The Youth are not future leaders but are leaders NOW!
This past Youth Month we engaged with the young leaders and activists in South Africa who have been actively playing their part to bring about justice and equality. The fervour with which the Youth work towards ensuring that our society is a just and equal one is unmatched. The Youth no longer will be inheriting this Earth, such thinking is of the past. Albeit, the Youth are actively building society to be what they aspire it to be. They are no longer passive recipients of their social positions but are actively engaged to end injustice and Apartheid everywhere. We draw inspiration from the Youth who lead us, in South Africa and in Palestine, working tirelessly to dismantle systems of oppression and challenge unjust status quos. We invited a number of young leaders to join us for a day long workshop centred around different topics which would help them develop their skills as young activists. They also were able to network and engage with other young activists and make connections across different causes. The successful event ended with the youth leaders signing a pledge which encouraged them to continue being active agents of change in their communities and to continue fighting for social justice. To read more about the event, click here. If you would like to be involved as a young leader in the work that we do, email us so that we can add your voice in calling for change 🏽
The youth truly have been at the forefront of social justice struggles in our society and globally. We have been privy to their drive while watching the likes of Ahed Tamimi and Muna El-Kurd resist Apartheid in Israel and Greta Thunberg take on global corporations and their contribution to the climate crisis, a crisis we all know will affect the marginalised and oppressed disproportionately. The effects of climate change, food insecurity, and land dispossession on the Palestinians is gradually garnering more attention as the world comes to terms with the dire nature of the crisis. Scorching heatwaves to unusually heavy downpours have caused destruction and taken lives, causing many to finally start to take heed of what the climate justice activists have been warning us about for decades.
As the recent catastrophic floods in KwaZulu Natal have demonstrated, climate change is upon us. Its effects are brutal and deadly. Just as with war, banking crises, and other man-made calamities, climate change disproportionately hurts those who are already systemically oppressed. In South Africa, the poor are the most vulnerable to damage caused by floods, droughts, and disease. In Palestine, it is the Palestinians.
Part of the Israeli project of ethnic cleansing is to make life unliveable for the indigenous population of Palestine. Since 1948, Israel has systematically deprived Palestinians of access to water, agriculture, and other natural resources. Today, 97 percent of Gaza’s water is undrinkable and 85 percent of West Bank water resources are controlled by Israel. A third of Palestinians in the West Bank, and over two-thirds of those in Gaza, are food insecure. The temperature in Palestine is predicted to increase by 4.8 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. On top of the harsh conditions they already face, Palestinians must contend with increased risks of soil degradation, food insecurity, and destruction from floods and droughts. These risks have been cruelly exacerbated by Israel, who have uprooted ancient sustainable agricultural communities, flooded the occupied territories with waste and mined its non-renewable resources to near-depletion.
This month, we aim to shed more light on the affects of climate change and food insecurity on the Palestinians. In Africa, we know too well the consequences of colonialism and land dispossession on food sovereignty. The struggles of the Palestinian people is not too far off from what is faced on our own continent. We hope that through our efforts, we will be able to bolster solidarity between Africa and Palestine and show the people that liberation is only possible through our united efforts.
The Palestinian Struggle for Food Sovereignty
Why should we care? by Firoza Mayet
Saad Dagher agroecologist (photocred Anne Paq)
Food is a basic need and human right that is guaranteed and protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as many progressive constitutions of various states. Yet, hunger and food are used as tools to maintain power. In the case of Palestine, there is sufficient information that bears testimony to how the Occupying Power has institutionalized tools to impede the indigenous people in controlling their own food production process resulting in food insecurity.
Similarly, Africa still depends on its food security from other countries even though we have vast arable lands — a primordial resource for food sovereignty. Africa is confronted by both a food security and food sovereignty crisis among a host of developmental aspirations. Our need for food security is used in economic wars, vote-buying in electioneering, and is a key instrument used by national authoritative and tyrannical powers and Global Corporates.
However, we are as capable as Palestinians of producing enough food for ourselves, and we do, and are able to produce enough for export purposes. There is no need to be importing basic foods such as vegetables, fruits and edible oil or maize or flour. There are numerous examples both in Palestine and many countries in Africa of communities pioneering backyard gardening agroecology projects that produce food for the consumption of the community and beyond. These projects are attempts to regain control of our food production, consumption and distribution processes, i.e., ‘food sovereignty’. However it is argued that under Occupation, Colonialism and Imperialism, Food Sovereignty for the majority is unsustainable until the prevailing systems of oppression and exploitation are brought to an end.
According to the Forum on Food Sovereignty, food sovereignty is the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food which is produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods. It also encompasses their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. This concept asserts the right of people to control their food resources including land, water, seeds, pastures, animal and fish stocks. Food Sovereignty is considered to be more than just a concept, it is a strategy for development and a way of life. It looks at the type of food we eat, the conditions in which it is produced, and its relationships with the environment and local community. It is a strategy for the struggle against agribusiness, monoculture, crop standardisation and exploitation of peasants and agricultural workers, within the hyper-productivist, profit-driven, capitalist model of food production.
This is different from food security according to which a country may have the means or access to food, but may not control the production of that food. Since food sovereignty has to do with communities controlling the production of their food, this paradigm thus tends to be grassroots, organic and therefore reasonably sustainable. It promotes community control of productive resources, agrarian reform and tenure security for small-scale producers, agroecology, biodiversity, local knowledge, the rights of the poor, women, indigenous peoples and workers, social protection and climate justice.
For Palestinians, the struggle for Food Sovereignty is an important part of the struggle against a military occupation which has full control over their natural resources, including land, water, seeds and fisheries. The Israeli apartheid state has invested astronomical amounts of resources into the greenwashing of Israel’s apartheid system. Israel’s expanding forestation plans throughout the Occupied territory including in the southern semi-desert region of an-Naqab (the Negev) have re-focused attention on the state’s greenwashing campaign which some activists refer to as “eco-colonialism”. The Jewish National Fund (JNF) brands itself as Israel’s ecological organisation, saying it has planted over 240 million trees in the country since its establishment. We have expanded more on the real purpose of the JNF and its' effects in a later article in this newsletter.
The Israeli Apartheid System practically highlights that food (or any other kind of) sovereignty cannot exist under an occupation. They are, indeed, mutually exclusive. For food sovereignty to be achieved, the occupation must end (at a minimum). There is an enormous amount of information on what impact decades of ethnic cleansing, institutionalized discrimination, land and water grabbing, periodic military attacks, sanctions, blockade, and closure has had on Palestinian lives, their rights and their future. Despite this, their struggle for food sovereignty continues and is an important part of their struggle against the Israeli occupation itself. By greenwashing the occupation, Israel hides its apartheid behind an environmentalist mirage, and distracts public attention not only from its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people, but from its large-scale degradation of the earth upon which these tragedies unfold.
Today, as Israel portrays itself as a “green democracy” in Africa and presents itself as an eco-friendly pioneer in agricultural techniques such as drip irrigation, dairy farming, desert ecology, water management and solar energy in at attempt to normalize relationships with Governments in Africa. Back in Palestine its factories drain toxic waste and industrial pollutants down from occupied West Bank hilltops into Palestinian villages, and over-pumping of groundwater aquifers denying Palestinians access to vital water sources in a context of increasing water scarcity and pollution. It denies the people in Gaza from accessing water fit for human consumption. This contradiction needs to be called out. To read more about food sovereignty in the West Bank, click here.
In Palestine, as it is on the African continent, agricultural production is at the core of building resistance, community empowerment and decolonization in the larger struggle against capitalism. Food sovereignty is a concept that is especially important to Indigenous people like the Palestinians as they have been disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of the occupation where there is a systematic campaign to ethnically cleanse people from their land by taking away their water supply, by destroying 1000’s of years old olive trees and replacing them with foreign trees, by destroying forests and other wetlands, by closing of the international market to Palestinian, by dumping cheaper commercially produced Israeli products on the indigenous population, by attacking farmers and building illegal settlement on Palestinian territory thereby intensifying the strategy to push people of their land.
Food sovereignty in Palestine is inextricably linked to the fight for the end of the Occupation and Apartheid. Land dispossession, separation wall, the buffer zones, the illegal Israeli settlements and the military exclusion zones within these territories are stripping the indigenous people of all farmland and water resources. Added to this is the restrictions on freedom of movement and the regular attacks waged by Israeli settlers against farmers and their crops, highlighting the importance for human rights organisations within the solidarity movement and the environmental and climate justice organisations to collaborate, mobilise and continue to build the links to the struggles of the Palestinian people.
Gaza Freedom Flotilla sets its virtual sails
Map of boats which have virtually sailed from all over the Globe to Palestine
The international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is an umbrella solidarity movement composed of grassroots campaigns and movements across the globe. Individual activists and member organisations have come together under this banner in efforts to end Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. The Coalition was formed after the 2010 Freedom Flotilla, where the principles of international solidarity and nonviolent resistance were used to defy the Israeli blockade and bring aid resources into Gaza.
The PSA’s Ismail Moola has been a key member of the FFC, providing logistical in-person support to the coalition and the people of Gaza. Most recently, this facilitated the opportunity for the PSA to donate two ambulances to Gaza, with more action to follow.
This month, the FFC expanded its scope by including more countries and hosting virtual legs on the journey to Gaza. Coalition members across the globe are hosting local events in solidarity with Palestine, fundraising resources for Gaza, and demanding an end to the blockade. These events are all being logged virtually on the Virtual Flotilla Map.
This virtual log represents an exciting use of mapping technology to connect activists and inspire action across the world. On 14 May, Ship to Gaza Norway hosted a demonstration through the streets of Oslo in solidarity with Shireen Abu Akhleh. This was followed by a Virtual Boat in La Rochelle, France where funds were raised for a children’s psychological support centre in Gaza. Stay tuned to this space for news on South Africa’s Virtual Boat, and stay tuned to the map to find out about other events across the world.
No one safe - not even children
Mohammed Tamimi (photocred Abbas Momani/AFP)
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance expresses our heartfelt condolences to the family of Mohammed Tamimi, a Palestinian youth activist who was shot by Israeli Occupation Forces for the second time last month. We are all well aware of the fact that the brutality of the Israeli Occupation Forces knows no bound but we are yet again shocked at how heartless they can be. In 2018, Mohammed Tamimi was shot in the head by the occupation forces trying to take over his village, Nabi Saleh. The small village lies northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and is well acquainted with the raids by the IOF. They have done it again in 2022.
The Tamimi family, in particular, has consistently been targeted by Zionist forces in Nabi Saleh. Ahed, Mohammed’s sister, was arrested for slapping an Israeli soldier in the face after being harassed repeatedly, and their father has been subjected to arbitrary detention. Despite this, they have remained steadfast and resillient in their calls for the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation.
When he was just 15 years old, Mohammed Tamimi was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli soldiers while demonstrating in his village. This caused serious damage to his skull, and put him into a coma which lasted four days. While awaiting surgery in the occupied territories, Tamimi was forced to undergo an interrogation by Israeli forces who attempted to coerce him into claiming that injuries sustained to his head happened because he fell off of his bicycle. Tamimi had the bullet removed from his head and soon after, he was brought to South Africa for reconstructive surgery, where he underwent a cosmetic procedure as well, although a significant amount of the damage caused was irreversible.
Last month, 19 year old Tamimi was shot in the head again. Zionist forces attacked him during an invasion of Nabi Saleh, forcing him into surgery. He has since been hospitalised. It is worthwhile remembering that Tamimi is one of many children who have borne the brunt of Israeli brutality in occupied Palestine. Hundreds of children are jailed and dozens more killed every year.
The Palestine Solidarity Alliance strongly condemns Israel’s treatment not only of Palestinian children, but of all Palestinians as they fight for their right to self-determination in the face of Israeli occupation. As we commemorate youth month in South Africa, we are acutely aware of the struggles waged and won by the class of 1976 against apartheid. The parallels between their bravery and the bravery of countless young people in Palestine are not lost on us. The Tamimi siblings in particular, remind us of the proud spirit of defiance against an apartheid regime. We pray for Mohammed’s speedy recovery and a free Palestine in the near future.
Israeli Disaster Capitalism threatens water sovereignty in Nelson Mandela Bay
(picture: Iyad al Baba)
The Eastern Cape drought around the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropole has reached catastrophic proportions. As of 5 July, Nelson Mandela Bay’s dams were only filled to 14.54% of capacity. Many of its largest dams are too empty to supply any water. Severe usage restrictions are in place, with several areas only able to experience intermittent water supply. This state of desperation has been caused and abetted by the capitalist mode of production, which extracts from the environment, without necessarily paying heed to the rampant degradation that prevails. The State of Israel has a long track-record of exploiting such desperation. Israeli companies and the state purport to offer technological solutions to water scarcity - both in Palestine and beyond - as a guise for resource theft, hyperexploitation, and military expansion. South Africa should be wary of capitalist vultures who stand ready to exploit and profit off the climate crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Naomi Klein documents the rise of Disaster Capitalism in the neoliberal era in her book, The Shock Doctrine. Disaster Capitalism describes the exploitation of national crises to establish controversial policies that put profit above people. Under this process, people lose their land and homes to corporate takeovers. This practice was widely rampant after the US invasion of Iraq, and we have seen it in South Africa too, when several public assets were privatised towards the end of apartheid.
Israeli companies have capitalised on disaster for decades. Many of Israel’s strongest sectors of its economy - arms, agriculture, surveillance, are directly linked to the dispossession, imprisonment, and massacres of the Palestinian people. Nelson Schwartz, writing for Fortune magazine, reported on the growth of Israel’s private-public security industry following the building of the apartheid wall in 2005. In Africa, GRAIN has documented Israeli agri-tech businesses as turn-key projects to facilitate closer relations with despotic rulers, infiltrating state-security agencies and influencing policy in Israel’s favour.
It is no surprise then, that Israeli water companies are being promoted to deal with the water crissi in South Africa. Watergen has already begun operations in Nelson Mandela Bay, where atmospheric water devices are used to produce water from the air. Asterra, a water-tracking tracking company that uses satellites to assess water infrastructure, is another company operating in South Africa. The for-profit company is headquartered in Israel and works with state institutions to develop technology and surveil public resources. These companies are being touted as saviours to solve South Africa’s water crises. The reality, however, is far more complex.
Water resources are a public good, and access to safe drinking water is enshrined in the South African constitution. Deciding on how to manage and distribute these resources is thus of utmost importance. Handing over the control of public resources to private for-profit companies threatens the sovereignty of a nation and risks allocating resources to the highest bidder. To secure equitable and sustainable access to water, we have to look for democratic grassroots solutions to manage the scarce resource. At this time of desperation, it is important that our people do not succumb to corporate propaganda and hand over our water to companies that are complicit in apartheid, occupation, and genocide.
The JNF - greenwashing ethnic cleansing
One of Israel’s most prominent greenwashing institutions is the Jewish National Fund(JNF). The JNF is a colonial Zionist organisation which began in 1901. At its birth, its direct purpose was to own and control land in Palestine to facilitate Jewish settlement. This purpose continues today. The JNF styles itself as an environmental organisation, involved in reforestation, arid agriculture, and other “green” projects. In reality, however, it facilitates land dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and water theft. The JNF plays a key role in Palestine’s human and environmental devastation.
After the 1948 Nakba, the JNF bought land from the Israeli state for a nominal fee. This land was what remained after the people of Palestine were violently uprooted from their homes, towns, and villages. Immediately, the JNF started erasing any semblance of Palestinian memory from this land. Farmlands were razed, olive groves were uprooted, and buildings were destroyed. These were replaced, largely, by alien forests and artificial parks. These forests were intentionally built to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the present, past, and future.
Funds raised by the JNF were used to build the “South African Forest” – one of over eighty-six Israeli public parks that sit on ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages. This forest is built over the destroyed village of Lubya. The village was host to nearly three thousand residents before it was defaced an destroyed by Zionist troops during Operation Dekel. With their houses destroyed and the land in semi-private hands, none of the Palestinians who were displaced can return home.
More recently, the JNF has been involved in efforts to ethnically cleanse the Naqab desert in Southern Palestine. On 10 January this year, bulldozers from the JNF entered the village of al-Atrash in the area of Naqe al-Sabe razed Palestinian farmland in preparation for tree plantation. The Naqe al-Sabe area is home to around 28,000 Bedouin Palestinian farmers and residents living in six villages.
Unfortunately, the global press rarely reports on the devastation wreaked by the JNF. Instead, they are branded as an ecological organisation, who attend climate conferences, impart information on water programmes, and give out research scholarships.
The JNF are an integral cog in the Zionist greenwashing machine. Narratives of how Israel “made the desert bloom” are central to Israel’s self-purported status as a “green democracy.” Behind this façade, however, is the brutal reality of occupation and eco-colonialism that denies Palestinian food-sovereignty and desecrates Palestinian land. Israeli companies in the Occupied Territories drain toxic waste and industrial pollutants into Palestinian villages. Settlers’ steal Palestinian land and over-pump their groundwater aquifers. This all denies Palestinians access to vital water resources and food production and is part and parcel of Israel’s attempt to make life unliveable for Palestinians.
The JNF’s role as an Israeli greenwashing voice is being called out across the world, as Palestinian histories are being brought to light. The crimes of the Nakba cannot be erased and Palestinians will not forget the brutality that is imposed upon them. Israel cannot greenwash its atrocities while it continues to dispossess and desecrate indigenous land. The Stop the JNF Campaign is endorsed by over 180 organisations globally, and have embarked – together with Palestinian civil society – on a project to reclaim Palestinian land by planting indigenous forests and parks across Palestine. To support the project, you can donate here.
SAJR’s expulsion from the Press Council
SAJR expulsion cartoon (politicsweb)
The PSA welcomes the expulsion of the SA Jewish Report (SAJR) from the Press Council of South Africa. SAJR was expelled after they refused to apologise for labelling a cartoon produced by the GIWUSA trade union as antisemitic. The cartoon was produced during the Clover strike and depicted a greedy capitalist eating workers’ money. SAJR’s insistence on the cartoon being antisemitic was not made in good faith. It was made to smear the SA BDS Coalition and the broader Palestinian solidarity movement which is vehemently anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and on the side of justice.
As part of the campaign against CBC-Milco, GIWUSA produced a cartoon depicting a fat-cat capitalist shovelling money into his mouth at the expense of Clover workers, which was shared on the SA BDS Coalition’s website. The cartoon was falsely labelled antisemitic by the SAJR, despite there being no clear link to Jewish identity. PSA member, Hassen Lorgat, reported the SAJR to the Press Council of South Africa for slander against the SA BDS Coalition. The Press Council ruled in favour of the Coalition, and ordered SAJR to apologise. After months of begging them to oblige by the ruling, the Press Council eventually expelled the SAJR for grossly violating the Press Code.
We are concerned about the extent to which the Press Council had tried to mediate and accommodate the SAJR, despite its clear refusal to abide by its ruling. It took over a year since the ruling was issued for this sanction to be implemented. The SAJR have flagrantly disrespected the institution, refused to apologise for its slander, and asserted that it resigned before being expelled. Unfortunately, throwing their toys out of the pram will not save them from the facts.
The facts are that the SAJR joined the Press Council and signed up to its rules. Part of the rules require three-years’ notice before a publication can withdraw its membership from the Press Council. The rules also require the publication to abide by the rulings it made. The SAJR have remained defiant, even after expulsion. They continue to slander the BDS movement, and by extension, the Palestine solidarity movement.
On a recent interview with Chai-FM, the chairman of the SAJR made defamatory and vitriolic comments against the council and the SA BDS Coalition. After complaining to the radio station, we were granted the right to reply to set matters straight. We were represented on air by GIWUSA President, Mametlwe Sebei and the SA BDS Coalition Coordinator, Roshan Dadoo.
Both Sebei and Dadoo made it clear that the cartoon was not antisemitic, the Press Council’s judgement was balanced, and that the SAJR should apologise. It cannot be acceptable for legitimate criticism against the settler-colonial state of Israel to be misconstrued as antisemitism. Our attacks against Clover’s ownership are rooted in real grievances about its imperialist practices, both here and in Palestine. To label it as antisemitic is absolutely discombobulating.
The SAJR is the first organisation to be expelled from the Press Council. Their failure to abide by due process and their cowardly refusal to apologise is unsurprising. The pro-Israel publication has a long history of disregard for media ethics, just as Israel has a long history of disregard for international law. The Zionist’s longstanding tactic of gaslighting Palestinian activism and labelling it antisemitic is proving to be tired. The Constitution will not stand by it, as proven by the Bongani Masuku case, and neither will the Press Council.
Poetic Resistance
Nakba 74 by Sunny Morgan
Sunny Morgan at the PSA and PSA YL Young Leaders' Forum event
My heart broken
Another year of the occupation
Resistance creeping like old souls
Talks are just mouths moving
More martyrs created
Bullets shattering heads apart
Funerals desecrated
By Immoral gun wielding fiends
Palestine oh Palestine
What is your burden
Your cross to bear
For land for love
Your rivers bleed
Your seas cry out
The voice of eternity echos
Yet No one to listen
Your Neigbours are silent
And your friends are absent
Ever while your graveyards fill up
With the young meant for tomorrow !
Activist Profile: Miguel Chicane
Miguel Chicane at the PSA Poetic Resistance event
Miguel has actively been involved in the activism space for approximately a year – recognising the importance of youth involvement in the movements towards the rectification of socio-political issues. He is currently a grade 9 student at Concord College Private High School Mulbarton. Miguel exhibits a passion for botany, sustainable fashion, literature, and agricultural sciences. Drawing on his interests, he is an intersectional environmental activist – acknowledging the inherent correlation between environmental and social concerns.
Having grown up bearing witness to the systemic, adverse impact of colonialism, poverty, and other socio-political issues alike, on the people by whom he is surrounded; Miguel has assumed the responsibility of fighting at the forefront in the struggle towards the creation of a just future for the global community. While he recognizes that global institutions are failing their people, he believes that – through active advocacy – citizens can enact mass change.
Miguel recognizes the similarities between the plight of South Africans who fought against the Apartheid Regime and the Palestinian people who live in an Apartheid state under Israeli rule. Appreciating the role of the global community in the abolition of the South African Apartheid, he believes that it is our duty – as South Africans and as citizens of the world – to fight alongside our brothers and sisters in Palestine, noting that ‘Africa will never truly be free until the people of Palestine have been freed from their colonial master’.
Apartheid Free Zones
No winter warmth for cold hearts.
Apartheid Free Zones (AFZ) is a principled campaign to cut links of complicity with Israeli apartheid. The campaign draws inspiration from the international anti-apartheid movement for South Africa and aims to replicate such solidarity with Palestinians.
The idea is to create spaces of proactive solidarity across the world. As people of conscience, we want to ensure that the spaces that we participate in do not contribute to the maintenance of an apartheid regime or profit from grave human rights violations. We urge all people in South Africa to make your home an Apartheid Free Zone. You can do this by boycotting companies which support Apartheid Israel or are supporters of Israel and its enterprises.
Unsure on how you can ensure that your life and home is an Apartheid Free Zone? There are a few simple steps you can take. If you are a business owner, you can ensure that your business does not have any ties with Apartheid Israel by engaging in ethical trading and business practices. This in turn aides your customers and supporters in shopping Apartheid free. You can also engage with other business owners to raise awareness about the plight of the Palestinian people and encourage them to ensure that their business is also an Apartheid Free Zone bolstering solidairty in the process. If you are a student, you can engage with the Palestine Solidarity Organisation (PSO) on your campus and start a campaign to end any academic ties which your university might have with Apartheid Israel.
You can read more about Apartheid Free Zones on the BDS website or look through and share their AFZ toolkit.
What comes next?
This month, we will be focusing on Palestinian food insecurity and the consequences of land dispossession on food sovereignty for the Palestinian people. This will be done through a number of different campaigns which you can get more information on through our social media and our website.
We have also partnered with SalaaMedia and will be talking about all things Palestine during our weekly radio segment on Tuesdays at 7:30pm. Tune in to hear our guest of the evening talk to Moulana Luqmaan about Palestine and its intersection with South Africa. Livestream of the programme can be found on Youtube and their website or on the PSA website under 'Podcast'.
Over the course of the next few months, we will be launching our next few campaigns which will form the focus point for us for the rest of the year. These campaigns will include education and training workshops, media and writing workshops, anti-war and political prisoners solidarity campaign, and art and poetry showcases. Our focus area for the month of August will be on Gender, Justice, and Resistance for womxn's month. In the month of September, PSA will be focusing on our annual Walk For Freedom (WFF) events across Gauteng during which we wish for all community members and activists to join us in marching and raising the banners of issues which they are passionate about; may it be climate justice and a just transition, menstrual rights, workers rights, or anti-xenophobia. Our struggles are intersectional and we want to create interconnected spaces where we can work together towards our common goal of an equitable and just world for all, devoid of racism, discrimination, Apartheid or xenophobia. To stay up-to-date with our dates and venues for the Walk For Freedom, reach us via email, on social media, or keep an eye on our website. If you would like to be involved in any of these, reach out to us via email or fill out our volunteer form. We look forward to engaging with you!
Donate to PSA and help us continue the work that we are doing!
If you are a supporter of a free Palestine but do not have the capacity to be actively involved in the liberation movement, you can still help and support us by donating towards our efforts. Our banking details are:
Account Name: Palestinian Solidarity Alliance
Bank: ABSA
Branch: Lenasia
Account No: 4070101666
You can also email us on info@palestinsa.co.za for more information
Our month in pictures
More pictures from the PSA Nakba Day workshop in schools which aimed to empower the youth by engaging, interacting, and discussing the links between Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel. The learners and staff were also asked to sign an Anti-Apartheid Pledge.
Rev Frank Chikane and SACC delegation's report on visit to Palestine during which they dubbed Israel's occupation of Palestine as "worse than Apartheid".
The media briefing held by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation Youth Activism Programme ahead of the June 16th Youth Parade for Justice and Change
PSA and PSA YL joined the 100+ organisations which endorsed the June 16th Youth Parade. The Youth handed over a memorandum to the Presidency which outlined the demands
The Young Leaders' Forum, hosted by PSA and PSA YL in partnership with Constitution Hill, Amnesty International South Africa and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation Youth Activism Programme
The PSA team and family members met at Rietvlei Zoo Farm to unwind and enjoy some sunshine, good company, and a braai
Our struggles are intersectional! PSA at the Debt for Climate Change demonstration held outside the US Consulate in Sandton
The PSA Youth Pledge which the participants of the Young Leaders' Forum were asked to sign