This speech was read by Jennifer at the demo “Internationalist feminist solidarity with the resistance of the Palestinian people” on 20th July 2023 – it was written by Rose and Jennifer together.
As-salamu alaykum, habari gani
I am Jennifer Kamau from IWS. Today, we are here again at our freedom corner.
For me, this place is significant. Oranienplatz is a symbol of our resilience against oppression that threatens our daily existence, solidarity, resistance, and hope.
Today, in this Freedom Corner, let us all wear our Keffiyeh as a symbol of solidarity. Let us wave our flags as a sign of resistance to ethnic cleansing and marginalisation of indigenous Palestine people.
I am not from Palestine, but know what it is like to live under the heavy yokes of being ‘othered’ by Babylon system.
I connect with struggles for freedom and self determination. I believe the fight for emancipation of Black people, African people everywhere and Palestinians is historical and justified.
I am from Kenya, one of the many lands colonised by Britain. Our history is often told and justified in the eyes of the brutal regime that sought and still seeks to erase our culture, expression and our humanity.
With its armies and weapons, Britain occupied our land. For 74 years, British rulers trampled on our land, abused us, sought to annihilate us and took our ancestral lands. They tried to take our identity, deny our existence. I understand the pain and ravages of occupation and colonisation.
For 75 years Israel has been fighting using advanced weapons and America’s Aid against a country that has no army and no central government.
With America’s bullets, bombs and other war machineries Israel continues its genocide. The imperialist regime thrives in crashing the spirit of the Palestinian People by putting them in cages, holding them in concentration camps and denying their existence.
The world watches as Israel carries out a genocide, steals Palestine’s homeland, cut of their water and starve them.
For the last two years, NATO has used all the resources in its power; millions of Euros and weaponry to guard the sovereignty of Ukraine. Sadly, the expansion of occupation of Eastern Jerusalem ,Gaza Strip and West Bank raises no protest.
When Palestinians defend themselves, somehow they are the oppressors, aggravators and the enemy.
Take a look at Israel, its occupation, detention and segregation camps, raids and attacks and you will know who the oppressors are. How can the world see Israeli’s occupation of Palestinian territories as justified?
I call it colonisation. I call it apartheid. Palestine was a land before Israel’s occupation and it still is.
As we gather here in Oplatz, we remember the silence and deaf ears of successive regimes to the legacy of terror and genocide of Israel.
As a country whose history is defined by one of the world’s darkest eras of systematic, state-sponsored persecution and genocides, Germany should call Israel out. Instead, this country is a supporter of the murderous and racist regime whose ideology is not far from that of the Nazis.
This country’s troubled past disables Palestinian determination in the liberation fight. Today, to Germany we say: ‘Deal with your guilt. Stop projecting your shame on Palestinians’. One Holocaust does not justify another. Criticising Israel is not anti-semiticism. Enough of the mischaracterisation and weaponization of the movement for freedom for Palestine.
Today, call by name all those who have been killed from the streets of Gaza, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Westbank.
Today, we remember all the children, women and men of Palestine, held in concentration camps. We remember all Palestinians fighting for the freedom of their land.
If you are sick about hearing about the genocide in Palestine, imagine how those experience it fell. Israel thrives on the blood and tears of Palestine. We must stop feeding this parasitic regime.
We demand the liberation of Palestine. Palestine should and must be sovereign.
We say today, all refugees must be granted the right to return to their land.
Palestine People have a right to exist, right to be free, right to self rule and self determination.
Palestinian lives matter. Power to the Resistance of Palestine. Black solidarity for Palestine.
Aluta continua!
IW*S
International Women* Space is a feminist, anti-racist political group in Berlin with refugee and migrant women* and non-migrant women* as members.