Update

Dozens of new Apartheid Free Zones declared around the world

From Mexico to France, from Brazil to Canada and beyond, dozens of new spaces join the #ApartheidFreeZones campaign in response to the Palestinian call for mutual support and international solidarity. 

Ending racism, colonialism and apartheid is #InOurHands.

Israel's attacks against the Palestinian people, such as those we have seen in recent weeks, are not isolated or spontaneous episodes; they are part of a process of ongoing colonisation, systematic oppression and institutionalised discrimination intended to subjugate and dominate the Palestinian people. Today, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s leading human rights group B’tselem agree with Palestinians that Israel is guilty of apartheid. In response to Israeli apartheid and in solidarity with the struggle of the Indigenous Palestinians for justice, new Apartheid-Free Zones (AFZs) have been created across the globe. 

In Canada, the online zero waste shop Reimagine Co declared itself an AFZ and urged other London (Canada) businesses, institutions and community groups to do the same.

In Seattle, the Afro-American Heritage Museum and cultural centre joined the AFZ campaign and organised a vigil in which the museum founder and elder Omari Tahir spoke of the connections between the struggles for a Free Palestine, decolonization on Turtle Island and reparations to indigenous and black communities: “Our struggles are the same. We are both fighting against settler colonialism and apartheid. We cannot let them divide us.”

In Mexico, the trade union “Nueva Central de Trabajadores,” Girl Up BUAP, a feminist student collective and the students’ magazine LO Internacional issued declarations endorsing the AFZ campaign. LO International acknowledged that “our struggles for social, racial, gender and economic justice for self-determination, among many others, are deeply interconnected, we can only grow stronger by mutual support and international solidarity.”

The Superior Student Council of the University of Costa Rica joined the AFZ campaign too, affirming that “The University of Costa Rica must contribute to the transformations that society needs to achieve the common good.” 

As a brand-new AFZ, the Brazilian trade union federation CUT, representing more than 7 millions workers, denounced the cooperation agreement between the Brazilian and the Israeli government that is now being discussed at the Brazilian National Congress. 

In the French city of Montpellier, over 100 shop owners declared their spaces as Apartheid Free Zones, showing that ending apartheid is indeed #InOurHands.

A thank-you to all individuals, spaces and organisations for these courageous steps towards freedom, justice and equality!

Do you also want to take action against Israeli apartheid? Fill out the form and join the global network of #ApartheidFreeZones.

Ending apartheid is #InOurHands

 


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