On Saturday, 29 October, 2022, Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun and member of the central follow-up committee of the Masar Badil, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, delivered the main speech of the movement at the March for Return and Liberation in Brussels. See and hear his speech in this video (full text below):
Also, make sure not to miss this video with highlights from the March:
Full text of Mohammed’s speech below:
Hello comrades:
We stand here in front of this colonial institution that committed genocide after genocide not only against the Palestinians, but also against all the people of the Global South.
So we stand in solidarity as Palestinians with all of you who are present, and also with all the people of the world who are oppressed and paid the big heavy price of this heavy colonial machine that stands based on our blood and suffering.
We stand here as Palestinians today representing the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path. We are not an alternative to the resistance.
We call on you to join Samidoun, join Al Karama, join any local organization with a clear politics on Palestine.
We will not accept anymore, as Palestinians, this rhetoric of “two-state solution,” as a way, to support Palestine. Only one free Palestine
from the river to the sea.
If you want to support the Palestinians, you have to listen to the Palestinian refugees. You have to listen to the Palestinian resistance. And you have to follow their path. This is Palestine for us.
Our free Palestine, where everyone, every human to live in equal basis in dignity. This is how we struggle and this is what we struggle for.
So we have to declare from here, as Palestinians, first and second and third generation of the diaspora. Half of us we are today European citizens as well.
We will not give up on practicing our right of being part, an essential part, of our people’s struggle. We are not in solidarity with the Palestinians. We are all here the Palestinians, Arabs and internationals and Jewish.
Being Palestinian is not about the blood. Being Palestinian is about believing in the liberation identity.
We are not fascists. We are not extremists, we believe in a human dignity. So being a Palestinian, it’s a matter of believing in the rights of the Palestinian people to be liberated. And this is not only because the Palestinian people are special.
Defeating Israel means defeating the US. Defeating Israel means defeating Canada, these settlements that exist on the backs of the Indigenous people and Black people.
Defeating Israel means defeating this colonial institution, means payback for all Africans, Algerians, Moroccans, Sahraoui, second and third generations who are in Brussels. We’ve built this city and we still face fascism and racism.
So we will say no to this not only in Palestine, but here in Europe, there in the United States and in all Arab countries.
Together, as comrade Georges Abdallah said, we must gather together and we will win only together.
We have a comrade. His name is Samah Idriss. He’s one of the co-founders of the Palestinian Alternative Path and he passed away in Beirut. We commemorate him here. We don’t forget our comrades and martyrs, we don’t forget our leaders who gave money and blood and effort for building the movement.
Comrade Samah Idriss used to say in Arabic, “If we give up Palestine, we give up ourselves.” We will not give up Palestine!
