The Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN) condemns the police attack against members of Kenyans4Palestine during their peaceful protest outside the German embassy in Nairobi on Thursday, 25 January 2024. The purpose of the demonstration was to voice the disapproval of Kenyans to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and the complicity of western states such as Germany, which as sided with Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). We denounce this violence perpetrated against people demonstrating for justice and peace and against genocide, and in solidarity with a people enduring daily massacres.

Kenyans4Palestine consists of Kenyan standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and raising awareness about the ongoing 75-year occupation of the Palestinian people and Palestinian land by Israel, and the genocide in the Gaza Strip for the past 110 days.

Despite the protest being peaceful, and K4P having informed Kenyan authorities in advance, the demonstrators were met with a violent crackdown by the security forces. Activists were subjected to tear gas, physical assaults, injuries, and even arrests, thus violating their rights to free expression and protest.

K4P is a member of PAPSN, a continent-wide civil society coalition that coordinates the activities of Palestine solidarity groups across Africa. We draw the attention of Kenyan authorities to the Genocide Convention, which makes it a duty of states to prevent the crime of genocide, even when it occurs beyond their borders. In the context of the genocide currently underway in Gaza, with more than 25,000 civilians killed, close to 100,000 injured, hospital, schools, churches, mosques and UN facilities targeted and bombed, it is unconscionable that any African government may maintain business-us-usual relations with Israel, a state guilty of colonialism, occupation and apartheid. Such relations constitute complicity in the crime of genocide.

Our members across the continent have noted that the Kenyan government has failed to take an acceptable humanitarian or political stance against the horrors suffered by the Palestinian people. It remains silent in the face of gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as well as genocide that we watch daily on our screens. That, after such silence and complicity, the Kenyan authorities even refuse to allow its own citizens to express their anger and disgust at the genocide is shocking. As a nation that, not long ago, lived under a similar regime of colonialism, from which it gloriously liberated itself, we expect more solidarity from the Kenyan government for another people living under colonialism and occupation.

PAPSN stands in solidarity with our members who were subjected to violence and repression during their peaceful demonstration on Thursday. We call on the Kenyan government to respect the rights of those protesting against genocide, and for the government itself to take meaningful action to address the ongoing Palestinian crisis, rather than supporting a right-wing, racist and colonialist Israeli regime intent on genocide and crimes against humanity. History will judge harshly those who choose to remain complicit in the face of injustice.

#FreedomForPalestine #JusticeForActivists

The Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN) express its profound appreciation for South Africa’s urgent application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in Gaza. The application asserts that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” and requests the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to indicate provisional measures, including for Israel to stop the aggression, allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and stop and reverse the systematic forced displacement, in order to protect Palestinian rights from “further, severe and irreparable harm.”

The urgency of this application is underscored by the dire situation in Palestine, notably in Gaza. Thirty six UN experts have condemned Israel’s “genocide in the making” against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. The leading international law scholar on the crime of genocide, William Schabas, has stated in a legal opinion that indeed there is a serious risk that Israel is committing the crime of genocide in Gaza. Prominent genocide and Holocaust studies scholar Omer Bartov as well as over 880 international scholars, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, and Palestinian human rights organizations have also warned of an unfolding genocide. Prominent Israeli genocide scholar Raz Segal and ex-Director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York, Craig Mokhiber, have called it a “text-book case of genocide.”

Given the complete failure of the UN Security Council, under US pressure, to take meaningful action and Israel’s blatant refusal to comply with the UNGA resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire, supported by the overwhelming majority of states including African states, we urgently call upon all State Parties to the Genocide Convention to provide full support to the ICJ proceedings, particularly the implementation of provisional measures proposed by South Africa.  

African states have repeatedly sought recourse at the International Court of Justice – whether The Gambia’s successful application regarding the genocide in Myanmar or Mauritius’ claim against the UK regarding the Chagos Islands. We ask our states to continue to uphold the rule of international law against a world where “might makes right” and defend African agency in  international institutions.

We remind African governments of their commitment under the African Union statute, which directly links the liberation of Africa to the struggle against colonialism, Zionism and apartheid. This support is essential to uphold our collective values and to reinforce our stand against occupation and injustice on a global scale.

We emphasize the crucial responsibility of African nations to vigilantly ensure their non-complicity, either directly or indirectly, in any actions that may support or perpetuate apartheid and genocide. This responsibility extends beyond mere non-participation; it necessitates a proactive stance in scrutinizing and discontinuing any forms of economic, military, or political support that could be construed as endorsing or aiding these severe human rights violations. This includes agreements with Israel regarding African migrant workers to be sent to replace Palestinians and fuel Israel’s apartheid economy as well as the possible participation in Israel’s plans of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in Gaza.

It is imperative that African countries uphold their commitment to human rights and justice by actively preventing any association or contribution to these oppressive practices. This ethical obligation aligns with the values and principles of the African Union and the broader international community’s commitment to safeguarding human dignity and freedom.

Power to Africa!
Freedom for Palestine!

This year, November 29th, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, holds immense significance, now more than ever. The Israeli genocidal attack on Gaza has reportedly resulted in over 15,000 Palestinian deaths, including more than 6,150 children, and forced the displacement of 1.7 million Palestinians. The recent bombing has devastated healthcare, with 26 hospitals out of service, and destroyed all crucial infrastructure. Israel has used starvation as a weapon and deprived the entire population of food, water, fuel, and even the most basic medical supplies. This planned and accelerated genocide is a result of 75 years of impunity that the international community has awarded to Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism. 

The last weeks have shown the full extent of the complicity of Western powers, who have given Apartheid Israel unfettered military and diplomatic support. Only global popular mobilization and a decisive stand of the Global South can ensure that Gaza will not become a model for a new world order where “might is right” and extreme violence can be perpetrated against anyone that opposes Western domination and interests. 

We therefore celebrate that throughout the world, including in Africa, people have risen in unprecedented numbers in solidarity to stop the unmasked genocide committed by the USA-Israel axis in Gaza. These global protests and demonstrations have brought to light the long-standing reality of Israeli settler colonialism and its enduring atrocities that have plagued the region for decades. Their unwavering commitment serves as a testament to the power of unity, reminding us that the fight against oppression and for human rights and the dignity of all peoples is a universal cause.

During these last few weeks, the solidarity movement for Palestine in Africa has seen a marked increase in diverse and powerful actions, from widespread protests and marches demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and lifting the siege to calls for holding those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable at the International Criminal Court. Artistic and cultural expressions have flourished, harnessing the transformative power of art to amplify support for the Palestinian struggle against genocide and apartheid. Moreover, significant boycott campaigns have targeted complicit Israeli companies and those supporting  Israeli apartheid and occupation, aiming to exert economic and political pressure. The establishment of new networks to oppose the genocide in Gaza and dismantle its apartheid regime underscores a growing, continent-wide commitment to the cause. These concerted efforts culminated in political moves, such as Chad severing ties with Israel and the South African Parliament’s vote demanding the suspension of diplomatic ties with Israel. This underscores Africa’s profound and enduring commitment to justice and human rights, and how deeply Africa’s own history of anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles and our fight for self-determination are intertwined with the Palestinian cause. 

This collective history of overcoming oppression and seeking self-rule provides a powerful parallel to the ongoing Palestinian quest for liberation, self-determination, justice and dignity.

In front of this unfolding genocide, it is urgent for our people to rise, organize and pressure our governments and institutions to end all ties of complicity with Apartheid Israel and fully support the Palestinian people in their struggle.  

We uphold the charter of the African Union, which commits the Union and its members to oppose Zionism, colonialism and apartheid. We remind governments of this commitment to challenging oppressive ideologies and practices that deny basic human rights and dignity. 

Yet, solidarity cannot only be a political statement but has to be translated into meaningful action. Despite some positive shifts in stance, most African governments continue to maintain business-as-usual relations with Israeli Apartheid, often expressing their opposition only in muted tones. Trade exchanges, including an ever increasing export of Israeli military technology to Africa, persist. Israeli arms and military training, tested against the Palestinian people, are fuelling war and civil wars on our continent, also killing our own people. Israel’s agribusiness corporations take foot across our continent, contributing to the resource theft, displacement and other plights that our rural communities and environment suffer.

We refuse to finance the Apartheid regime, we refuse to consume products that support it, we refuse to entertain it. This historical moment demands strong-willed individuals who say no to genocide, no to colonialism, and no to supporting the oppressor. It calls for a resounding yes to the right of the Palestinian people to live in freedom, justice and dignity. This stance is not just a political position but a moral imperative, urging individuals and nations alike to stand firmly against injustice and for the basic human rights of all people.

In response to the call from BDS movement and under the banner Unite now to stop #GazaGenocide and start dismantling apartheid!, the Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network reaffirms its commitment today to escalate popular mobilization and pressure on governments to: 

• Ensure a permanent ceasefire, unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid and an end of the siege on Gaza is guaranteed.
• Impose sanctions on Apartheid Israel, starting from an end to all military and security relations, and cut diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel.
• Ensure the United Nations, the African Union and other multilateral bodies impose lawful sanctions on Israel to end the genocide and dismantle apartheid.
• Ensure those perpetrating and enabling Israel’s genocide, apartheid and war crimes are held accountable in front of the International Criminal Court and other fora. 
• Build effective popular campaigns of economic, cultural, academic and sports boycott.

Power to Africa!
Freedom for Palestine!

We, the undersigned African groups and organizations, welcome the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mr Moussa Faki’s announcement of the suspension of Israel’s observer status in our union. This is an important first step towards rectifying the terrible mistake of admitting, in any way, the Israeli settler-colonial and apartheid regime into the African Union. Apartheid and Israel’s ideology, Zionism, stand in stark contradiction to our values and principles as enshrined in the African Charter for Peoples and Human Rights and have no place in our union.

We call on the ad hoc committee of heads of state set up by the African Union to revoke Israel’s accreditation or any status allowing for its presence in our union, toward removing it from the continent.

The removal of senior Israeli diplomats from the opening session of the AU Summit should serve as an inspiration for the uprooting of all colonial forces and any racist and colonial presence in Africa.  Apartheid Israel has been expanding in our continent, fueling conflict and corruption, pillaging our natural resources, spreading disinformation and fear by selling and promoting weapons and technologies developed through the dispossession, oppression, and deprivation of the Palestinian people. The removal of apartheid Israel from Africa speaks to the core identity of our African Union and gives it a powerful voice that defies the hypocrisy and double standards with which we and our Palestinian brothers and sisters are treated by the hegemonic global North.

As Africans from across our nations we reaffirm the intrinsic historical link between us and the Indigenous Palestinian People and our shared collective aspiration for justice, freedom, and equality. Inspired by the glimpse of justice we saw at the African Union Summit and in the spirit of the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights, and recalling specifically its commitment “to eliminate colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, and Zionism”, we call on the African Union and all members states to: 

• Address Israel’s settler-colonialism and apartheid including by publicly recognizing that Israel is perpetrating international war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid, against the Palestinian people;
• Refrain from recognizing any legitimacy of the unlawful situation created by Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime and ensure that the AU and its member states do not contribute, directly or indirectly, toward the maintenance of Israeli apartheid, in line with their international law obligations;
• Implement a mandatory and comprehensive arms embargo against Apartheid Israel, including all forms of military and security technology and spyware;
• Support the adoption of a resolution at the UN General Assembly to reconstitute the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre against Apartheid to address the crime against humanity of apartheid against the Palestinian people as a whole and empower these bodies to proactively pursue sanctions towards the dismantlement of Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime.

Endorsements:

Muslim Awareness International Nigeria

What does the City Hall of the 16th arrondissement of Paris have to do with this conference?

By hosting this conference, France is demonstrating its willingness to promote the Israeli apartheid regime on French soil, after Israel’s failed attempt to organise a similar summit on the African continent. This conference was Israel’s second, and far less ambitious, attempt at an Africa-Israel summit. Initial Israeli plans were to hold a summit in the African nation of Togo. These had to be cancelled after significant popular and diplomatic pressure convinced more and more countries to boycott the conference. The Israeli regime therefore looked to France to support its policies in Africa. France agreed to support the organisation of this conference, which once again demonstrates  how deeply embedded colonialism and paternalism are in French foreign policy.   

We think it is important, also within the Afro-descendant community, to denounce these colonial power games. Africa does not need the Israeli apartheid regime to face the challenges it faces, be they climatic, commercial or social. Africa needs even less the massive arrival on its continent of the tools and techniques of Israeli oppression field-tested on Palestinian bodies and society.

Popular movements across the African continent are mobilising against the creeping penetration of Israel into Africa. They tell us clearly: Africa does not need France to promote the return of apartheid on its soil!

First signatories:

Amzat Boukari, historian and Pan-Africanist activist

Patrice Garesio, co-president of Survie

Franco Lollia, Anti-Negrophobia Brigade

Olivier Marboeuf, author, critic and film producer

Fania Noël, afrofeminist essayist and sociologist

Lissell Quiroz, professor of Latin American studies at CY Cergy Paris University

Michèle Sibony, Spokesperson of the French Jewish Union for Peace

Ghislain Vedeux, former president of CRAN, vice-president of ENAR (European Network Against Racism)

Françoise Vergès, political scientist and decolonial feminist activist

Text first published in French by Agence Média Palestine and available here.

Images from the Protest in Paris in front of the City Hall that will be hosting the conference

Protest organized by: BDS France

Photos taken by: Anne Paq

Remembering the words of Nelson Mandela, we declare that our victories over colonialism
and apartheid will always be incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

We therefore call on all progressive forces and justice-loving people in Africa and the
African diaspora to mark these ten days against colonialism, racism and apartheid with
Palestine solidarity actions across the length and breadth of our continent and beyond.
On 15 May we commemorate the start of the “Nakba” [arabic ‘catastrophe], the foundation
of the state of Israel and its ongoing violent assault of the Israeli settler-colonial project on
the Palestinian people.

Zionist forces massacred thousands of men, women and children, forced 700,000 Palestinians
to become refugees, and destroyed around 550 Palestinian towns and villages. Since then
Palestinians are subject to a cruel system of apartheid and military occupation. Over seven
decades later, the Nakba continues. Apartheid Israel is escalating violence and the theft of
Palestinian land and driving even more people into exile, erasing the Palestinian presence and
ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people. Since the start of April, Israel has killed over
23 Palestinians (41 from the beginning of 2022), arrested and injured hundreds more. Israel
has intensified its attacks on Jerusalem, forcibly removing Palestinians from their homes in
the neighbourhoods of Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, invading even the Muslim and Christian holy
sites of the city. Occupation forces and illegal settlers in the West Bank attack Palestinian
farmers daily, uprooting olive trees and collectively punishing Palestinians while totally
destroying entire villages in the Naqab. While Israel fortifies its military occupation in the
occupied West Bank, it regularly bombs people besieged in the Gaza Strip.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) inaugurated 25 May as Africa Liberation Day. We
celebrate the liberation of African nations from colonialism even as we still struggle against
the effects of neo-colonialism, including the offensive of Apartheid Israel into Africa. Under
the guise of offering ‘developmental solutions’ through sales of hydro- and agri-technology,Israel conceals its sales of hi-tech surveillance systems and weapons of death, bought by
authoritarian elites on our continent. This military and security equipment that Israel sells to
African dictators have been “tested” on Palestinians and are now used against us, fueling
conflict and war in Africa.

It is therefore unconscionable for the AU to have granted Israel – an apartheid state – observer
status in the African Union. This contradicts the spirit of the AU Constitutive Act, which
commits member states to end conflicts and build a peaceful and prosperous Africa. It also
contradicts the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which pledges AU member
states to “eliminate colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, [and] zionism”. How is it
possible for Israel to be granted observer status when the AU is committed to eliminating
Zionism, the foundational political ideology behind the ongoing Nakba, behind the genocide
and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

We stand together as Africans and Palestinians in struggle against all forms of racism,
discrimination, colonialism and apartheid, and we demand the implementation of the
Palestinian right to return to their land and homes that were so violently stolen since 1948.

The Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network demands that governments in Africa:

• Immediately stop buying apartheid Israeli weapons, spyware and military support;
• Ensure there is no place for an apartheid state in the African Union (AU);
• Uphold their proud anti-colonial traditions by using their collective weight in the UN to demand a full investigation into apartheid Israel and the reinstatement of anti-apartheid mechanisms to isolate apartheid Israel.

Let us raise our voices and our fists in solidarity with the Palestinian people!

Some ideas for taking action:

• Protest at Israeli Embassies or picket Israeli or international companies complicit in Israeli apartheid such as Puma, G4S and JCB.
• Issue a media statement or write an opinion piece for local media to raise awareness of the Nakba and why African countries should not be allowing doing business with an apartheid state or accepting its accrediation to the AU.
• Raise awareness through social media, tagging and sharing information from @papsn, @bdsmovement, Palestinians and their organisations on the ground.

• Organise a symbolic hunger strike or public meeting in person or on-line.

DefendJerusalem #IsraelOutOfAU #BDSNow

18 April 2022

Defend Jerusalem, Defend Palestine!

The Pan African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN) stands in firm and resolute solidarity against the latest onslaught of Israeli apartheid state violence suffered by the Palestinian people – especially in Jerusalem. PAPSN condemns the repeated violent attacks by Israeli occupation forces on the Al-Aqsa compound since Friday, 15 April. 

When Palestinians had just finished their dawn prayers on Friday morning, Israeli apartheid police fired rubber bullets, threw stun grenades into the prayer hall and brutally beat people with batons, leaving more than 150 Palestinians injured. Occupation forces prevented ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent from reaching the wounded, an additional act of illegality and cruelty. On Sunday, 17 April, less than 48 hours after Friday’s attack, Israeli forces again stormed the Al-Aqsa compound, attacked worshippers, then locked the men and women into the prayer halls, barricading them so the people could not leave. The occupation forces then escorted right-wing Jewish provocateurs, used by Israeli apartheid to advance its colonial project, into the area of the mosque.

In the week leading up to the Friday attack, Zionist groups had issued provocative calls that they would pray and slaughter sheep in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound during the Passover holiday. Christian Palestinians have also been subjected to harassment and attacks on priests and congregations. Senior Christian priest, Father Manuel Musallam, declared: “We will die strong with our heads up around Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City. We will never hand over the keys of these holy sites at any price.” He said Christians would defend Al-Aqsa Mosque and Muslims would defend the Church of Holy Sepulchre. “All of us belong to the same nation and same culture.”

The Aqsa raid is part of an escalation of Israeli violence against the Palestinian people. Illegal settlers act with impunity – forcefully removing Jerusalem residents from their homes and taking them over, uprooting olive trees, attacking Palestinians in their fields, villages and on the streets. This month, repeated raids by occupation forces on Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank led to mass arrests and home demolitions. Some 17 Palestinians were killed this month alone, including a 14-year-old boy, a human rights lawyer and a partially blind, widowed mother-of-six.

These brutal acts of aggression, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrest and detention are not isolated or unrelated. The actions of the Israeli military and police, violent acts of illegal settlers and Zionists against the Palestinian population support a system of discrimination, segregation and separation amounting to the crime of apartheid as defined in the Convention for the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

Zionist occupiers try to disguise their colonial war against the Palestinian people as a religious conflict.  However, over many centuries, since its liberation from the Crusaders occupation, Palestinians kept Jerusalem-Al Qods open to all three religions that deem it holy.

The brutality of state occupation forces beating, shooting and gassing Palestinians in a mosque is often portrayed as “clashes”, thus making it seem as if there is equivalence between colonized and colonizer, perpetuating the lie that there are two equal sides engaged in a “conflict”. The attack on worshippers at Al-Aqsa is part of strategy by a settler-colonial apartheid state to remove, erase and ethnically cleanse the indigenous Palestinians, but has gone barely reported in the African media. 

Many African states are not just silent in the face of Israeli apartheid oppression, but are deeply implicated in enabling it through trade, military-security cooperation, and shielding it from accountability; they are partners in crime and in the violations of international law.

Palestinians stand together, united to defend Jerusalem and resist settler colonial oppression from the apartheid Israeli state. Thousands marched in Gaza on Sunday in solidarity with their compatriots in Jerusalem. Similar demonstrations in Nazareth and in the West Bank were attacked by occupation forces but the Palestinian people continue to resist and demand their human rights, including the right of refugees to return to their homes.

The inhumane actions of this apartheid state have not resulted in an outpouring of anger and grief from the international community. Africans across the continent see the glaring hypocrisy of the response to the war in the Ukraine compared to the ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Within days, economic, diplomatic, cultural and sports sanctions were imposed on Russia, including by FIFA and UEFA, which always claim that politics and sports do not mix when confronted by the global campaign for a sports boycott against Israel. Corporations have closed their business. What more proof do we need that when there is the political will, Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) can be implemented against Israel’s apartheid regime in order to end it and ensure respect for international law.

Inspired by the spirit of the Palestinian people to stand united in solidarity, PAPSN’s members will continue to mobilize and organize to ensure that there is no place for Apartheid in Africa. Our continent knows full well the reality of colonial and apartheid oppression – we have a moral, ethical and political duty to support the Palestinian struggle.

PAPSN demands that governments in Africa:

• Immediately stop buying apartheid Israeli weapons, spyware and military support, which are tested on Palestinians and used against Africans, fuelling conflicts and war on our continent; 
• Ensure there is no place for an apartheid state in the African Union (AU); 
• Uphold their proud anti-colonial traditions by using their collective weight in the UN to demand a full investigation into apartheid Israel and the reinstatement of anti-apartheid mechanisms to isolate apartheid Israel.

#DefendJerusalem     #IsraelOutOfAU          #BDSNow

For more information please email PAPSN Secretariat: info@papsn.net

Twitter: @PalestinePapsn

Facebook: Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network – PAPSN

BRIEF MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF DETERMINATION OF THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE by EMMA LWAITAMA NYERERE

A Tanzanian Pan African Federalist & Internationalist

March 2022

Distinguished Organizers of this Event

Distinguished Participants

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me begin by thanking the organizers of this event for inviting me to be one of the Participants.

Let me also begin by sharing the photograph below of the late President and Father of the Tanzanian Nation, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere and the distinguished foremost leader of the Contemporary Struggle for Self Determination of the People of Palestine, the late Yasser Arafat, accompanied with a quotation by the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage on the Struggle for Self Determination of the People of Palestine: “We have never hesitated in our support for the right of the people of Palestine to have their own land.” – Mwalimu Julius Nyerere

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

I was born in 1979 and in the late 1980s and early 1990s I was in my teens and twenties. I spent these years at the University of Dar es Salaam in a home of the family, who often came home with the Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Tanzania at that time. From these times I picked up consciousness sympathy and empathy with what the late Comrade Mwalimu Julius Nyerere has characterized as “plight of the Palestinians,” summarized in the quote below: “The plight of the Palestinians is very different and much worse. When we were fighting for our independence, I was in Tanganyika, Kenyatta was in Kenya. But the Palestinians have been deprived of their own country…”

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

The struggle for national self-determination of the people of Palestine, irrespective of whether they were Arab or Jew by nationality, found for me an echo in the struggle for national self-determination of the peoples of the African continent who also suffered from the settler colonialism of people who came from other parts of the world and wanted to replace the indigenous peoples who inhabited places the settler colonialist found justification for occupying and then organizing to eliminate the indigenous native populations of the given area and thus replacing these original indigenous inhabitants with settlers from foreign countries where they may have been suffering from disadvantage themselves.

As the Father of our Nation Tanzania , the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere observed, the Palestinian people faced a unique obstacle in their struggle for national self-determination, namely that the Palestinians were organizing for their independence from refugee camps in foreign countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, and the settler colonialist was, absurdly, presenting himself/herself as the aggrieved indigenous native!!!!

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

Growing up in a house of family who, on numerous occasions, brought home for family evening tea, diplomats from then revolutionary and Pan Africanist Embassies of Algeria, especially under the Presidency of Chadli Bendjedid (from February 1980 to January 1992) and of Abdelaziz Bouteflika ( from April 1999 to April 2019) as well as of Libya under the Presidency of Muammar Gaddafi (September 1969 to March 2011) a as well as diplomats from the Embassy of Palestine in Tanzania, I began very early to develop a consciousness of the extreme injustices that the Palestinian people have suffered over the year since its occupation by settlers who came from Europe and elsewhere where they were persecuted by others only to be encouraged to persecute their kind host peoples, the Palestinians.

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

I learned very early on in my teens and early twenties that since the 1948 Nakba (“catastrophe” after the partition of Palestine and subsequent declaration of the settler colonialist State of Israel on 14 May 1948 that was marked by acts of genocide against the Palestinian people resulting in unprecedented expulsion of more than 700,000 people from their homes thus turning most Palestinians into refugees ) and the 1967 Nakba ( the “setback” after the war of 1967) Palestinians have continued to be turned into refugees and displaced people who continue to be turned into a minority at home while the settler colonialists have sadly turned themselves into a manufactured majority!

This is well illustrated below in the following three graphic representations ( Figures 1, 2 and 3) of what is meant by NAKBA 2 and why the 15th May is an important commemorative date in Palestinian history as well as what happened after the United Nations’ Partition of Palestine on the 27th November 1947 and the establishment of the settler colonialist State of Israel on 14th May 1948 on land that was once one indivisible nation of Palestine.

The NAKBA, the force expulsion Palestinians of Arab ancestry from large parts of what once one indivisible nation of Palestine triggered the first war of liberation of Palestine by Palestinians joined and led by the Arab states neighboring the settler colonialist state of Israel. This first Arab-Israel war resulted greater occupation by the Isreali settler colonialist State of Palestinian territories just like the second war of liberation of Palestine by Palestinians joined and led by the Arab states neighboring the settler colonialist state of Israel.

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

For a young person like me, brought up in a social milieu that ingrained in my consciousness the legitimacy of the struggle for the right return or reparation for the Palestinian people who are now in refugee camps in various Arab countries as well as those condemned to exist in various forms of exile together with Palestinian who are internally misplaced in occupied Palestine, let alone the legitimacy of the overall Palestinian struggle for self-determination , for me , I can only say the Founding Father of the Tanzanian State was right in being in solidarity, by word and deed, with the struggle for self-determination by the Palestinian people.

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

No wonder when I grew up I became a firm supporter of the Palestine and Tanzania Solidarity Committee led by such illustrious Pan Africanist and internationalist sons and daughter of Tanzania such as the late Professor Haroub Othman, the late Salim Msoma and the distinguished left wing law Professor Issa Shivji, just to mention a few. I am happy that this Solidarity Committee continues to do its solidarity work is diligence and it is represented at this event. Its representative provided feedback on what obstacles are currently being faced by those pursuing solidarity objectives with respect to the struggle of the Palestinian people for self determination. Certainly, the influence in Tanzania of personnel representing the settler colonialist State of Israel has increased in steadily in last five or so years, but the influence of the ideas that were planted in Julius Nyerere era that favor solidarity with the struggle for self determination of the Palestinian people is equally strong.

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

Looking at the illustration ( Figure 4) below of how Palestinians have lost almost all their land to settler colonialists over the years 80 years while the so-called international community seems to look the other way, one cannot fail to sympathize with those among young Palestinians who may argue that even the two states solution for the resolution of the so called Palestine Question is no longer a realistic a goal that Palestinians can aspire for any longer !!

Looking at that illustration of how Palestinian Arabs who were the majority in 1947 have now been turned into an internally displaced minority and a large body refugees in Arab countries and in exile elsewhere while the Jewish settler colonialist has through state sponsored violence and ethnic cleansing turned itself into a a majority, one cannot avoid agreeing with a Palestinian youth who is quoted to have observed recently that: “I don’t have any hope in the international community, I only have hope in us, the Palestinian people.”

What is happening in Ukraine right now as we sit here, comrades and friends, does suggest that it is high time Africa’s youth, join Asia’s youth and the youth of Latin America in seeking to revive the Bandung Spirit of the 1960s, as it has been pointed by an illustrious son of India, the Executive Director of ActionAid India, a retired international member of the Governance Board of ActionAid Tanzania, Comrade Sandeep Chachra, who recently, commenting on the current Russia invasion of Ukraine observed that: “The world has too many challenges to deal with for war and conflict to add to the burden of problems crying for solutions. The global solution to war and conflict can only be achieved if the international processes and structures put in place to create peace and equality are made just and effective.

This calls for a greater voice for the people of the Global South. A democratic United Nations and an effective movement of the Global South inspired by the Spirit of Bandung are the most effective ways to create and maintain world peace.”

Comrades and Friends

Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me conclude here by saying:

Long Live the Struggle for Self Determination by the Palestinian People!

Long live the Youth of Palestine who have refused to have memories of their stolen land erased for good as the settler colonialists desires!

Erase fear and Ignorance among us.

Long Live the Struggles of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America for true Self Determination!

Long Live the Struggles of the Youth of Africa, Asia, and Latin America who seek to revive the Bandung Spirit of the 1960s!

Thank you for listening

Asante Sana.