Rabble Rant: Shutting it Down for Palestine
As Israel continues to bombard Gaza and perpetuate violence in the West Bank, millions of people across the world are escalating their efforts to Free Palestine.
The Canadian government may not want a ceasefire, but activists and polls across Canada are telling a different story. Coordinated sit-ins of MPs offices, massive rallies and blockades of weapons manufacturers are sweeping the nation.
This episode gives you a run down of the different tactics and calls to action out there, while highlighting the urgency to DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING.
Also discussed:
- Land Grab: Is this really about Hamas, or another colonial land grab and genocide? Recent Israeli leases for oil and gas extraction and attacks on villages in the West Bank throw key narratives into doubt.
- More than Canadian Complicity: What exactly is our role in all of this? Canadian military boots on the ground tell only a part of the story.
- Labour: What has the response been from organized Labour in Canada and beyond? Demands for a General Strike brew again.
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Transcript
There is so much out there to get mad about. Social injustices, class warfare, continued
Speaker:colonization, the act of destruction of our planet by those focused on prophets and not
Speaker:people. We can find it overwhelming at times. The good news is there are equally as many,
Speaker:if not more, stories of people coming together and rising up against the forces at play. So
Speaker:the creators of Blueprints of Disruption have added a new weekly segment, Ravel Rants, where
Speaker:we will unpack the stories that have us most riled up, share calls to action, and most importantly,
Speaker:celebrate resistance. Welcome to another Ravel Rant. Yes, we are absolutely still talking
Speaker:about Palestine. Today's episode, though, will largely focus on the different levels of resistance
Speaker:that are happening worldwide. This is to serve two purposes. One, to get you folks out there
Speaker:as well so you know what's happening, get ideas, start to kind of really put in the work that's
Speaker:going to be needed to pressure governments to call for a ceasefire and beyond. But also to
Speaker:give credit where credit is due. There's some people doing some heavy lifting out there and
Speaker:it's truly inspiring. And if there's anything that we try to get out of this show is the
Speaker:motivation to disrupt. And that's exactly what's happening out there. And rightly so, because
Speaker:some of the updates that we're going to start with are horrendous. I imagine most of you
Speaker:out there are following the situation in Gaza and now the West Bank. And so all of the details
Speaker:aren't necessary. But one thing I wanted to focus on at the beginning of this episode is
Speaker:the... extreme clarity to which we can see that this has nothing to do with hunting down Hamas,
Speaker:but with a land grab and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The latest report from Gaza's
Speaker:Health Ministry is that they have removed 881 families from the registry. The first time
Speaker:that we reported that number just a few weeks ago, it was 41 families. And so, although again,
Speaker:most of you are quite aware of the death toll that is occurring. It's important to emphasize
Speaker:that Israel has expanded its operations to the West Bank. And so, all of the argumentation
Speaker:that was used to justify civilian deaths, that they didn't give up Hamas, that they didn't
Speaker:evacuate, all of that is going out the window. The mask is off and it's a clear colonial land
Speaker:grab. And I think like... This makes me so mad because for so long when they said, you know,
Speaker:why can't people from the North just run to the South or why won't Egypt take them? Or
Speaker:all of these other kind of, you know, at least they gave them warning to evacuate. And it's
Speaker:Palestinians know best that this was always a land grab. This is something they've experienced
Speaker:since 1947. And, you know, I understand beyond the logistics of not moving why they won't
Speaker:move because, you know, It's never been about religion. We've said that before on the show.
Speaker:This is always land and power, land and power. Why do they want this land? You know, you're
Speaker:thinking like they're pummeling Gaza. Right now, it doesn't look like anything anybody
Speaker:would want. You think that would be the point, but just this week, Israel signed leases for
Speaker:natural gas sites all along the coast. They signed these leases with companies like BP.
Speaker:And at the same time, we see new fleets launching for the logistics companies that transfer the
Speaker:natural gas to and from the Middle East, Europe, and Canada. A lot of these companies are Canadian
Speaker:based even. And in 2019, it was estimated that the oil and natural gas in the occupied territories
Speaker:with was worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Speaker:That's what war has always been about, right? Particularly in these days, anything that happens
Speaker:in the Middle East is centered around acquiring oil. We've talked about it before, the whole
Speaker:reason that beyond the crazy Baptist that Santiago told us about, the US's main interest in securing
Speaker:a kind of bastion in Israel is entirely tied to oil. And also this week, it's been exposed
Speaker:that... The intelligence ministry within Israel has recommended the complete expulsion of Palestinians
Speaker:from Gaza as a means of rooting out terrorism. I mean, that's why they put in their recommendation,
Speaker:but surely it's to facilitate this continued land grab of Palestinian land. We are witnessing
Speaker:the Nakba all over again. It's astonishing. You know what, I've been... Someone brought
Speaker:up recently the Armenian genocide and I realized that I don't know as much as I wish I knew
Speaker:about that but I was thinking about how much land and how devastating that was how many
Speaker:people were killed and it's more or less not something anyone really knows about. I mean,
Speaker:a lot of people to die and even happened. The reason I'm bringing that up is because it's
Speaker:interesting the way that genocide can happen without anyone doing anything about it, right?
Speaker:Like we think, when we look at these issues, we like to think that there are limits that...
Speaker:humanity will eventually kick in and we'll do something about it, that there'll be a point
Speaker:when, you know, enough is enough and we're not going to let this go any further. But history
Speaker:has taught us otherwise. History has taught us how easy it is to justify and to rationalize
Speaker:the most horrible of things. I just wanted to start off of that because regardless of whether
Speaker:or not it's oil or land or whatever their fucking motivation is, like at the end of the day it
Speaker:all is the exact same thing which is genocide. It's the killing of innocent people, of children,
Speaker:of families. And you know, like, because we get into like... I was just thinking into oil,
Speaker:because I'm like, it's so fucking frustrating. Like, okay, again, oil and it's like, whatever
Speaker:it is, we know that capital will always be put above human lives. And it's so frustrating.
Speaker:And you know, that like people will try and justify these things, but I just wanted to
Speaker:like, take a second and like settle into like the humanity of it all. Because that's what
Speaker:this is about. Right. And it's, you know, I've had an interesting time talking to people about
Speaker:this lately. I mean, the vast majority, like I've found that the vast majority of people
Speaker:I speak to are actually very pro-politicizing. It's funny, even like I know someone who is
Speaker:currently like in the Canadian military, who I was talking to, and they were horrified at
Speaker:what was happening. And I was shocked because it seemed like they have historically had such
Speaker:a capacity to rationalize. so many things and their nationalism and patriotism is so deeply
Speaker:rooted, but this issue was getting through to them. And I've had a few conversations with
Speaker:people who are not on the side of, you know, stopping a genocide. And those were quite interesting
Speaker:too, because I found that the more you inform them, the more you see this idea that they
Speaker:had in their head crumble. And I'll get into like maybe some specifics later on. I don't
Speaker:want to delve into that too early, but it's just to say that like, I think that the more
Speaker:we look at this issue, the more it becomes clear like that this speaks, like this is such a
Speaker:test of our humanity. And at the end of the day, like I don't, I guess I wanted to. Sorry,
Speaker:I know I'm rambling a little bit here, but I think there's something very philosophical,
Speaker:which is I don't believe in evil, really. I don't believe people are inherently bad. I
Speaker:don't believe people want to do horrible things. And when we're seeing such horrible, horrible
Speaker:things happen before our eyes, it's hard to believe that. It's hard to keep that belief
Speaker:that people are not inherently bad, that people at their hearts want... good and to do right
Speaker:by others. But that's why it's important to be challenging and to be, that's why it's important
Speaker:to have these movements, to have these shows, to keep talking about this issue, to keep informing
Speaker:people because I find that when you, when you bring it down to the root of things, when you
Speaker:really bring it to the humanity of it all, almost everyone I've ever talked to has been able
Speaker:to see that. almost everybody, even if it's deeply buried, even if it takes a lot, it's
Speaker:there. And I feel like we need to remember that sometimes because I think we're very quick
Speaker:to write everyone off and to otherize everyone. But I don't believe that is how people are.
Speaker:And sorry, I just, I'm gonna give it back to you, Jessica, because I just, I wasn't even
Speaker:planning that rant. I don't even know where that came from, but that just... came to me.
Speaker:See, like, I get what you're saying in terms of the need to talk to people. Sometimes they
Speaker:just don't know the story. They don't know the realities of the occupation. And so they can
Speaker:start to kind of understand where we're at and relate to people. I mean, that's why you see
Speaker:a lot of actions like a vigil, because there really is work that needs to be done to just
Speaker:humanize Palestinian people at this point. And it really is a test of our humanity, but that's
Speaker:why I have written some people off. And maybe that's not the right thing to do, but it's
Speaker:not even so much the folks that, you know, may or may not be categorized as evil, right? Because
Speaker:I don't focus on them for lots of reasons. It's the folks that I know, know and are silent.
Speaker:I... I can't be their courage for them anymore. You know, we are too far into this. I feel
Speaker:like if I have not heard from you at this point, I have written you off as an ally. And like,
Speaker:I know that's not ideal. I know, I'm glad that there's people that are still willing to do
Speaker:the work to come and go to comrades that should have done better and encourage them to do so.
Speaker:But I'm really upset and I'm really hurt by it still. And I just don't have capacity to
Speaker:be their backbone. Right, I needed them to be it. I can't. We shouldn't have to do heavy
Speaker:lifting for people who've already, you know, been exposed to all the work that's been out
Speaker:there. It reminds me of a conversation I had this summer, um, under a Willow tree in a Toronto
Speaker:park, just to set a dramatic scene. But I remember a friend of mine was talking about the concept
Speaker:of loving someone, but not liking them. And like the contradiction there. No, man, that's
Speaker:kind of, that hurt is too deep. But that's kind of how I feel. It's like I, Like I'm allowing
Speaker:myself to be open to like the love of humanity and love everyone, but that doesn't mean I
Speaker:won't be pissed off. And that moment, like I won't, I won't have like some strong anger
Speaker:towards inaction and towards not doing the work and not like, like do not mistake my benevolence
Speaker:for, for tolerance because you know, like the whole paradox of, of tolerance, you know. I'm
Speaker:not tolerant towards this kind of hatred and I'm not tolerant towards allowing being, what's
Speaker:the word I'm looking at? I'm not tolerant to allowing genocide, you know? And that's the
Speaker:thing is that I have a lot of hippie friends of mine who are very like, love and forgiveness
Speaker:and all that. No, I don't believe in universal forgiveness and I think people need to... to
Speaker:do the work, to earn forgiveness, and otherwise you just let people step over you. But I'm
Speaker:just... Yeah, there's penance to pay. Like if the folks wanna come out and say something
Speaker:now and issue a statement now, that's gonna have to be backed up by some really hard public
Speaker:work. But what I'm saying is I'm trying really hard right now to remember the humanity inside
Speaker:of all of us and know that we're capable of so much greater. than what is happening right
Speaker:now, that when we're at, whenever we're experiencing the worst part of humanity, which is what we're
Speaker:experiencing right now, because it doesn't get worse than genocide. Whenever we're at this
Speaker:absolute darkness that we are right now, I think it's important to remember what we fight for
Speaker:and what goodness looks like and the better world we wanna build. You know, I think of
Speaker:like J.Y.O. Adda's quotes about revolutionary love. Let me say at the risk of seeming ridiculous
Speaker:that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. It is impossible to think
Speaker:of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. I think about that all goddamn time because
Speaker:I feel that like that is like to my very foundation. I feel that. And yeah, anyways, I've taken
Speaker:up a lot of airspace with my tangent, but. I think there's a lot of folks that are. They
Speaker:feel it in their humanness. They are watching what is happening and are rightfully horrified.
Speaker:But here in Canada, perhaps have allowed themselves to be distant from what's happening because
Speaker:perhaps they can't relate to what it might be like to live in an open air prison, or they
Speaker:think this is strictly a Middle East conflict that they really don't have to worry about,
Speaker:that they don't... play a role in. We see a lot of politicians moving on to domestic policies
Speaker:and the whatnot, but Canada plays a massive role in what's going on here. And that is only
Speaker:becoming clearer day by day as we have now sent the Joint Task Force to Israel to aid in security,
Speaker:whatever that means. I don't know why powerful armies need... essentially Delta forces who
Speaker:are also there meeting with Biden. Side note, those idiots showed the photographs of all
Speaker:the Delta soldiers on their website just to brag about Biden's visit. They had to take
Speaker:it down, but it didn't blur the faces or anything. These are elite and secret military forces
Speaker:that God knows how many other countries have sent into Israel. They are counterterrorism
Speaker:units. You get the idea of what these folks are up to over there. It's not security that
Speaker:they provide, but they are aggressive forces. Our forces literally boots on the ground. And
Speaker:I'm looking at the numbers from 2002 and just keep in mind, 2002 is a year, just last year,
Speaker:where Israel bombed the hell out of Gaza for three consecutive days. So all the people that
Speaker:are acting shocked at what's happening now, like this is a reality many, many. Gazans have
Speaker:lived through many aggressions like this. But in that year, in 2002, Canada alone exported
Speaker:21 million in arms to Israel. This is not the aid we provided to Israel. That is separate
Speaker:from the Canadian government. We sell weapons to them. And so thankfully, a lot of people
Speaker:are quite aware of Canada's complicity. And in particular our role in the arms manufacturing
Speaker:business. And so we are seeing some actions directed toward that. So we're gonna transition
Speaker:into the part of the show where we are gonna give you countless examples of folks who have
Speaker:harnessed their humanity and their courage and are acting with radical love and putting a
Speaker:lot on the line for Palestine right now. Have you seen that out in Toronto? the folks blocking
Speaker:the entranceways to Incas. Which one's Incas? So Incas supplies military equipment to Israel.
Speaker:And you had a real kind of coalition show up there yesterday. So that is October 30th, the
Speaker:same day that we had sit-ins. We'll get into that in a second. But you got Labour for Palestine,
Speaker:Labour Against the Arms Trade, WBW Canada, even the Naju were there along with other individuals
Speaker:who heard the call. And a lot of you see with a lot of these actions, you're not gonna hear
Speaker:about them ahead of time, right? People don't announce that they're going to do something
Speaker:potentially illegal ahead of time. So there won't be posters for stuff like that. You really
Speaker:do need to get involved with these networks to participate in stuff like this or plan your
Speaker:own in conjunction with the Palestinian youth movement or Palestine action or whatnot, so
Speaker:they can help. boost the signal, but yeah, these folks blocked the entrances to these companies
Speaker:and they were arrested. Word has it that those that were arrested were released and the demonstration
Speaker:continued outside. So those actions, and we're seeing this, these kinds of actions really
Speaker:originated in the UK and they stem from calls directly from Palestine to stop the bombs,
Speaker:to forget about appealing to your politicians. that they are a lost cause at this point. They
Speaker:need to physically hit at the economic motivations here and stop weapons from being supplied to
Speaker:Israel by any means necessary. I'm all here for that. And we can do that. Like that is
Speaker:realistic. It is within, like as far as disruptive acts go, think of the crowds we've seen across
Speaker:the world. And particularly in the Western nations that manufacture these arms, like we have the
Speaker:ability to shut down that supply chain. It's challenging. Yes, but we can, we can do that.
Speaker:And just think of like, you know, like how much of a sense of hopelessness so many people have
Speaker:felt watching the bombs fall on Gaza, watching the buildings collapse, watching everything
Speaker:from afar and not knowing what to do. No, we- We can do something about this. We must do
Speaker:something about this. Absolutely. And you hit on it like, see the numbers. It won't be that
Speaker:difficult. What we need to do is when we plan these mass actions and like kudos to the people
Speaker:that are putting these on, they have been well organized from all accounts on the ground.
Speaker:This is no slight to them at all. But it needs to be planned in locations where you have maximum
Speaker:disruption. And if. you just wanted to mess with the supply chain. You just merely needed
Speaker:to redirect where you make calls for action. So the parliament or the economic center of
Speaker:a city on the weekend isn't nearly as disruptive as encircling a facility with hundreds, thousands
Speaker:of people and making it impossible. for them to ship in and out, not to mention it's really
Speaker:bad PR and it inspires other people to kind of do the same, right, to up the ante. And
Speaker:nothing warmed my heart more this morning as I'm doing research for acts of resistance.
Speaker:And I come across Palestinian action in the UK blocking Elbit facilities. That's E-L-B-I-T.
Speaker:We'll link a lot of this stuff in the show notes so you guys can see firsthand. But not only
Speaker:are they blocking the entrances, they have a big smile on my face, clearly. They are climbing
Speaker:on the roofs. And there is one photo, Santiago, of protesters on the roof at dusk with green
Speaker:flares and Palestinian flags and fucking sledgehammers. And like this is where we're at, people. We
Speaker:are talking about preventing a genocide. If you have the capacity to do something like
Speaker:that, kudos to the folks that are putting that on the line. They are risking arrest. That
Speaker:is dangerous stuff, but really. To me, it seems like a necessary next step. And to log on and
Speaker:see also folks starting to do that in Toronto, because we know that Elbite also has a facility
Speaker:in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, if our East Coast friends are listening. And this company is
Speaker:really pivotal in the tech that goes to Israel in terms of their military. So Canada not only
Speaker:has a role to play in this fucking genocide, but our grassroots and our labor and, you know,
Speaker:I've given up hope on the NDP, but everyone else has a role here to play in shutting it
Speaker:down. It reminds me of the interview the other day with Tyler Shipley, when we talk about,
Speaker:you know, what the foundation of colonialism and our societies are built on, right? It requires
Speaker:that active participation. right, from settlers. And it's the same thing here in Canada as it
Speaker:is in Israel. And I just think about how, you know, like by not, by not doing something about
Speaker:this, by washing our hands clean and saying, you know, okay, people are doing their jobs.
Speaker:And, you know, I mean, who's responsible, the person who built the bomb or the person who
Speaker:fired the bomb, you know? Where does the response of where like, where does the puck end? You
Speaker:know, the shareholders for the company who made the bomb, you know, or the person who paid.
Speaker:Yeah. Like it's a lot of like the blame can be thrown all over the place. But I what I
Speaker:think is we just need to not be complicit and we need to see that like, you know, all right,
Speaker:all right. It comes down to like, you know, like it's and I'll say it, I've said it every
Speaker:episode so far and I'll say it again, you know, like. if you're neutral in situations of injustice,
Speaker:you've chosen the side of the oppressor. Inaction is an action. Inaction is enabling this. It
Speaker:is giving permission for this. We have an obligation here to do everything we can. And I'm honestly
Speaker:like, I've been, it's been, this has been like a yes fucking finally moment, you know, like
Speaker:this is is what we're talking about, you know, and it, and it, and this is the exact kind
Speaker:of resistance that we need and we need to double down on it. And I'm like, I just wish I could
Speaker:participate more. Like we need, we need to be amplified. Like if you can't physically go
Speaker:out, make sure that you amplify it as much as you possibly can, make sure everyone knows
Speaker:that this is happening. Absolutely. When the, it came across my feed for the sit-ins in the
Speaker:17 MPs office across Canada yesterday, I was. My mission there, I think 20 minutes before
Speaker:I had to run out, was to get alt text on all of their posters so that you could send it
Speaker:out and just put it in the private message box of as many people as possible so that they
Speaker:could spread it. Because when actions like that happen, folks need to be able to respond quickly,
Speaker:both with boosting the signal, like letting people know what happens, because the media
Speaker:will not cover this. This was not top of the news, even though this is one of the largest
Speaker:coordinated acts of civil disobedience in terms of politicians that Canada's ever seen. They
Speaker:were in Christian Freeland's office, Melanie Jolie, also Jagmeet Singh. No politician got
Speaker:away unscathed, even if they're willing to make nice glossy statements in parliament. That
Speaker:just wasn't going to cut it for those folks. And that was like many, many people, what they
Speaker:described it as was an independent action that was done in conjunction with the Palestinian
Speaker:youth movement. So what that means basically is folks took it upon themselves to plan this
Speaker:with their comrades across the country using the networks that they have built for maybe
Speaker:Palestinian resistance, but more likely for climate action or housing or tenant organizing,
Speaker:like all these community groups and friends and contacts that we make when we do these
Speaker:things. They need to be activated right now because when they are, you get things like
Speaker:this, right, where really skilled organizers pull off some really slick moves. So one of
Speaker:the important things I'd like to know about the actions that the Palestinian youth movement
Speaker:have, and it speaks to what Santiago was talking about before in terms of pushing the envelope
Speaker:a little bit. And it's not just a ceasefire, right? Yes, a ceasefire is the most urgent
Speaker:thing that's needed, right? These folks need to have bombs stopped from dropping on them,
Speaker:right? Like they are going to wipe out the people of Gaza unless we get a ceasefire. That is
Speaker:crucial. I understand why some people have made that their only focus. Again, not a critique,
Speaker:but when you look at the Palestinian youth movement flyers and their demands for all these mass
Speaker:actions, it also includes the end of Canadian complicity. So that could include aid to Israel
Speaker:and the fact that we are sending troops and green lighting them at the UN, an end to the
Speaker:Gaza siege, which started well before October 7th, right? Blockades on what could go in and
Speaker:out of the Gaza Strip and a free Palestine. So because I find like when we're in this fight
Speaker:and there is such urgency on something that's like life saving, it's hard to then think of
Speaker:all of the other demands, right? That just seemed like gravy at this point. I just, it's important
Speaker:I think in this moment that there are people also including these demands because if you
Speaker:don't now, you might lose the ability to do so. The bar will have moved the same way the
Speaker:political spectrum shifts and it's so hard to pull it back. Over to the window. Yeah. Like
Speaker:if all we ever want is like no bombs dropping on Gaza, we become satisfied with that and
Speaker:not an end to the occupation of the West Bank and beyond. Then we're not really calling for
Speaker:peace. We're just calling for a cessation of this escalation. And that's all. To put it
Speaker:in very simple terms, right now we are witnessing a genocide. A ceasefire would be a cessation
Speaker:of the genocide, but what are you left with? You're still left with an apartheid. Which
Speaker:is genocide, right? If you look at what the plan is, this is just... a sped up version
Speaker:of the long game. It is, it's always been genocide has always been the goal, right? If you read
Speaker:the flyers that were dropped down on the people of Palestine before the Nakba telling them
Speaker:how the ground would like swallow them up and fire would rain down unless they left. It was
Speaker:always to ethnically cleanse areas so that the state of Israel could control them for whatever
Speaker:end they want to tell you it's for. You know, no, it wouldn't even be a cessation of the
Speaker:genocide. That would not be an end, especially knowing the conditions in which folks are living.
Speaker:I know I said I would just go into resistance, but I read something the other day and I just
Speaker:want to share it. It was just a description and I'm not going to give it all of what people
Speaker:are experiencing in Gaza. And it spoke of the dust that is everywhere and the lack of water
Speaker:to make it harder to
Speaker:No water means you're not going to the washroom. There's no running water means there hardly
Speaker:are. It's like 10% of toilets and gasses are running right now. And so you can only imagine
Speaker:what that is leading to in terms of what kind of environment they're living in, the illnesses
Speaker:that are going to come from this, the noise that exists. So if it's not bombs, it's ambulances.
Speaker:If it's not ambulances, it's screaming, it's crying, and the smell. that people are experiencing
Speaker:of death everywhere. And these are people who are surviving in Gaza right now, and that's
Speaker:what they're experiencing. So when I read that, I thought it was just kind of powerful. We
Speaker:often think of just the death toll and perhaps not what it must be like living in these conditions
Speaker:that will still exist even when the bombs stop. I remember reading something about how before
Speaker:this latest, like before everything else happened this October. 90% of children in Gaza had PTSD.
Speaker:I mean, I imagine it's got to be 100 at this point or like, either way, like regardless,
Speaker:like that is insane to me. What does that do to people? What does that do to this generation?
Speaker:Like this is millions of people. What like, I cannot imagine the collective trauma. This
Speaker:is, I mean, regardless of what happens, this is like, this is going to have generational
Speaker:effects. generations into the future. Like what's happening here is going to be written in the
Speaker:history books as an incredibly dark chapter of humanity. I will never be the same. I will
Speaker:never be the same. I just hope that like fuck like we need to like use this to like we need
Speaker:to learn here we need to do better like fuck I don't need like I don't know what to say
Speaker:anymore. I mean, we've said so much over like these episodes. It's just like... But people
Speaker:are Santiago. They're fighting back, right? You saw it with your own eyes. You saw half
Speaker:a million people in London. You saw 80,000 people in Barcelona, Jordan. I'm not sure there's
Speaker:many countries, even France, where they've tried to outlaw these protests and we see Biden trying
Speaker:to equate these protests to neo-Nazis and still... we have massive actions planned, right? So
Speaker:there's a national day of action coming on November 4th that is coming up people. This is mostly
Speaker:coordinated by the Palestinian youth movement. This is not a time for you to maybe sit back
Speaker:and check out what rally is closest to you. These folks have done a lot of hard work to
Speaker:make it possible for you to throw your own local action. There is no action too small, because
Speaker:I'll tell you when... Folks that feel the same way see actions in small towns or at least
Speaker:smaller urban centers. It is crucial work, right, that they don't think that that's something
Speaker:that only exists in the city, right? So absolutely consider logging on to the document we're going
Speaker:to share in our show notes. It's a Google Doc for people, individuals to endorse, organizations
Speaker:to endorse and sign up to hold actions in their own. town. And the idea is to make those calls,
Speaker:those demands that I asked for before, but also, you know, to keep creating these networks of
Speaker:resistance. Although there's like real urgency built around what we're doing, folks, I see
Speaker:them, they're playing the long game as well, right? They're building long-term connections
Speaker:to go down the road, webinars, educational things are being planned to bring other people along,
Speaker:because it can be hard doing the work that you're talking about earlier about talk. talking to
Speaker:people, doing those one-on-ones and challenging preconceived notions. If you don't have the
Speaker:equipment, right, if you haven't maybe been in contact with the Palestinian diaspora, you
Speaker:haven't been exposed to that work. You know, you know where you stand, but you don't know
Speaker:enough to really engage. So I recommended the resource link on the Palestinian youth movement,
Speaker:but you were talking about some great online resources that folks can. dive into so they're
Speaker:better informed. Yeah, I was just thinking, I mean, there's tons of, of content on platforms
Speaker:like YouTube that have the entire history broken down. I, I watched several videos from Vox,
Speaker:uh, some of them really recent, some of them a few years old, that they go over the entire
Speaker:history of the region in a very informative way. I mean, it's great places to start to
Speaker:just look like if, if you don't Like if the word Nakba doesn't mean anything to you, go
Speaker:read. Like go please, like learn about this. Pick up a book. People don't read books anymore,
Speaker:I guess. Well, you don't have to read a book. I mean, five minutes in front of a screen and
Speaker:you'll already at least have like the basic information of what happened, like a basic
Speaker:timeline of the events. And it's important because, you know, let me take this back maybe to one
Speaker:of the conversations I had where I was talking to someone who was essentially under the impression
Speaker:that before the Nakba, before the creation of the state of Israel, that all of this land
Speaker:in Palestine was just empty, wasteland, desert, nothingness. Terranelis? And that the Palestinians
Speaker:just gave the land. the Israelis because they were like, oh, this is worthless land anyways.
Speaker:And then Israel went and built the super modern society. Now they want back because they want
Speaker:to take advantage of the prosperity. That's not even remotely close to what happened. But
Speaker:let me just, no wonder they believe that, right? Because that is the story many people have
Speaker:been told about colonialism, right? Africa here in North America, that it was terra nullis.
Speaker:They actually drew it on the map as being uninhabited by anything civilized. It justified colonialism.
Speaker:So it's no wonder Canada accept that narrative. And much has been done by the Israeli state
Speaker:to perpetuate that narrative. Gata talked about it on the episode where they create wildlife
Speaker:reserves over top of Palestinian villages and pretend that they are. bringing life to the
Speaker:land, that they're bringing water to the land as though Palestinians didn't have water up
Speaker:until then. And it's a real colonial mindset. It comes back then to the other conversation
Speaker:I had where somebody, there was someone from the Palestinian youth movement putting up signs
Speaker:in Parkdale, you know, end of genocide. It was for the rally last Sunday. And someone was
Speaker:coming up to them, you know, like, do you condemn Hamas, yada yada? And I got into a bit of a
Speaker:discussion with them. And one thing that like really stood out to me, you know, they were
Speaker:talking, cause you know, I was talking about colonialism and they were like, oh, well, colonialism
Speaker:is a good thing because there weren't showers before colonialism. And I was really, I was
Speaker:really shocked at the way this person was talking. And This person's from Ecuador, you know, from
Speaker:Colombia. And I was like, kind of like talking to him. Do you know the history of your people?
Speaker:Do you know what the societies that existed here before look like? Like, it comes back
Speaker:to the same myth of savages. And I had to like, tell them, like, do you know how indigenous
Speaker:communities are doing today? Do you think that they're doing better off today? Like, do you
Speaker:think that they're thriving right now? And it was actually indigenous people that- taught
Speaker:Europeans to bathe. Yeah, I mean, honestly, no idea. But all I know is that the myth of
Speaker:the savage societies is exactly that, a myth, you know? And it's not even like historical
Speaker:savages, right? This is still how we frame, how people are framing Palestinians. Modern
Speaker:day Palestinians, you know, living in the city of Gaza, they are calling them the children
Speaker:of darkness, Netanyahu used language like laws of the jungle. And these are all to hearken
Speaker:that idea and to dehumanize Palestinians as though there's not really anything there. This
Speaker:isn't really a genocide because Palestinians aren't really people. And it unfortunately,
Speaker:that is how it works, right? When you're disconnected from that or you can't see yourself in their
Speaker:shoes, it's perhaps why. genocides like the one in Armenia, you know, that didn't have,
Speaker:we didn't have that kind of exposure to the information around it where it was easily denied.
Speaker:And now that we're watching a genocide happen in real time, we can understand how that happens
Speaker:because we're seeing people deny the death counts in Gaza. Oh, well, let me see the bodies, they
Speaker:say, you know, and so much of the work that's being done is just to bear witness, right,
Speaker:to so much effort's being put into just pushing back. on these narratives or otherwise, yeah,
Speaker:you could quite easily erase this genocide if it wasn't for the resistance. What comes to
Speaker:mind is a genocide that we were taught about in school, at least I was, the Rwandan genocide.
Speaker:And that's interesting because in that situation, the Hutu and the Tutsi are two fake categories.
Speaker:They're the same people. There was no... genetic biological difference. It was a completely
Speaker:manufactured, I think it was the Belgium who created the two categorizations for people.
Speaker:But it shows you the way that like the power of dehumanization where two people who have
Speaker:lived together, who are neighbors with each other, who share the same lives, there's no
Speaker:inherent difference between them whatsoever, that you can't even tell the difference between.
Speaker:way to visually tell the difference between one people's and another, because they're the
Speaker:same people's. And neighbor was killing neighbor. And it was one of the quickest genocides in
Speaker:recorded history. And we saw the way that the West allowed that to happen, the way they came
Speaker:in, took the white people, and washed their hands clean of the whole situation. While the
Speaker:world... that was paying attention watched on in horror. One of the major differences though
Speaker:I see with what's happening now and what you're describing in Rwanda is they're not neighbors.
Speaker:Although we are all human in that sense and they are in very close proximity with some
Speaker:settlements being within obviously shooting distance of Palestinian villages. They are
Speaker:not neighbors. especially if you're talking about the people of Gaza who have likely never
Speaker:even seen an Israeli from the way that their lives are structured. And so I think that's
Speaker:where a lot of the dehumanizing happens in this instance. And if you talk to folks who we've
Speaker:had testimonies on the Twitter space from folks that grew up in the Jewish community and the
Speaker:indoctrination that occurs with Zionism is heavy. it and any a lot of it is predicated on lesser
Speaker:than less deserving than right all of its predicated on a certain type of people having the right
Speaker:to return and not others because they're less than that they are not chosen and so it's incredibly
Speaker:harmful that continues that way you know and Perhaps when folks talk about the two-stage
Speaker:solution, you can just see that manifesting itself still. So again, I don't know what the
Speaker:solution is, but I did wanna keep going back to the resistance that we're seeing, because
Speaker:it's important that folks know that people are rising up and organizing against this. Ramsey
Speaker:was a guest on last week's interview with Ground Up Waterloo. He was on our Twitter space as
Speaker:well, talking about Palestine and the actions around it. And although it might seem really
Speaker:obvious, I thought it was worth repeating to folks to fully understand that only external
Speaker:pressures will end this, not political pressures. Our governments need to feel as though their
Speaker:way of life is going to be disrupted here and force them to act. to make a real dent in the
Speaker:economic chain to Israel in order to cease their hostilities. And there's all sorts of ways
Speaker:that people can do that. You don't necessarily have to chain yourself to a gate and risk arrest.
Speaker:Santiago talked about coming across someone putting up flyers. It's quite possible. And
Speaker:I'm not arguing with you, but it's possible they weren't even with the Palestinian youth
Speaker:movement because it's as easy as going to their Instagram and downloading the images that they
Speaker:have of the next action that's happening and spending a few of your dollars to go to a printing
Speaker:facility, getting a roll of tape and putting them up yourself. You know, you don't need
Speaker:to know who's doing it. You don't need to know somebody in the group. You don't need to go
Speaker:to a meeting first. This is on you. Like just get up and do something. Like get up. print
Speaker:images for posters, even if there's not even an action in your little small town. Print
Speaker:up posters that just say, stop the genocide. Go right on the sidewalk everywhere you can
Speaker:go with chalk. The smallest act of resistance act as sparks that keep a flame alive, right?
Speaker:And that do eventually catch on. And I hope our labor can be a little bit contagious. We
Speaker:have seen Canadian labor dabble into this issue, most notably with Fred Hahn. and QB national
Speaker:passing resolution that we talked about in another episode. There are a few unions whose positions
Speaker:are clear on Palestine, but we've not seen any official action. In Belgium, however, there's
Speaker:a transport union there that's refusing to load military equipment that is destined for Israel.
Speaker:In the past, many, many times, we have seen port workers and railway workers take action
Speaker:to the same end. To stop. weapons from going to war. These are anti-war movements. Anybody
Speaker:who'd like to frame it as pro-Palestinian at this point, I don't really give a shit, but
Speaker:there is no denying this is now a fully blown anti-war movement. People who don't need to
Speaker:be educated on Palestine just need to know that civilian deaths in this magnitude can't be
Speaker:realized. So labor has a role to play in the anti-war movement. Even if you guys haven't
Speaker:passed a resolution on specifically the apartheid and the occupation or the recent exhalation
Speaker:in Gaza, surely your workers can't contribute to war and genocide. So I mean, we need labor
Speaker:to really step it up here in Canada. I've seen a few folks, I mean, as we always do, go to
Speaker:calls for a general strike and, you know, with the refrain, if not now, when? And feel like
Speaker:that's, we've had a lot of moments like that, if not now, when, but this is much bigger than
Speaker:all of those moments combined. Right? If there was ever an issue that mobilized people in
Speaker:modern day, you know, like the way folks mobilize against the war in Vietnam and Iraq, this is
Speaker:one of them. I know folks, you know, I've seen some steelworker flags as usual, you know,
Speaker:at the actions in Toronto. I think we've even seen some leaders speak. But one thing that
Speaker:came up in the Twitter space that we had last week, or this week, mine is a blur in terms
Speaker:of dates, was about the real lack of visibility of unions in BC. Even though, you know, Victoria,
Speaker:Vancouver, they're... And other places in BC have had some really sizable actions, like
Speaker:really big protests. And normally at something like this, that would be the norm, right? Contingence
Speaker:of locals and their flag so you know that they're there. It may seem obnoxious, but it serves
Speaker:a purpose, right? So folks know who is standing in solidarity. And that is really lacking in
Speaker:BC. And they made a point that I don't think I would have thought of. And I apologize, I
Speaker:don't know who it was. So I'm taking credit for their thoughts, but it's about the BC NDP.
Speaker:And you would think, well, that's a progressive province, right? They have elected the NDP.
Speaker:Their unions should be mobilized and feeling energized and emboldened, but it's actually
Speaker:the opposite. They're so worried of walking step in step with the NDP's position. and not
Speaker:drawing heat. They're acting like candidates even, you know, in that way where they're worried
Speaker:about what they say and what the head party says and making sure it's all jiving with one
Speaker:another or else risking ostracization like Sarah Jama and any other groups that have been vocal
Speaker:on this. And so I thought that was enraging that On top of all the bad policies like NDP
Speaker:make when they get in power, where they don't do revolutionary things, even though we make
Speaker:revolutionary demands, in times like this, in Ontario we've seen it laid clean, right? They're
Speaker:the opposition, maybe they have to be more careful. But even when in power, the BC NDP is not doing
Speaker:a damn thing. And in fact, you can make the point that they are hindering wider mobilization
Speaker:on the issue. And If not an episode goes by where we don't remind people that the NDP is
Speaker:a detriment to our movement, I'll do it again. They are. Because if labor doesn't come along
Speaker:with this, really it becomes more difficult to be as disruptive as we need to be. Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it's just another case where it's like, it goes to show the freedom you get when you...
Speaker:stop thinking in these electoral politics focused ways. It's like, oh, suddenly you don't have
Speaker:to worry about the consequences of whether or not you towed the party line. Now you have
Speaker:the freedom to actually fucking stand for what you believe in. It's a beautiful thing to be
Speaker:able to do that. And I mean, you could do it either way. I mean, there'll be consequences
Speaker:if you're in the NDP, but that's the point. Like don't exist in spaces where there are
Speaker:consequences for doing the right thing, right? And now Sarah Jama can go online and flash
Speaker:the victory symbol with Jeremy Corbin and not worry about taking flack for that. Exactly.
Speaker:And that's been a thing that I've been happy to see the last few days. So it's been, you
Speaker:know, people really like, I feel like it's really sinking in this message. People are getting
Speaker:it. And that needs to happen because you know, the NDP, you know who's not going to tell you
Speaker:to go and blockade arms manufacturers? The NDP is never going to say that. I'll tell you,
Speaker:that is so true. We had a candidate up here in New York, Simcoe, Dave Solosi, and in his
Speaker:youth, I don't even think youth, I don't know how old he was, it doesn't matter. He was protesting
Speaker:outside a facility here in Ontario that was making parts for the nuclear bomb. And he got
Speaker:arrested for it. And when he wanted to run as an NDP candidate, Central was adamant, like
Speaker:he scrubbed that. And they actually wouldn't vet him. We had to stage a protest and say
Speaker:we would not accept another candidate. Like it was a big, dirty kerfuffle. And they reluctantly
Speaker:allowed him to be candidate. And the only thing was that he had been a... anti-war activists
Speaker:who was arrested, that was such a detriment to them. And rightly so, you see the Sun tried
Speaker:to print an article defaming him as he ran, calling him the only anti-nuclear war activist.
Speaker:That was a bad thing. The labels people are throwing around for protesters, they're bad
Speaker:things. It would be funny if it wasn't so detrimental either way. Yeah, like there's no room for
Speaker:activists there. Not even in the slightest. But, you know, there's a whole backlog of episodes
Speaker:to explain that. We won't subject people to that. Again, it comes back to that saying,
Speaker:you know, like you try and say it change the system from within, you'll either get flushed
Speaker:out or the system will change you. You know, that's what we're seeing. Yeah. And you know
Speaker:what? I think this. On top of their bad behavior, I think the amount of mobilization that folks
Speaker:are seeing from community groups and grassroots and these networks that we have been talking
Speaker:about on the show since day one, I mean, a lot of our guests have been absolutely pivotal
Speaker:in these movements. So it's kind of been like a real validating experience to know we have
Speaker:been learning from the folks that are actually willing to do the real work when it matters.
Speaker:And a few other... I wanted to share like a little personal story that, because sometimes
Speaker:it's really, it is small things because whenever you're in the thick of this kind of work and
Speaker:it peaks, you know, at times like this, and then on top of that, you have really, really
Speaker:heavy news, like unbearable news. Surely you all understand like the personal toll that
Speaker:it plays, particularly on people like close to it, Palestinian comrades. And it- It's the
Speaker:little things that can sometimes really lift you up. So today I went to the post office
Speaker:and I immediately had to call Santiago's. Like I gotta record, I'm in a good space. Like we
Speaker:gotta do something today because I got really fired up at two of the smallest little things
Speaker:in my mail. I ordered a keffiyeh from Polly Roots. feels like forever ago. And it finally
Speaker:came and I've never had one. I've always wanted one. I don't know why. Maybe I felt like I
Speaker:hadn't earned it. I think that's what I told myself, I hadn't earned it.
Speaker:even though I had people offer me one, it just didn't feel right. But now it was like, no,
Speaker:I felt like it was armor. Like I could put it around my neck everywhere I go and without
Speaker:actually screaming free Palestine as I do my groceries, but I still was. And so that really
Speaker:fired me up to get that in the mail. And I felt equipped, better equipped. And it had a little
Speaker:tag that said made in Palestine. And of course, like I'm starting to tear up just thinking
Speaker:about it, right? But also the smallest act of resistance here in the form of that radical
Speaker:love you're talking about. I came across a TikTok creator who in the midst of this all in Calgary,
Speaker:feeling completely helpless, not knowing what to do. And all they thought to do was they
Speaker:make prints, right, using one of those kind of like old school hand press machines to press
Speaker:a template onto some handcrafted paper as part of their art. That is what they do as art.
Speaker:And so they're taking a olive branch, which is symbolic of Palestine, and putting it on
Speaker:little pieces of paper. And they were mailing it to anybody who asked. And, you know, although
Speaker:I didn't want to cost them postage, I knew how I'd feel if I received that small token. You
Speaker:know what it's like getting something in the mail these days, especially if it's from an
Speaker:actual person, not a bill, not a flyer, something with handwriting on it and your name. And inside
Speaker:was this most beautiful print. And on the back, she had written, From the River to the Sea.
Speaker:And I think she knew. the boost that she'd be given by sending these mailings out. It seems
Speaker:like such a small thing. Like you would be like, oh, what did you do during the, sorry, oh,
Speaker:what did you do during the revolution? Well, I sent out Prince of Olive branches. But the
Speaker:fire that it lit in me and the kindness that it showed and the solidarity that it demonstrated,
Speaker:to me that was kind of that radical love, and demonstrative of. how you could take whatever
Speaker:unrelated skill you think you have and contribute. Even if that's making a phone call to your
Speaker:comrades that you know are in the thick of it, or maybe if they're like me, they don't really
Speaker:like phone calls, you can text them and just check in on people. That is community care.
Speaker:It's all a part of it. All the little things are bigger than. than what we can imagine,
Speaker:you know, the butterfly effect of it all. It's beyond our ability to comprehend. And, you
Speaker:know, I think me and Jessel will both have this in common, is like the feeling of not doing
Speaker:enough is something I've struggled with a lot of different times. No matter how involved
Speaker:I've been. And there's been times when this has been pretty much a full-time job to me,
Speaker:like the amount of hours I've put in into different movements. No matter how involved I've ever
Speaker:been, I've always had that feeling of, this isn't enough. And it's just not true. You know,
Speaker:like, not this isn't... That's a beautiful thing about being, you know, a socialist, being on
Speaker:the left is... We're all in this together, you know, it's not on any one of us to do it all,
Speaker:you know, every little bit that any of us do contributes to the bigger movement. And there's
Speaker:no point in giving into that despair, that feeling of not doing enough, because you know what
Speaker:ends up happening as a consequence of that feeling is so often then I lose the ability to do anything
Speaker:at all. and then I burn out and then it's because then I'm like, I keep trying to do more and
Speaker:I burn out. So, so I just, I want to make a call against that guilt. Like allow yourself
Speaker:to, to do that little bit that, that you can do and know that it means the world. It really
Speaker:does. That guilt is, is real. I mean, we've talked about Gada so many times on the show.
Speaker:She spoke to me the other day about playing a volleyball game. And how, you know, walking
Speaker:on the court, she felt so guilty. She felt the weight of everything on her and as though she
Speaker:didn't deserve that time to play a volleyball game. And This is someone with family in Gaza,
Speaker:family in the West Bank. And to me, that's unimaginable. I don't know how you go and tell those folks,
Speaker:it's okay, take a break. We got this for a minute. It's like that level of urgency, they must
Speaker:feel 24 seven and anxiety. So, although you're right, Santiago, that We can't all take it
Speaker:upon ourselves. I still would like to remind people that maybe I've not chipped in a little
Speaker:bit, that there's always more you can do.
Speaker:Because you know that there's some people out there that I think are satisfied with simply
Speaker:showing up once in a while. And one of the calls from Palestinians in the diaspora and in Gaza
Speaker:is to make public statements. Right? It's one thing to show up at a rally as one of 20,000
Speaker:people. It's important that the people around you know where you stand at the very least.
Speaker:Right now is not the time to worry about those kinds of personal consequences, to be honest.
Speaker:If folks are not making public declarations at this point or contributing in some way,
Speaker:in some way, then you're absolutely complicit in this. And I don't normally say that. And
Speaker:perhaps it's my bias speaking. But I feel like this is one of those moments in history where
Speaker:you don't have a choice of standing on the sideline. That you couldn't possibly imagine looking
Speaker:back at this in the history books and trying to figure out what you did and it was nothing.
Speaker:It can't be nothing. Even if it's sending out prints, it's using your art, your voice, your
Speaker:feet, whatever. You need to resist. Right? What's the Marx quote, you know, from teach according
Speaker:to their need from each from each according to their ability or Yeah, that that's what
Speaker:it is, you know, like and that's what we're saying. Like like when we when we talk about
Speaker:like that guilt that burnout, we all have different capacities to contribute and that is a deeply
Speaker:personal thing that only, you know. And so don't think if you have the capacity, the privilege,
Speaker:the opportunity, the means to do something and you don't, then I don't have to tell you to
Speaker:feel guilty. You're going to feel guilty about that when you're reading the history books.
Speaker:You know, if you, but at the same time, equally, like if you are, if your capacity is completely
Speaker:stretched and all you can do. is one small thing like that, then at the same time, that means
Speaker:the world. But we need only you can know what your capacity is and you need to live up to
Speaker:that. And we need to do everything we can while still looking after ourselves, looking after
Speaker:each other, you know, because it's not going to be over tomorrow. You know, like we need
Speaker:to sustain this. There is more to come and We need to make sure that we're able to keep doing
Speaker:that work because it's not enough to do it once. One day it's over. Now this is, it'll be over
Speaker:when the genocide ends, when the apartheid ends, when Palestine is free. And truly the end is
Speaker:when all people are free because injustice everywhere, injustice anywhere is still injustice everywhere.
Speaker:That is a wrap on another episode of Blueprints of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. Also,
Speaker:a very big thank you to the producer of our show, Santiago Halu-Quintero. Blueprints of
Speaker:Disruption is an independent production operated cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter
Speaker:at BPEofDisruption. If you'd like to help us continue disrupting the status quo, please
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