RAPAR statement on Palestine

To endorse this statement from your group/ organisation/ trade union, PLEASE EMAIL [email protected]
 
June 2024
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We at RAPAR are primarily a collection of people with living experience of displacement who have been forced to flee our homes for our safety.  Our own first-hand knowledge of the effects of political violence makes us experts in the impact and experience of forced migration (both within and across international borders).  We share this statement under the umbrella of RAPAR, because, as one member said of their homeland: “If you speak out nowadays, you will be killed”.
 
We have witnessed how power, wealth and resources have been accumulated by Western leaders and the super-rich through the destruction of our homes - ‘Udzvanyiriri’ (Shona) - and we ourselves have been exposed to political violence and religious persecution. We draw on our own experiences as activists who have fled our home countries and been subject to violent conflicts and war in different international contexts. Combined with our own expertise, we also draw on the knowledges of indigenous RAPAR members, who have decades of experience in analysing the consequences of forced displacement in the UK.
 
We are here to speak on the ‘Ganahatta’ (Bengali), the ‘Ghatleaam’ (Persian), or Cinedhíothú (Irish). These words describe in a few of our own languages the genocide that has happened historically in some of the countries that we once called home and that is being wreaked upon Palestine now. Whilst these words are from different languages spoken by RAPAR members, we recognise how histories of colonialism – ‘Estemaar’ (Persian) – and colonial exploitation – ‘Vapambi’ (Shona) – have brought fear and brutality and continue to do so. We need to talk about these brutalities and the violences that are being inflicted both in Palestine and elsewhere.
 
Just as we have watched in fear and sadness at the obliteration of Palestine, we have watched the small boat deaths in the English Channel and from our perspective, in both cases, the UK Government is paying for these people to die. The UK Government talks about human rights but it is not upholding human rights. Through its arming of Israel, it is directly implicated in the genocide of Palestinian people, and through its treatment of people in the Channel and in its ‘hostile environment’ here, it is also directly implicated in the drownings, suicides and desolation of people seeking asylum in the UK.
 
As people who have living experience of persecution who have been involved in political activism prior to becoming displaced, and involvement in political activism in the UK, we say to you that we refugee people continue to fight for the people who we were forced to leave behind, and we continue to fight for refugee rights in the UK.
 
Being frequently unable to speak out for fear of reprisal, we release this statement as a Collective standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and with the survivors of Imperialism’s colonial violence worldwide.  #FreePalestine #StopArmingIsrael #REFUGEES4PALESTINE @raparuk

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RAPAR members at demonstration, opposing the Palestinian genocide by the state of Israel