Free Speech, Unless It's for Palestine
Why Advocating for Human Rights Now Comes with a Prison Sentence
Time and time again, they shut down those who fight for justice while they turn a blind eye to those who commit injustice. They promise freedom of speech but refuse to allow people to be free when they speak. This is no longer a point of discussion but a declaration of sides and an ode to the system that birthed colonialism, racism, and genocide.
Over the past two years, there has been a strategic attempt to silence those who call for the liberation of the people of Palestine. Initially sold to the people as a war encoded in the diplomacy of self-defense, it quickly transformed into an invasion and genocide.
Not just a genocide committed at the hands of the Israeli government, but a disregard for the progress made by society for the betterment of humanity. A denial to follow international law and disregard for human rights not only within Gaza but globally.
Around the world, all those who fight for ideals of society entrenched in justice and peace continue to be silenced by their states. The United States’ strategic and planned removal and silencing of students who advocate for the right to self-determination depict a world where speech is anything but free.
Constant attempts to discredit, undermine, and alter the narrative to enshrine the idea that Palestinians are not the victims but rather the oppressors, while they witness a rainfall of bombs, pinpoint the lack of morality and care for human life.
The same politicians who call for restraint in Ukraine refuse to even think about consequences for Israel, depicting the selective morality of the Western world. But rather, they depict the truth—that those who care for the life and well-being of people only care when they look the same or serve self-interest.
For years, the Middle East has been treated as a test site for how immoral the world can be at the hands of both Black and white Presidents of the United States. Obama and Trump both dropped bombs and claimed those moments as victories, reducing brown lives to purely statistics on a paper.
The world leaders who are entrusted with ensuring the beliefs of democracy are enshrined and enforced in all societies continue to bend and manipulate them as soon as the country has different skin, culture, and beliefs. They do not believe in democracy nor in diversity, for it challenges their privilege.
Currently, the fight for Palestine is no longer a fight that people can continue to look over, for it truly is a fight for the right to exist. The right to be moral, to know your home is your own. It truly is a fight to be free—both at home and within other countries.
Angela Davis puts it:
“Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world. Those who claim to stand for justice, to oppose racism, sexism, and colonialism—cannot stand on the sidelines when it comes to the systematic dispossession and dehumanization of Palestinians. The struggle for justice in Palestine is bound up with the struggle for justice everywhere. None of us are free until all of us are free.”
This truly holds more weight after the declaration of the Palestine Action group as a terrorist group within the United Kingdom. Civil disobedience—which gave birth to the Civil Rights Act under Martin Luther King Jr., the end of colonialism in India under Mahatma Gandhi, and countless other movements around the world—has been the cornerstone of progress, human rights, and justice within society.
Now, it is being used to silence society, to place society behind bars. It feels as though all progress is being lost. No longer are the ideals of those who used civil disobedience to progress society viewed as positive. They actively assign the label "terrorist" when they do no harm—while other states get to kill endlessly without ever experiencing even the slightest critique. This continues to depict the illicit ways of the countries who claim to be leaders of the world.
There is something about this fight and the need for peace in the world that seems so impossible to achieve. But even as they labeled Mandela a terrorist, they assassinated Gaddafi, and waged internal war on sovereign governments—they remain unaccountable for their own acts.
This ongoing narrative that refuses everyone to see that people’s lives are at stake—that they are actively suffering not as a result of their own doing but as a result of an embedded belief that says Israel has a claim to land—has made us lose sight of our principles. It allowed thousands of Palestinian children to forgo their future, and for some, to not even know one.
Yet, the focus is always on those who fight, who call for justice and accountability. It is only a matter of time before the tide changes. This is a long fight—one where many will lose their right to exist in certain countries in support of the existence of another. It is important that the people do not give up. It is important that the people continue to fight and remember that it is always possible as long as you continue to believe.
After 27 years of grueling prison and constant engagements with the institution that was Apartheid, it was the rest of the world that called for the end of Apartheid. It was President Mandela who said, “It always seems impossible until it's done.”
In this waking moment, where there is yet another attempt to silence the movement that continues to call for the Palestinian people's right to determine, what may seem impossible now will be possible in the future.
It is important that the fire that was sparked through the countless battles that occurred in Palestine continues to fuel the movement so that the people of Palestine can know of a home—one that is safe from the oppressive forces that are the Israeli government, and one where children can go outside and play.
In the words of Kendrick Lamar:
“You wanna love like Nelson, you wanna be like Nelson
You wanna walk in his shoes, but your peacemaking seldom.”
Because within that, maybe there is a moment where the world can actually be a place where peacemaking is something that is welcomed. Destruction and occupation are not the innate responses from the Western world.
Today sparks the start of the Palestine Action movement being associated with criminal charges of 14 years for anyone who supports them, as they are viewed as a terrorist organisation. Hopefully, in the same way they marked Mandela a terrorist, it will be the beginning of slow yet gradual change that one day will set the people free.
In the words of Senator Bernie Sanders:
“We must recognize that the rights of the Palestinian people must be respected. Palestinians deserve to live in freedom, to control their own lives, and to live in peace and security. The occupation must end.”
I hope for a free Palestine. I hope for the end of the genocide. And I call for world peace. This is the world's moment to get things right and not let history repeat itself, as it has time and time again in the Western world.
In the words of my grandfather:
“We didn’t do things the way the British and the Americans wanted us to do them – and if you don’t do it like the big ones, the French and the Americans and the British, the way they want to do them, then you are a cheeky African.
Well, I’m happy being a cheeky African.”
Being a cheeky African means fighting for the people of Palestine. I too shall be a cheeky African.
FREE PALESTINE.