Women from the Black Lives Matter Movement made a powerful statement supporting Palestinian women at the Women’s march in Los Angeles. The New York Times reported that nearly 600,000 women marched in the southern California city.
WATCH: 14-year-old Thandiwe Abdullah from Black Lives Matter LA Youth (@blmlayouth) calls for solidarity with Palestinian women living under Israeli occupation in a speech during the Women's March in Los Angeles. #WMLA2018 pic.twitter.com/550biQWdZJ
— The IMEU (@theIMEU) January 22, 2018
14-year-old Thandiwe Abdullah took to the stage, and said,
“I am a Black Muslim girl. It is very important to me the Black Lives Matter also values the lives of the Muslim women in Palestine. The US advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel It is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people. The US requires that Israel use 75 percent of all military aid it receives to buy US made arms, this it makes US citizens complicity in the abuses committed by the Israeli government.
“Israel is an Apartheid state with over fifty laws on the books that sanction discrimination against the Palestinians. We urge you to fight the expanding number of anti-BDS bills being passed in states around the country. This type of legislation not only harms the movement to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine but it is a threat to the constitutional of free speech and protest.”
The Black Lives Matter Movement is founded on strong support for Palestine, and was further fostered during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year old Black youth who was shot 12 times by a white police officer.
Riots erupted in Brown’s hometown of Ferguson and upon hearing the news Palestinian began tweeting to the protestors in Ferguson, advising them with tactics on how to avoid exposure to tear gas.
Watch and listen: Vic Mensa's video 'We could be Free.' From Ferguson to Palestine, Charlottesville to Standing Rock. https://t.co/8ZRcJISiA6
— PACBI (@PACBI) January 15, 2018
Reports estimate that more than 200,000 protesters attended the march in New York on Saturday, 600,000 in Los Angeles and another 300,00 in Chicago. Thousands also turned out in Washington, Philadelphia, and Seattle, and hundreds of other cities and towns around the country and world.
(PC, Social Media)
