Drawing Connections from the Palestinian Liberation Struggle to Amerikkkan Prisons

Editorial from a prisoner in the so-called state of Texas on the recent war and genocide unfolding in occupied Palestine.

By Monsour Owolabi, Ferguson Unit

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 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 is is currently occupying or colonizing. In Amerikkkan prisons, and on Amerikkkan streets, a person can not 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 US 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 US prisons and the Palestinian people are state-less 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 meaing 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.

#LongLivethePalestinianPeople

#FreePalestine

Monsour Owolabi

Ferguson Unit

Texas “Department Of Correctional Justice”

Photo by ev on Unsplash