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Native activists want Navajo leaders to speak out for Palestine in the war [1]
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Date: 2023-10-24
Members of the Navajo Nation are calling on Diné leadership to speak up and stand with Palestine during a tumultuous time of war.
Indigenous activists from other tribes around the U.S. have also voiced their concerns about the events in Gaza and have called for a cease-fire. They are showing their support for Palestine on social media, participating in marches, hosting podcasts, and more.
“For the Navajo Nation, I think the Navajo Nation should condemn the occupation of Palestine and call for a cease-fire in Palestine and advocate for the self-determination of Palestinian people,” said Majerle Lister, a member of the Navajo Nation. “The history of occupation and settler-colonialism ties Diné and Palestinian people together.”
Instagram posts have listed contact information for Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, Vice President Richelle Montoya and Speaker Crystalyne Curley. The posts have encouraged tribal members to contact them, as well as their council delegates, and demand leadership to speak to Congress.
Groups such as NDN Collective and the Red Nations have sent out releases demanding a cease-fire to "stop the genocide."
“We are horrified, enraged, and grief-stricken at the reality of Israeli and Palestinian lives lost so quickly and with such force. We decry the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, including 2.3 million in Gaza who have lived under Israeli blockade and siege for 16 years,” said NDN Collective.
'Glimmer of hope':Second aid convoy arrives in Gaza; Israel expands attack
“We pray for the safe return of the Israeli people held hostage by Hamas," the group said in a statement. "We stand in solidarity with those — including many anti-Zionist Jewish people — who have been protesting the occupation of Palestine for years, and who are now on the streets demanding for Israel to stop their attacks.
NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grant-making, capacity-building, and narrative change, the group says on its website, "we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms."
Palestinian, Native demands are similar, professor says
Melanie Yazzie, a supporter of Palestine and an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota and co-founder of the Red Nations, said Palestinians resist the same colonial system that Native people have been resisting for hundreds of years in the United States.
“The relationship between the United States and Israel is so intertwined that the colonial tactics in both countries must be understood as a parallel — if not a mirror — of each other” she said. “Palestinians struggle daily for land return, basic dignity, clean water, self-determination, freedom of movement, peace, freedom from violent settler incursion, and the right to return to homelands they have been forcibly expelled from in the name of Israeli colonial occupation. Native nations struggle and dream for the same.”
The Red Nation is "dedicated to the liberation of Native peoples from capitalism and colonialism." Its members "center Native political agendas and struggles through direct action, advocacy, mobilization, and education," according to its website.
The group has also put out podcasts on the issue and in a recent statement, asserted that Israel’s “violent occupation” of Palestine is typically framed as a “conflict,” which is a distortion of history that erases the actual truth.
Like many Native activists who support Palestine, members of Red Nation and NDN Collective have outlined similarities between colonialism of the Indigenous people of the U.S. to Palestinians.
“Settler historians in the United States have long framed the history of U.S. settler colonialism as a 'conflict' between two equal sides: cowboys and Indians; settlers and savages,” said the Red Nation. “Dakotah scholar Elizabeth Cook-Lynn reminds us there are not two sides to a story of colonial dispossession and genocide. There is a clear perpetrator: the settler state.”
Attacks are 'a campaign for genocide'
Yazzie, who has also attended marches in support of Palestine, said seeking a future free from U.S. colonial occupation is a future of true self-determination. She said the parallels are too obvious to ignore and calls for taking land back.
Last week, hundreds of Palestinian civilians lost their lives in the bombing of a hospital. The source of the bomb has been a subject of debate in recent days. Some claim it was from Israeli missiles, while Israel reports it was the work of a Palestinian militant group, a claim supported by President Joe Biden.
“You don't need to be Native, or have an understanding of settler colonialism, to condemn what is happening,” said Yazzie. “The brazen calls for erasure of Palestinians made by Israel leave no room for interpretation: this is a campaign for genocide. Everyone must do what they can to stop it.”
The Republic reached out to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, Speaker Crystalyne Curley and members of the Navajo Nation Council, but none responded.
Arlyssa Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send ideas and tips to
[email protected].
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
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[1] Url:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2023/10/24/native-activists-demand-navajo-leaders-side-with-palestine-in-war/71288686007/
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