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Making Our Way Home From New Orleans to Palestine

This May marks 71 years of displacement and mass murder of the Palestinian people. We call this our ‘nakba’ which means catastrophe in Arabic. The anniversary of Nakba, May 15, 1948 occurred when the United States, the British and the United Nations, gave Palestinian land that does not belong to them, away to Jewish people from Europe and renamed our homeland ‘Isra-el.’

To this day Palestinians are hunted in the streets and continue to have our homes stolen, demol-ished or given away. Children and adults are murdered and imprisoned because just like the poor and working class in New Orleans, we are often only considered “useful” to the rich ruling class if we are dead or are being used to make the rich richer.

Like many New Orleanians post-Katrina, the rich ruling class has made it impossible for us to go home. Similarly to the people of New Orleans, there are now more Palestinians who live outside of Palestine than in our homeland.

If there is a people who have experienced their own nakba, it is the people of New Orleans.

If there is a people who feel the Palestinian struggle for land, dignity and safety, it’s the people of New Orleans.

If there is a people who understand what it’s like to see your own neighborhood, overrun with strangers who want your culture but don’t want you – it’s the people of New Orleans.

If there is a people who understand what it’s like to see your homes gutted, your pain broadcast for the world to see and still not get justice, it’s the people of New Orleans.

If there is a people who understand what it’s like to be scattered and still have a deep sense of who you are and where you come from, it’s the people of New Orleans.

If there is a people who still love life despite facing its cruelty everyday, it’s the people of New Orleans.

This year marks 14 years since Katrina and over 100,000 Black New Orleanians still haven’t come home. From Palestine to New Orleans, we are returning.

We will reclaim our land. We will fight back.

From Palestine to New Orleans the time to unite and recognize our shared struggle is now.

From New Orleans to Palestine, we are going home.

All power to the people.

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From Nakba to New Orleans: Coming Home is Our Right

PROTEST CONDEMNS ISRAELI GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS

By C. T.

On May 15, Students and Workers Against Racism and Militarism (SWARM) held an action to commemorate Nakba. This action included speaking out against Zionist atrocities towards the Palestinian people, funded by U.S. tax dollar, and Trump’s decision to open the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, despite an international outcry. ‘Nakba’ in Arabic means ‘catastrophe’. It refers to the mass ethnic cleansing and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland on May 15, 1948. Similarly, Hurricane Katrina was both a “natural” catastrophe and an artificial one. Just like Palestine, New Orleans has been sold off piece by piece in the name of white supremacy and capitalism.

Palestinians have been demonized and pushed off their land for decades. Claiming it was for a safe haven for European Jews (remember the U.S. refused to allow Jewish refugees from Nazism into the U.S.) the real purpose was to set up a military outpost for Western war interests. Palestinians daily face home demolitions, Israeli terror and death. In only two days, 58 Palestinians were murdered and 2,700 injured by Zionist weapons that are bought and paid for by the US.

Similarly, post-Katrina, Black New Orleanians have been robbed of their land and right to return through the closure of public schools, public housing, and erasure of entire neighborhoods in the name of “progress” and “development”. Over 100,000 Black New Orleanians have yet to return home due to the “conservative recovery agenda”, started by George W. Bush, that makes money off of theft of land and denial of our human dignity. Palestinians and New Orleanians have a common enemy: rich white supremacists trying to profit off our misery. From Palestine to New Orleans our roots run deep and we will return!