{"id":33878,"date":"2024-05-23T11:21:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T18:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=33878"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:21:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T18:21:41","slug":"from-the-rivers-to-the-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/23\/from-the-rivers-to-the-seas\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Rivers to the Seas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Palestinian cause is uniting the world<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>DAVID SPERO RN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAY 21, 2024 (davidsperorn.substack.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: islamtimes.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We often see defenders of Israel and the US mock young pro-Palestinian<\/a> protesters. \u201cThey chant \u2018From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Free,\u2019 but they don\u2019t even know what river and what sea <\/strong>they are talking about. They just want to feel good about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading Make Earth Sacred Again! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Subscribe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The genocide supporters might have a point; Americans are notoriously ignorant of geography. But you know what? It doesn\u2019t make any difference which river or which sea, because Palestine is now everywhere<\/strong>. It\u2019s from all the rivers to all the seas, wherever people are oppressed by the empire centered in the US and spearheaded by Israel. That is why the world is rising in support of Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another chant heard at pro-Palestine protests goes, \u201cIn our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.\u201d Palestine\u2019s resistance is inspiring people <\/strong>to fight for a better world, which is why the Empire is so desperate to demonize pro-Palestinians, including Jewish protestors<\/a>, as terrorists, Jew-haters and dupes of Iran, Russia<\/a>, China<\/a> or Hamas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian flag has become the standard of people struggling for liberation in Latin America<\/a>, in Africa<\/a>, Haiti<\/a>, and increasingly in Europe and North America. We see that flag on campuses, in city streets, and on t-shirts. Palestinian colors now symbolize revolutionary change<\/strong>. For the first time since the collapse of the USSR, Empire is threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rulers\u2019 insecurity drives them to shut down speech on campuses, at workplaces, in the streets and on the Internet. It\u2019s why they shadow ban pro-Palestine posts<\/a> on Facebook and Instagram, demonetize pro-Palestine content on YouTube, and want to ban TikTok <\/strong>completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruling class fear explains why protestors are arrested, beaten<\/a>, and sometimes slammed with long sentences for nonviolent demonstrations. Not only pro-Palestinians, but indigenous defenders of water, land<\/a>, and animals are attacked by an increasingly repressive state. We are all becoming Palestinians, and we\u2019re starting to see ourselves that way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the great civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1967<\/a>, the United States needs a \u201cradical revolution of values\u201d to overcome \u201cthe giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism<\/strong>.\u201d That revolution has not happened, and those triplets are dragging people into endless wars and poverty all over the world. They\u2019re killing our planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The genocide in Gaza, the proxy war in Ukraine, the mass suffering in Africa<\/a>, Haiti, and in the streets of America are shaking people out of our dazed acceptance of the system\u2019s horror. How much cruelty, depravity, and hypocrisy, like that displayed by Israel and the US, can people take before we snap? We are moving away from this nightmare world. Palestine is leading us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where will we go? I don\u2019t think the Palestinian movement will lead to worldwide Islam or to communism. I think different societies will go in different ways, but we will help each other, not war<\/strong> against each other. (By the way, this is China\u2019s plan, different systems cooperating<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that same 1967 speech, Dr. King said US society was \u201cthing-oriented\u201d and needed to become \u201cpeople-oriented.\u201d I would add that we also need to be Nature-oriented<\/a>, not profit-oriented.<\/strong> Perhaps each society will do this in its own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military-industrial complex (MIC)\u200a\u2014\u200aof which Israel is a central part<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200awill not like this change one bit, and they will try to stop it with propaganda and with deadly force<\/strong>. This is what we\u2019re seeing from Gaza to militarized police crackdowns on protest, to the lie-filled pages and screens of the New York Times, Fox News, NPR, and CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silence will not protect us<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One year to the day after King\u2019s speech opposing war, he was assassinated <\/strong>in Memphis by the FBI or its hired guns<\/a>. We have seen in Palestine the depths to which Empire will sink, the atrocities it commits<\/a>, and the lies it tells to promote their narrative and hold on to their power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a dangerous time, calling for great courage, as the Palestinians and revolutionaries before them have shown. As the African-American feminist Audre Lorde wrote, \u201cYour silence will not protect you<\/a>.\u201d She said we must \u201ctransform silence into language and action,\u201d not only to change the world but to be true to ourselves<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m quoting African-American thinkers because they show us that this is one struggle, from all the rivers to all the seas. Palestine is leading at the moment, and we must give them all the support we can, give them all we\u2019ve got<\/strong>, but we can\u2019t stop there. We have to see that Palestine is everywhere, and that we all need to be free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war in Palestine isn\u2019t about Jews vs. Muslims. It\u2019s about indigenous people who love their land vs. colonizers who only want to profit <\/strong>from it. At a rally for Gaza, I heard a Palestinian speaker say that when they say \u2018Free Palestine,\u2019 they don\u2019t just mean their people. They mean the animals and plants, the land and water. That strikes me as a militant indigenous way of approaching the world, a way that might enable us to heal some of the terrible damage colonialism\/capitalism has done<\/a> to us and to our sacred Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Jordan River, the one in the chants. Image: Immanuel Tours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian cause can unite us, and it is already bringing the world together. On the comment thread of any pro-Palestine video, one can read messages from all continents, all religions and races, in many languages<\/strong>, all supporting and giving love to each other. We used to call that attitude \u2018solidarity,\u2019 and I think it\u2019s the right way to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity feels great<\/a>, and Palestine is bringing it back. Why not join in? Let\u2019s make Gaza the turning point our grandchildren learn about and say, \u201cThis is where it all changed<\/strong>. Palestine is where we were saved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Contributed by Janet Kobren)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Palestinian cause is uniting the world DAVID SPERO RN MAY 21, 2024 (davidsperorn.substack.com) We often see defenders of Israel and the US mock young pro-Palestinian protesters. \u201cThey chant \u2018From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Free,\u2019 but they don\u2019t even know what river and what sea they are talking about. They… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33878"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33879,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33878\/revisions\/33879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}