Ceasefire Protest in Raleigh on Sunday (December 3) at 3 PM

 

For Immediate Release

 

North Carolinians Protest on Sunday to Demand an Immediate Cease-Fire by Israel!

 

Manzoor Cheema, 919-412-7008. Manzooracheema@gmail.com

Organizer with People’s Power Lab and Muslims for Social Justice

 

Rania Masri: 984-302-1782. Rania.z.masri@gmail.com

Co-Director at NC Environmental Justice Network

 

Protest for Ceasefire at Moore Square (210 Blount Street) in Raleigh.

When: Sunday, December 3. 3-5 pm

 

Since October 7, 2023, the lives of Palestinians, Muslims, and allies have been devastated by Israel's war on Gaza. To date, at least 15,000 in Gaza and the West Bank have been killed by Israel, approximately 40% of whom are children. The Israeli bombing has not spared civilians, doctors, journalists, and hospitals. Emergency relief has been denied, and water/electricity has been cut off. The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights has declared current Israel's war on Gaza as a "genocide."

 

On top of that, there has been a dramatic increase in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the USA. According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), there have been 1,283 incidents of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab attacks since October 7.

 

During the current crisis in the Middle East, our elected officials have hugely disappointed and betrayed our people. The US President and the Congress have refused calls for a ceasefire. The majority of the US Congress has censured Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian congress member, for her speech demanding a ceasefire. This is despite the fact that 80% of the Democratic electorate, 56% of Republican voters, and 66% of all voters support a ceasefire (source: Data for Progress).

 

Millions of people around the world and in the USA have protested against Israel's war on Gaza. The current war has exposed Israel's brutal occupation and apartheid regime that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions of people. As a result of the people's movement, the US Congress members have been shifting their position in favor of a ceasefire. While a handful of Congressmembers supported the ceasefire about a month ago, currently, 53 members of Congress call for a ceasefire by Israel's war on Gaza. Many cities across the country have passed ceasefire resolutions, including Detroit (MI), Atlanta (GA), Richmond (CA), Wilmington (DE), Akron (Ohio), and Carrboro, North Carolina.

 

Organizers in the Triangle area of North Carolina will organize a massive rally for ceasefire and Palestine Freedom on Sunday, December 3, at 3pm. This rally and march will take pale at Moore Square (210 Blount Street) in downtown Raleigh. We believe that Palestine is not a Palestinian or Muslim issue but a human rights issue. Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, anti-racism, worker rights, women's rights, and people of all backgrounds will join our rally to say "no" to the Israeli war on Gaza. Some of the organizations co-sponsoring our rally include Muslims for Social Justice, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Refund Raleigh, Muslim Women For, Jewish Voice for Peace - Triangle, Migrant Roots Media, NC Green Party, Democratic Socialists of America, People's Power Lab and other organizations.

 

We demand that Wake County-based congressional representatives Deborah Ross and Wiley Nickel support the call for a permanent ceasefire. We also demand the City of Raleigh to pass a resolution for a ceasefire and ban future police exchanges with Israel. Durham, NC, was the first city in the country to ban such exchanges in 2018. We look forward to working with partners and allies for a permanent ceasefire, ending US military aid to Israel, and ending racism and inequality at home. We believe all of our struggles are interconnected. In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, “Nobody's free until everybody’s free!”

End Israel's Racist Siege and Genocidal Bombing of Gaza

All out for Palestine! End Israel’s Racist Siege & Genocidal Bombing of Gaza! Demand a ceasefire, an end to the occupation, an end to the apartheid!

Press Contacts:

• Manzoor Cheema

• Rania Masri   

Sunday, October 15, 4-6 pm; Moore Square Park, Raleigh, NC

Palestinian community members, friends, and allies will gather in Moore Square Park to demand an end to the Israeli apartheid regime’s illegal and brutal bombardment of Gaza, an end to the continued colonization and occupation of Palestine, and an end to billions of US taxpayer dollars funding horrific war crimes against the Palestinian people. 

“We are seeing a genocide unfold before our eyes – with the open support of the US President and Congress! The Israeli military proudly boasted that it has dropped 6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip in just a few days – nearly matching the number of bombs the US dropped on Afghanistan in one year! Need we remember: Afghanistan is 1,800 times larger than the besieged Gaza strip!  More than 2,300 Palestinians, including more than 700 children, have been slaughtered and 700,000 have been displaced,” said Rania Masri. “A children’s hospital had to be evacuated because the Israeli military bombed it with white phosphorus (an illegal chemical weapon). Other hospitals are threatened.  Hospitals - threatened. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary called progressive congress members who have called for a ceasefire “disgraceful” and “repugnant.” It is genocide that is repugnant!”

Israel’s siege against Gaza did not begin last week—Palestinians have been murdered, brutalized, and displaced since the 1948 Nakba, a catastrophic ethnic cleansing that concretized Israel as a colonial project. Despite facing over 75 years of egregious human rights violations at the hands of Israel and the United States, Palestinians have remained steadfast in their fight for freedom.

The Israeli war on Gaza, and Palestine as a whole, is entirely connected to our struggle for social justice here in the US. “In addition to billions of dollars in military equipment sent to Israel every year, the U.S. also engages in police exchanges where US law enforcement work with Israeli occupation forces to train in tactics of brutalization and oppression. Raleigh’s own police chief, Cassandra Deck-Brown, went on a training program to Israel in 2017, and it is no surprise that Raleigh PD has since murdered Black and brown young people and engaged in extreme racial profiling and brutality," said Manzoor Cheema, a member of Muslims for Social Justice. "We are building a grassroots movement to end oppression against not only Palestinians but also Black, Brown, working class, and all impacted people in the USA since all of our struggles are interconnected. We demand an end to the blockade of Gaza, the Israeli policies of apartheid, and the US using our tax-payer dollars to finance a genocide.” 

The Raleigh-area community will stand unwavering in support of the Palestinian people on Sunday, October 15 and onward. We will mobilize our communities to lock arms with each other and demand an end to the siege on Gaza and all oppressed people all over the world!

Co-Sponsors of Rally:

Party for Socialism and Liberation

Muslims for Social Justice

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Voices for Justice in Palestine

Refund Raleigh

Migrant Roots Media

Workers World Party

Triangle Democratic Socialists of America

People's Power Lab 

North Carolina Green Party 

 

 

The Struggle Against Racism in Rocky Mount, North Carolina

by Fatimah Bakr

I have lived in Rocky Mount, NC, for many years. Black people are still stereotyped 

every day. The signs of racism will not go away. You'll shop in some stores and stores
you don't shop in due to racist attitudes. Sometimes you will run into a white cashier;
you give them your money, then when it is time to get your change, they'll put it on the
counter or let it fall to the counter.

I'll make a statement like, "did I give you my money that way?" Then I have to pick up 

my change off the counter. Another common scenario is when you are in a store looking 

around as a Black woman, you will be followed and asked if you need any help. I've
worked in retail; we'd ask patrons if they need help as soon as they enter the store, not
after they've been followed around the store.

This is not the only racial discrimination faced by People of Color in Rocky Mt. NC. I 

continue to see that Caucasian people don’t like seeing Black people drive through their 

neighborhoods. In addition, we have to deal with the police stopping Black people for 

minor things. The threat of police brutality and injustice keeps people in fear in the Black
community.

A young mother was stopped for speeding while driving her daughters to daycare. 

Although the officer told her not to get out of her car, she said to the officer, "that she was 

letting her girls out to go in the building and tell the teacher to record what was taking 

place," The officer then threw her on the ground, causing her hair to be scraped off of her 

scalp, she also had a few bruises and skin scraps on different parts of her body.

I consider this police brutality and violence against women. But, unfortunately, I continue 

to see white officers use aggressive policing to put fear in Women of Color in Rocky Mount. 

I have asked a few people about the racism they see In Rocky Mount, but they continue to 

be fearful and reluctant to speak up.

The main thing I don’t like to see as a citizen of Rocky Mount is a Black man being stopped 

for something routine, and then within a few minutes, there will be as many as 5 police cars 

who'll arrive at the traffic stop. It's very intimidating to see that many police officers show up 

for 1 or 2 individuals. There's always the potential for another innocent, unarmed Black 

person to get killed.

I'm a concerned citizen; I belong to an organization located in Raleigh, NC, with ties to 

Rocky Mt. called Muslims for Social Justice; they teach that concerned citizens have the 

power to stand up to any injustice by uniting and organizing to change the balance of power 

in situations like these, by speaking out as a united group of citizens to demand the police 

change their tactics and policies, and how they interact with the Black and Brown Community.

This is also why groups like Refund Raleigh were formed and are calling for defunding police 
abuse and killing of Black citizens, and putting that money to better use providing more 
resources to Communities of Color. All I can do at this time of need is to pray for my people.
I pray we will continue to organize and abolish racism and all forms of oppression in this
country.

Sisters’ Call to Action in Solidarity with “The Squad”

Sisters’ Call to Action in Solidarity with “The Squad”

 “And still we rise.” --  Maya Angelou

The Sexual Predator on Pennsylvania Avenue in his recent vicious attacks on “The Squad”: Ilhan Omar, Ayana Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib, told these women of color to “go back to their crime-infested” countries. All of these women are American citizens. All of these women are proud of their heritage and work for their respective communities. All of these women are being attacked because they fight for the working class, challenge white supremacy, and patriarchy because they are women. They dare to be women who have political conviction around their support of Palestine, their support of Venezuela, and their denunciation of border camps.

We call on all women and their communities to join us in solidarity with “The Squad” by signing this letter, asking others to sign this letter, and joining us on August 28th (the anniversary of the murder of Emmitt Till and in honor of his courageous mother, Mamie Till.) These women who are Somali, Black American, Puerto Rican, Arab, Muslim, and non-Muslim women have fought together for the interests of all communities: workers, women, Latinx, Black, Muslim, LGBTQ, straight, and immigrants against the rich and powerful. If we allow any one of our communities’ human rights to get picked off and pitted against each other, we will all lose. An injury to one is an injury to all!

Trump has tried to erase their legal status as U.S. citizens and tries to make them “the Other.” As we have seen with racist U.S. policy “The Other” dies in prisons. “The Other” suffers in cages. “The Other” is shot down in the street. “The Other” dies face down drowned in raging rivers seeking the asylum that the Statue of Liberty promised. 

But it goes deeper than that. The economic system of the United States and the fascist policies that maintain it were built into how the black population has been controlled and contained from the inception of the U.S. in order to guarantee the labor of African people from slavery in the 1700s  to Jim Crow, during the 1960s, and through today. During slavery, Black women were forced to re-produce the labor force. This is the foundation of this country. Trump is attacking women like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib because they dare to question and fight against America’s unjust economic past and present.  

Trump also attacks reporters and undermines a free press. It is dangerous when one man wants the public to believe that he is the only person to be trusted. This is a hallmark of fascism. Blaming “the Other” as the cause of low wages, unemployment, high rent, high utility bills, high deductibles is what Mussolini and Hitler in WWII and is what Trump is doing now. Blaming “The Other” is what fascism does. 

We stand with them in solidarity and show our collective outrage by signing this letter, asking others to sign this letter, and joining us. If you want to include your signature (individual or on behalf of your organization) then please contact Shafeah M'Balia at jazznjustice@gmail.com.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, NOON

THOMAS FOREMAN PARK (5^th & Nash), GREENVILLE, NC

ENDORSERS SO FAR (8/14/19):

Organization Endorses:

-NC Black Women’s Roundtable

-SpiritHouse, Durham, NC

-Muslim Women For, Raleigh, NC

-Muslims for Social Justice
-Women’s Commission, Black Workers For Justice
-Action NC RAGE
-Black Workers For Justice
-Coalition Against Racism, Greenville, NC
-Southerners On New Ground (SONG)

Individual Endorsers:

-Rosa Saavedra, Companeras Campesinas, Raleigh, NC/Puerto RICO

-Nathanette Mayo, former pres., UE 150, Fruit of Labor, Raleigh, NC

-Rukiya Dillahunt, former president, Wake ACT; board, Fertile Ground Food Co-op, NC

-Naeema Muhammad,  NC Environmental Justice Network, Rocky Mount, NC

-Willie Roberts, Coalition Against Racism, Greenville, NC

-Gloria De Los Santos,

-Larsene Taylor, DownEast  Coal Ash Coalition, former pres., UE150, Blueprint, Goldsboro, NC

-Erin Dale, Raleigh, NC

-Lora Tate, Grifton, NC /BWFJ/BWMG

-Shafeah M’Balia, BWFJ, MSJ, IJAN, Rocky Mt., NC/Savannah, GA

-Ashaki Binta, BWFJ, North Star Services, Cambridge, MD

-Naa Norley-Adom, Durham, NC

-Kathy Knight, BWFJ, Tillery, NC

-Jaki Shelton Green, Mebane, NC

-Shemekka Ebony, Raleigh, NC

-Tanya Wallace-Gobern, National Black Workers Centers Project, Raleigh, NC

-Kim Eng, MD, Rocky Mount Racial Justice Group, Rocky Mount, NC

-Evelyn Powell, Edgecombe Co. Board of Commissioners, Battleboro, NC

-Patrice Jacobs, Pres., Long Leaf Chapter, NC Public Service Workers Union, UE150, Wilson, NC

-Sekia Royal, Vice Pres., NC Public Service Workers Union, UE150

-Tonjur McDuffie,  Goldsboro, NC

-Hattie Gatlin,  Goldsboro, NC

-Fatimah Afif Adekola, Philadelphia, PA