One month ago, I stood in the Biblical city of Nazareth with a delegation of Black and brown freedom fighters from Ferguson, Florida and across the US. We sang in the spirit of Ella Baker, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.”
I visited Palestine in solidarity with a people living under occupation, siege and dehumanization. I remember learning about the level of violence and militarization when I was younger, but I knew that I needed to visit Palestine in order to be present and bear witness to the role the United States has played in the murder and genocide of a people. No studying could prepare me for the level of violence and trauma that exists inside Palestine.
I saw that there are two different systems in occupied Palestine--two completely different systems. Folks are unable to go to parts of their own country. Folks are barred from living in their own country. The Black Lives Matter movement can benefit greatly by learning about struggles outside of the U.S., but particularly the Palestinian struggle.
It is in this context that I offer my wholehearted support to students at Stanford University as you vote to divest from multinational corporations that profit from the Occupation of Palestine. This is incredibly important work not only for the liberation of Palestinians, but towards justice for oppressed people around the world who have suffered similar histories of dispossession, discrimination, and dehumanization.
Divestment is an action that everyday people of conscience around the world can take to show that we have not abandoned Palestinians, and that cannot ignore their condition regardless of how much the global power structures that represent us have. It as a tactic that we can use - and have used throughout history - as people committed to struggling against injustice. Today Stanford has the opportunity to shift away from an oppressive status quo and I urge you to follow through with your historical imperative.
While I understand that the Stanford resolution takes no stance on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, I would like to express my support for it. My fellow delegates to Palestine and I made a commitment during our trip to supporting the to end systemic human rights abuses against Palestinians through BDS. Our endorsement followed two weeks after Dream Defenders unanimously voted to participate in this grassroots movement. BDS is an oppressed people’s call for support and we have a moral obligation to respond in our own specific ways.
While I have always been international in my focus for liberation, recent trips have shown me how to put struggle across national borders into practice. This year alone, I have had the opportunity to take Black Lives Matter abroad to Palestine, to the United Kingdom, and to Ireland. A week ago, I participated in an action to shutdown the headquarters of G4S, a company targeted by your divestment resolution for its violations against Palestinians and communities of color in the US. After shutting down the lobby, we occupied the street in front and made connections between law enforcement and private security in the UK, Ferguson and Palestine.
The necessary connections we draw between people under struggle do not negate the specific histories of those communities. We understand the specificities of our struggles but we also understand that oppression is oppression.
Divestment is not a declaration that Palestinian lives matter more than Israeli ones; it is an affirmation that Palestinian lives matter. Period. In order to have any peace with justice, we have to address the needs of the most marginalized by our societies. For some, confronting the role of their communities in this marginalization may be uncomfortable--it may even be completely at odds with the narratives they grew up with. But this discomfort cannot impede the freedom of another people.
Palestinians have lived behind physical and invisible walls for too long. In 2015, it is time for those walls to come down and it is time for the occupation to end.
Stanford, Divest.
Yours in Power,
Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac
Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter
Executive Director, Dignity and Power Now
I visited Palestine in solidarity with a people living under occupation, siege and dehumanization. I remember learning about the level of violence and militarization when I was younger, but I knew that I needed to visit Palestine in order to be present and bear witness to the role the United States has played in the murder and genocide of a people. No studying could prepare me for the level of violence and trauma that exists inside Palestine.
I saw that there are two different systems in occupied Palestine--two completely different systems. Folks are unable to go to parts of their own country. Folks are barred from living in their own country. The Black Lives Matter movement can benefit greatly by learning about struggles outside of the U.S., but particularly the Palestinian struggle.
It is in this context that I offer my wholehearted support to students at Stanford University as you vote to divest from multinational corporations that profit from the Occupation of Palestine. This is incredibly important work not only for the liberation of Palestinians, but towards justice for oppressed people around the world who have suffered similar histories of dispossession, discrimination, and dehumanization.
Divestment is an action that everyday people of conscience around the world can take to show that we have not abandoned Palestinians, and that cannot ignore their condition regardless of how much the global power structures that represent us have. It as a tactic that we can use - and have used throughout history - as people committed to struggling against injustice. Today Stanford has the opportunity to shift away from an oppressive status quo and I urge you to follow through with your historical imperative.
While I understand that the Stanford resolution takes no stance on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, I would like to express my support for it. My fellow delegates to Palestine and I made a commitment during our trip to supporting the to end systemic human rights abuses against Palestinians through BDS. Our endorsement followed two weeks after Dream Defenders unanimously voted to participate in this grassroots movement. BDS is an oppressed people’s call for support and we have a moral obligation to respond in our own specific ways.
While I have always been international in my focus for liberation, recent trips have shown me how to put struggle across national borders into practice. This year alone, I have had the opportunity to take Black Lives Matter abroad to Palestine, to the United Kingdom, and to Ireland. A week ago, I participated in an action to shutdown the headquarters of G4S, a company targeted by your divestment resolution for its violations against Palestinians and communities of color in the US. After shutting down the lobby, we occupied the street in front and made connections between law enforcement and private security in the UK, Ferguson and Palestine.
The necessary connections we draw between people under struggle do not negate the specific histories of those communities. We understand the specificities of our struggles but we also understand that oppression is oppression.
Divestment is not a declaration that Palestinian lives matter more than Israeli ones; it is an affirmation that Palestinian lives matter. Period. In order to have any peace with justice, we have to address the needs of the most marginalized by our societies. For some, confronting the role of their communities in this marginalization may be uncomfortable--it may even be completely at odds with the narratives they grew up with. But this discomfort cannot impede the freedom of another people.
Palestinians have lived behind physical and invisible walls for too long. In 2015, it is time for those walls to come down and it is time for the occupation to end.
Stanford, Divest.
Yours in Power,
Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac
Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter
Executive Director, Dignity and Power Now
#StanfordDivest has gotten a wide range of endorsements from people and groups in the US, Palestine, Israel and beyond. Check out the full list here.