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3/19/2024 A Common Struggle Against Imperialism: A History of Solidarity Between Palestine and Puerto Rico. By: Benjamin Pérez González.Read Now The first resistance warriors against Western imperialism in the Americas, were the Taíno nation, a people which once inhabited the Caribbean Islands, including the land which we now know as Puerto Rico. Scholars now agree, what the natives knew all along, Christopher Columbus did not discover anything, rather he was discovered himself. Contrary to the lies perpetrated throughout official history, Columbus was lost. Or as James Baldwin puts it: “Columbus was discovered by what he found''.[1] Columbus believed he arrived in Asia and died swearing that Cuba was mainland Japan. In fact, Columbus' ship wrecked and it was the Taíno people who rescued him and brought him ashore. The Europeans were shown mercy, gentleness, trust and were welcomed with gifts and open arms. In return, the invaders made them slaves, destroyed their culture, slaughtered the people, burned their history, and took the land.[2] Ever since 1492, Western Imperialism has dominated the world;centuries ago it was Spain, a few decades ago it was Britain, and today it is led by the United States of America, the world’s biggest empire. The People of the World have fallen victims to the first true global empire. With some, of course, defeating it and in the process achieving liberation. The ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Natives of the Americas at the hands of European imperialism, distinctively parallels with the ongoing slaughtered and destruction of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. However, we cannot overlook the fact that Israel would not be able to act with such impunity and have such military, political and economic power without the massive support of the world’s most powerful empire, the United States; the same empire that continues to occupy and colonize Puerto Rico. Yet, however, today we see two nations struggling against a common enemy: Palestine and Puerto Rico, a struggle against imperialism and for liberation. The State of Israel, as Yasser Arafat famously stated in an interview with a British reporter, is the baby of Western imperialism, namely Britain and the United States.[3] After all, it was Britain who ushered the creation of the State of Israel with the notorious Belfort Declaration of 1917.[4] Today, the UK and the United States, are the biggest political, economic and military supporters of Israel. The United States alone has provided Israel with hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid, along with its fundamentally corrupt support in the International arena.[5] The United States corporate media have displayed unrelenting support for the genocide being committed by Israel in Palestine. The fundamental motives of the United States empire in its involvement in the ongoing Palestinian genocide, are best expressed by president Joe Biden, which once stated in 1986, in front of Congress: “Were there not an Israel the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region”. [6] What are the interests of the United States, one may ask; the answer is to continue the over 500 years legacy of Western imperialism, that being to exploit, plunder and pillage the peoples of the world, for the enrichment of the international bourgeoisie. The Palestinian people, like the Taino people, are today facing the possibility of undergoing ethnic cleansing at the hands of the savagery enforced by Israel. Ethnic cleansing has come to be defined as a crime against humanity, punishable by International Law. [7]The atrocities committed by the Israeli government have sent shock waves throughout the international community, with the United Nations 15-member Security Council voting 13-1 in favor of a ceasefire with the United States being the only country voting against it, and the UK abstaining its vote. [8]Furthermore, South Africa presented their case in the International Court, accusing Israel of crimes against humanity, including genocide, with other countries taking the United States to court for their complicity in this genocide. The bombs dropped today in Palestine were tested in Puerto Rico. The United States Navy, for decades, experimented in Puerto Rico with chemically dangerous explosives which destroyed the ecosystem of Vieques, a small municipality east of the Island(s). The remnants of this continue to haunt the people of Vieques, which today have the highest rate of cancer in the archipelago.[9]Furthermore, today the United States military occupies 13% of the land of Puerto Rico, occupying the Puerto Rican nation since 1898, using it as a military base and as a giant laboratory for its multinational chemical corporations like Dupont ,the pharmaceutical industry, and those of the Military Industrial Complex, like Lockheed Martin. [10]The same claws covered with the blood of the Puerto Rican people have Palestinian blood as well. [11]Lockheed Martin is a giant profiteer from the war in Palestine, which also made great wealth from the invasion of Iraq and other imperial wars throughout the world.[12] Ever since, the State of Israel ramped up its vicious military attacks against the Palestinian people, the People of Puerto Rico ,and its diaspora, and have been conducting demonstrations and protests in solidarity with Palestine.[13] Yet, the solidarity between Palestine and Puerto Rico has not begun recently. Rather, Puerto Ricans have expressed for decades clear support for Palestine with the late great Puerto Rican lawyer and social justice activist, Juan Marís Bras, declaring in front of the United Nations in 1982 that, “Puerto Rico is the Palestine of the Americas'' and that the “Palestinian people who fight together with us, are leading one of the most heroic struggles of our contemporary times”.[14] Like the Palestinian people, the Puerto Rican people are resisting the horrors of colonialism and imperialism. Edwin Cortés, political activist for the liberation of Puerto Rico once wrote in the 1980s: “Within the past two months renewed resistance in the Middle East has once again captured world attention. This time it is not the tragic Iran-Iraq war but Palestine, a nation in struggle that represents a vital threat to the existence of Zionism, Arab reaction, and US imperialism in the Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.”[15] Furthermore, in 2001, as a clear sign of solidarity between the two occupied nations, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition marched during the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan. [16] The acts of the State of Israel have been conceived by some as the most documented genocide in history, and perhaps they are right. There are clear similarities in the vicious acts of Israel with those committed by the Spanish empire against the Taíno people. Israel, like Spain, has dehumanized the people which terrorizes, often demonizing them, showing no mercy or common humanity, engaging in the most atrocious crimes imaginable. Since the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, over 2 million Palestinian have been displayed from their ancestral land, with Israel now occupying over 80% of Palestinian land, and those who refuse to leave, are facing annihilation. [17]These acts will be remembered in history and those who are responsible will be compared to the horrors committed by Nazi Germany. For there is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. Yet, we cannot overlook the fact that Israel would not be able to conduct this display of force and might, without the support of the United States, the empire that today occupies and colonizes Puerto Rico. Notes [1] Baldwin, J. (1990). Jimmy’s blues: Selected poems. St. Martin’s Press. [2] Clarke, J. H. (2014). Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan holocaust slavery and the rise of European capitalism. Lushena Books. [3] Counter Narrative News. (2023, October 30). Yasser Arafat: Israel is the west’s baby. Counter Narrative News YouTube. https://youtu.be/nXvLsl17mHM?si=x_jGW_CTb0QTMKOQ [4] Khalidi, R. (2022). The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917-2017. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company. [5] Masters, J. (2024, January 23). U.S. aid to Israel in four charts. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts [6] Kestler-D’Amours, J., & Stepansky, J. (2024, January 30). “defies logic”: The makings of Joe Biden’s “blank cheque” to Israel. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2024/1/30/defies-logic-the-makings-of-joe-bidens-blank-cheque-to-israel#:~:text=“Were%20there%20not%20an%20Israel,decades%20away%20from%20becoming%20president. [7] Pappé, I. (2023). The ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld. [8] Lederer, E. M. (2024, February 21). The US vetoes an Arab-backed UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/un-israel-palestinians-gaza-ceasefire-resolution-vote-350c86ef261bf1a00a2515cf22764de5 [9] Chan, W. (2023, May 1). “I thought they’d kill us”: How the US navy devastated a tiny Puerto Rican Island. The Guardian. [10] Hofstaedter, E. (2022, October 12). Big Pharma is flooding Puerto Rico with toxic waste. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/10/big-pharma-is-flooding-puerto-rico-with-toxic-waste/ [11]Power, M. (1989, July 27). Time to end U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico. The New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/27/opinion/l-time-to-end-us-occupation-of-puerto-rico787489.html [12] War profiteer of the Month: Lockheed Martin. War Resisters’ International. (2006, August). https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2006/war-profiteer-month-lockheed-martin [13] Florido, A. (2024, January 19). Why Puerto Rico has such deep support for the Palestinian cause. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/19/1225722287/why-puerto-rico-has-such-deep-support-for-the-palestinian-cause [14] Hevesi, D. (2010, September 11). Juan Mari Bras, voice for separate Puerto Rico, dies at 82. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/us/politics/11bras.html [15] Ramos-Zayas, A. Y., & Rúa, M. M. (2021). Critical dialogues in Latinx Studies a reader. New York University Press. [16] Ibid. [17] Khalidi, R. (2022). The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917-2017. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company. Author Benjamin Perez Gonzalez graduated in Sociology and Political Science from Florida International University and is current a graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico. They are also a teacher, writer and activist. Archives March 2024
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