</p>
<p>They have made it bigger and more modern, supported by laws and
bad governments, in order to invade us once again.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>With this machine comes the death and destruction of our
peoples and our mother earth.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>They do not care about the destruction and death of our entire
peoples, tribes, and nations.</p>
<p>We as the indigenous peoples of Mexico are not protected by
laws and by bad governments.</p>
<p>Our hope lies only in ourselves.</p>
<p>No one is going to come save us; absolutely no one will fight
for us.</p>
<p>Not political parties, nor politicians, nor laws; there is
nothing there for us.</p>
<p>Compañeras and compañeros. The political parties, laws, and bad
governments have demonstrated this clearly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the same date, <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/CUYO-FILMS/223633051161371">Cuyo
Films</a> 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 <a
href="http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com/2009/01/of-sowing-and-harvests-subcomandante.html">2009
statement</a> from Subcomandante Marcos on the December
2008-January 2009 <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-cast-lead">Operation
Cast Lead</a> attack on the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack">Gaza
Strip</a>.</p>
<p>The youth read the statement in Arabic with subtitles in Spanish,
English, Portguese and French.</p>
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