A Letter of Solidarity with the Indigenous People of Falastin (Palastine)

Written By Kierra Otis

The Rooted Doula Collective joins the cries from across the world to end the ongoing genocide and apartheid of the people of Falastin (Palestine) by the Zionist forces of Israel. As care/birth workers and reproductive justice advocates, we affirm the humanity, dignity, and rights of Palestinians. As captive citizens of the U.S. empire, we demand that our government stop using our tax dollars to fund Israel’s ongoing genocide and end the collaborations between U.S. police and the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF). 

The horrors that we have witnessed over the last 20+ days have broken our hearts wide open and reaffirmed our commitment to reproductive justice - a multiethnic, transnational movement that seeks to protect our human rights to bodily autonomy, the right to not have children, the right to birth under the conditions we choose, and the right to parent children in safe and sustainable communities. For 75 years, Palestinians have known reproductive injustice as they have had their lands and lives stolen, ecosystems destroyed, families separated, and have been forced to raise their children in an apartheid state. All avenues of nonviolent resistance from Palestinians have been met with Israeli brutality. Since the attack on October 7th, the IOF has escalated its violence and committed war crimes against the civilians of Gaza with repeated bombing, the use of white phosphorus, forced displacement, and cutting off of electricity, water, food, and international aid. Far too many Palestinian children and adults have been killed, injured, and traumatized. 

It’s critical to note that as anti-zionists, we are not anti-semitic. We do not equate the state of Israel and the colonial actions of Zionists with Jewish people. We recognize that there is a rich anti-Zionist history within Jewish communities across the diaspora. Anti-semitism has no place in the fight against white supremacist imperialism.

This moment demands our unflinching solidarity with the people of Palestine. As Black people, survivors of genocide against African and American Indigenous people, we see ourselves in the plight of the Palestinians and Indigenous folks struggling against colonialism across the world. We believe that the greatest threat to our collective health is the Euro-American Empire and its theft of land, people, and resources. 

We echo the demands of Mass Liberation Arizona, 

  • An immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza

  • Immediate restoration of energy, water, food, and communication services to the Gaza Strip

  • Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners and the US to release the Palestinian-American political prisoners

  • The end of the Israeli occupation of the state of Palestine

  • A decolonized and self-determined Palestine

  • All Palestinian people be allowed to return back to their stolen homes, stolen land, and reparations to all Palestinian people

  • Israel be held accountable by the ICC for its countless war crimes; including using white phosphorus bombs, targeting civilian homes and hospitals, and deprivation of food, electricity, and water

  • The US government be held accountable by the ICC as accomplice to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people

  • End US military funding to Israel

  • Demilitarize US to Palestine by ending state violence and police militarization in the US and Palestine

  • All elected officials in Arizona denounce Israel’s apartheid regime and genocide

  • Arizona State University “stand against colonial domination and cut all ties with Israel” as stated by Students for Justice in Palestine ASU 

  • End the bribery and extortion by funders and philanthropy that silence local movements through BDS clauses

In closing, we offer a prayer of protection for the hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits of Black folks and folks directly impacted by colonialism and imperialism that read this statement. May your nervous systems be solved, may you be grounded in the strength of your most deliberate and strategic ancestors and fueled by the joy of your most playful and liberated descendants. May your presence in the moment be fruitful for everything you came here to accomplish.

Free the land. Free the people. 

Recommended Resources:

Kierra Otis
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Honoring all Black Reproductive Experiences