16 July 2022

The joint declaration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid reveals not only the fundamental bankruptcy of the imperialist and Zionist systems they represent but also underlines the necessity to act and stand now in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their resistance, to liberate their land from the river to the sea. This strategic partnership of violence, warmongering, repression and colonialism must be met with our own anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist strategic partnership for justice.

Issued in occupied Jerusalem, itself a signal of the declaration’s alignment with impunity for ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, the document boasts of “shared values and shared interests.” It is clear that the shared values referred to here are those of imperial domination, settler colonialism and the violent oppression of Indigenous peoples. We reject these “shared values and shared interests” and instead uphold the shared values of humanity: the dismantling of apartheid and settler colonialism, the liberation of the land, and the protection of peoples’ rights, not war profiteers’ greed and colonial land theft.

The declaration repeatedly attacks the Palestinian resistance and all forces and nations in the region that seek to defend their right to sovereignty and self-determination. It labels Palestinian resistance as terrorism while remaining silent on the ongoing extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, mass incarceration, land theft, siege, and the exile of millions of Palestinians denied their right to return home. Israel and the U.S. are waging colonial war. Their declaration asserts a right to unilateral war, the logic of the colonizer, and boasts of the over $3.8 billion in U.S. taxpayer money sent to further arm that war (while enriching U.S. arms developers). The Palestinian people, like all colonized people, have the right to defend themselves.

Biden and Lapid reinforce their attacks on boycott campaigns, the growing call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and the “delegitimization of Israel,” and clumsily attempt to link campaigns for justice and liberation in Palestine with anti-Semitism. In reality, the campaign to boycott and isolate Israel is growing on our campuses, in our community centers, labour unions and academic associations, in our food co-ops and social justice organizations, in the streets of our cities and communities. Such statements do nothing to legitimize a fundamentally illegitimate project — the colonization of Palestine and the dispossession of Palestinians.

While Biden and Lapid trumpet their military alliance, we must respond with a peoples’ alliance: that is, an alliance that firmly rejects imperialism and Zionism, that builds the very boycott campaigns they seek to undermine or even criminalize, that supports the Palestinian people and their resistance by all means, and that stands together against the systems of domination, injustice, settler colonialism, and exploitation that they represent. Together, we organize and struggle until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.

Add your signature: https://bit.ly/bidenpalestine

Signed:

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC)
Alkarama (Palestinian women’s movement)
Asociación Americana de Juristas
BACBI
BAYAN Canada
BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish
Behind Enemy Lines Anti-Imperialist Resistance
Birmingham Palestine Action
Cambiare rotta
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Canada Palestine Association
Canadian BDS Coalition
Canadians for Peace and Justice in Kashmir
Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine
Centre for Counter-Hegemonic Studies
Collectif Palestine Vaincra
Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine
CUNY4Palestine
Dallas Palestine Coalition
Dar al Janub – union for antiracism and peace policy
Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnership
Edmonton Small Press Association
Éirígí – For A New Republic
Falastiniyat
Free Palestine Maastricht
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista
Global Peace Alliance BC Society
Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
Human Rights for All ( HR4A) Saskatchewan
Human Without Borders Organisation
IDPAL – Indonesia Palestine Alliance
Inminds Human Rights Group
International Action Center
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
International Jewish Antizionist Network UK
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Canada (ILPS)
Jewish Network for Palestine
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
Justice for Palestinians, Calgary
Kings Bay Plowshares
Labor for Palestine
Let Kashmir Decide
Louisiana Workers Voice Socialist Movement
Madison for Palestine
Manchester Palestine Action
Masar Badil – Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
Media Review Network
Nederlands Palestina Komitee (NPK)
Nevadans for Palestinian Human Rights
Niagara Movement for Justice (NMJPI)
Not In Our Name: Jewish Antizionist CUNY Coalition
NYC Jericho Amnesty Movement
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
Occupy Bergen County
One State Assembly
PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
Palestine Action
Palestine House – Palestinian Canadian Community Centre
Palestinian American Women’s Association
Palestinian Youth Movement
Party of Communists USA
Pax Christi Toronto
Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association
Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine
Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
Regina Peace Council
Revolutionaire Eenheid
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Socialist Action
Students for Justice in Palestine @ The Ohio State University
Students for Justice in Palestine at UW-Madison
Students For Palestine (NL)
SUPER — UW
SUPER PSU
Syria Support Movement
The Mapping Project Collective
Toronto Raging Grannies
U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
United National Antiwar Coalition
Upstate Drone Action
Whanganui Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
Workers World Party
Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Director and Senior Scholar, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University

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