Appalachians for Palestine: ‘Solidarity is necessary’
“The roots of Appalachian and Palestinian struggles are connected by the systems of imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchal white supremacy…”
The following is a statement from Appalachians for Palestine:
We stand together as Appalachians from diverse backgrounds to oppose the longstanding apartheid in Palestine. We stand together against the current genocide being waged against the people of Palestine by the State of Israel. We stand in solidarity with Palestine.
We honor our long history of miners, mill workers, farmers, and everyday people who have organized for their rights. We honor our region's history and current place in the struggle for labor, racial, social, and environmental justice.
We honor a long tradition of Appalachian artists and activists who have supported human rights and liberation movements for all people—Myles Horton, Don West, Denise Giardina, and bell hooks, among many more.
We are not experts. We are everyday people.
We are listening and learning and centering the most vulnerable among us. We acknowledge the roots of oppression are interconnected. We believe solidarity is necessary.
We recognize Central Appalachia, along with the rest of the United States, is a colonized land. Indigenous people of many different tribes, including but not limited to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Lenape, Oneida, Osage, Seneca, and Shawnee, experienced genocide and were violently removed from their ancestral homelands. Colonialism is a system we share with Palestine and Israel.
We celebrate our self-determination, our history of protest and fighting back, and our “Rednecks" organizing for solidarity. The mine wars, including the Battle of Blair Mountain, are important parts of our nation's history. We understand that our Appalachian ancestors typically utilized nonviolent tactics like strikes before engaging in armed violence as self-defense against the life threatening actions of the government and corporations. It would be hypocritical to celebrate our ancestors for fighting against their oppressors by any means necessary while criticizing Palestinians for doing the same.
We are intimately aware of the ways that propaganda and stereotypes—white trash, hillbillies, ignorant, violent, inbred—are weaponized to justify the sub-human treatment of entire groups of people. For over a century, stereotypes about our region have justified exploitation and extraction. Those among us who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color, queer, trans, and rural working class are subjected to the worst of these injustices—and continue to fight back. We reject messaging that dehumanizes and endangers Palestinians. Likewise, we reject anti-Semitic language that dehumanizes and endangers Jewish people. We know that criticizing Zionism and the state of Israel is not anti-Semitic and we reject those that spread false equivalencies in service to silencing dissent.
We recognize our complicity in Israeli state violence against Palestinians as U.S. taxpayers supporting the Israeli military. In some Central Appalachia communities, struggling economies are propped up by defense contractors like Northrup Grumman. Central Appalachians are represented by politicians like Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Joe Manchin who are actively advocating for this genocide. They do not represent our interests.
For these reasons, and more, we assert that the roots of Appalachian and Palestinian struggles are connected by the systems of imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchal white supremacy, as our fellow Appalachian bell hooks taught us.
Just as we ask others to center Appalachian voices when learning and speaking about Appalachia, we invite all to center Palestinian voices as we dig further into the overlapping roots of oppression and violent systems in our two distinct, but interconnected regions.
We also invite you to join us in taking action:
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Call and email your representatives to ask for a cease fire
These accounts have scripts and easy to follow links to contact your legislators: @jewishvoiceforpeace @workingfamilies
Find local protests in your area
Diversify your timeline, continue to read and educate yourself about Palestine and movements for collective liberation
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