The following article is republished from Monsour Owolabi, a New Afrikan prisoner being held in Texas, which has been laid out into a zine for easy republishing.
“International solidarity must not cease or slacken, even in prisons, because a ceasefire is not even the tip of the iceberg in bringing a solution to this conflict.”
#LongLivethePalestinianPeople
#FreePalestine
—Monsour Owolabi
Ferguson Unit
Texas “Department of Correctional Justice”
When thinking about the connections between amerikkkan prisons and the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people at the hands of ‘israel,’ there’s a list of parallels that come to mind.
Both the ‘israeli’ occupation of Palestine and the human rights violations that fuel prison resistance and abolitionist praxis are fueled by gigantic industrial complexes [the military industrial complex and the prison industrial complex]. These complexes and their profitability prevent human decency and human interests in equality and justice
from taking precedence over corporate and capitalist-imperialist interests.
The role of the police and military, i.e. prison guard or “security force” as an occupying army. A mad-dog, militarized force utilized to be sicced on oppressed people, confined people, unbroken people, exploited people, and anyone on the wrong side of imperialist hegemony.
The usage of these agents of repression to instill terror in the people is the same in both instances.
In both instances, the enemy has demonized struggle, and de-regulated and criminalized self-defense. ‘israel’ screams, “Defend ‘israel’s’ right to exist,” and many run with that notion, never understanding that under international treaties and standards a nation does NOT have the right to defend itself against the attacks by a nation or people it is currently occupying or colonizing. In amerikkkan prisons, and on amerikkkan streets, a person cannot defend themselves from police attack, and in events where state agents attack the people, official law protects those agents with “qualified immunity.”
In a Texas town, police attempted to kill a man after his legal advocacy not only helped get one man off death row but exposed deliberate corruption in the local police force.
When an officer of that same police force went to kill this man, he happened to wrestle the weapon from the officer and shot his would-be assassin. The man who defended his life was arrested and sentenced to fifty years in Texas prison. That man has spent the last two decades in a u.s. torture chamber. He is political prisoner Alvaro Luna Hernandez, aka Xinachtli, a person denied the right to defend his right to life, similar to the denial of the Palestinian resistance as a legitimate liberation movement defending millions of lives.
In Florida, Othal Wallace is fighting the empire’s “legal” killing machine (death row) after courageously defending himself when an officer attempted to shoot him. After a quick tussle Othal “Ozone” Wallace killed the officer in self-defense. His defense of his life is considered illegitimate, much like those countless Palestinians who’ve lost life, liberty, limb, and safety at the hands of settler-colonialism prior to October 7th. To those people who
support ‘israel,’ those people do not matter. The Palestinian people are now fighting death row at the hands of ‘israel’s’ “legal” killing machines.
Those captive in u.s. prisons and the Palestinian people are stateless human beings with no instrument of governance in existence that maintains, protects, or provides basic rights. Neither can vote for people who make decisions each day that dictate their lives. Both are second-class citizens at best. Both experience a separate and unequal existence in comparison to the rest of the amerikkkan/‘israeli’ populace.
In both experiences the power structure maintains a monopoly on the propaganda and thus warps the public opinion in its own favor.
Gaza has often been called an open-air prison. Palestinians there understand the meaning of a confined existence. They understand being born a suspect. They know what it means to be designated a “security threat group” or “terrorist.”
They understand the reality of living under constant surveillance. They know how it feels to be abducted from your community, held captive, and ripped apart from your family. They also know the “fire inside” that rages and plots victory over one’s enemies.
If observing the Palestinian struggles against ‘israeli’ domination doesn’t inspire you as a revolutionary, you may be another species other than human. I listened to a woman learn of her husband’s death, and begin to exclaim and shout as if a miracle had happened. She was proud. She was joyful. Her understanding of the liberation struggle of her people made her proud that her husband died for such a worthy cause. She could not bring herself to selfish self-pity.
Instead, in the midst of enemy onslaught, she compelled her neighbors, her friends to join her to break bread, sharing what would have been her husband’s portion. What a person! What a fighter!
When taking mental notes of the Palestinian liberation war I am being reminded of our need over here to intensify the struggle, intensify the contradictions. I am reminded there
is no commonality between the imperialists and the people, between the enemy state, between the empire and its revolutionary subjects.
International solidarity must not cease or slacken, even in prisons, because a ceasefire is not even the tip of the iceberg in bringing a solution to this conflict.
May the fighting spirit of the Palestinian people become the fighting spirit of freedom fighters everywhere.
Pal2PrisonWe recommend checking out the zine collection at True Leap Press for more zines to print for your event, including this one — as well as Our Narrative, by the Palestinian Resistance on 7 October — and many more.
