Ceasefire Now!
This blog post was written by Denali Nalamalapu on behalf of the POWHR team on January 30, 2024.
For some in the hollers of Appalachia, the Israeli government’s war on Gaza may feel like a faraway tragedy. However, as blasts of unwelcome pipeline construction echo in our valleys, we remember that all of our struggles are connected.
Ceasefire Now! Sanya Hyland via Just Seeds
For the past 100+ days, Israel has bombed and invaded Gaza. This is the latest in a brutal history of Israeli occupation, enabled by the US. South Africa has charged the Israeli government with the genocide in Gaza, with support from the 57 countries that make up the Organization of Islamic Countries, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Bolivia, the Maldives, Namibia, the 22 countries that make up the Arab League, Colombia, Brazil, and many advocacy groups. The International Court of Justice heard their case and ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide. This is an interim order; the final ruling on the case will likely take years.
Hours after this order, Palestinian Americans, residents of Gaza, and a leading Palestinian human rights group sued President Biden in U.S. District Court, saying he should stop financial and military support for Israel and uphold the country’s obligation to prevent genocide. One Palestinian American said, “My family is being killed on my dime. President Biden could, with one phone call, put an end to this.”
The war began in response to the attack on Israel by Hamas, where many lives were lost, women were assaulted, and people were taken captive. That said, the Palestinian people are not responsible for the actions of Hamas. Israeli genocide in Gaza is clear in this Israeli army general’s statement in reference to Palestinians: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.” Other Israeli officials have described Palestinians as “a cancer”, “vermin”,” and demanded they be “annihilated.” Such dehumanizing language has been used to perpetrate genocide before.
The United States government must call for an immediate ceasefire. The Israeli government is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and it must stop. Eighty-five percent of Gaza’s population have been forced to flee their homes. No government should be allowed to target civilians or hold them hostage. As Jewish Voice for Peace says, “the unthinkable becomes acceptable when we deny people their humanity.”
Our oppressors have used war to justify building the Mountain Valley Pipeline. While this pipeline threatens the lives of communities across the 303-mile route, military officials have claimed it is necessary for “military readiness”.
Illustration by Adrià Fruitós
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is not only eager to sacrifice our lives, it is racing towards the opportunity to supply the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RAAP) with fuel to continue manufacturing military weapons. The plant is regularly listed as one of Virginia’s biggest polluters. RAAP is operated by BAE systems, which supplies the Israeli government with the weapons used to murder Palestinians. Organizers in the New River Valley have called for the plant to be shut down.
Globally, some experts argue that seizing Gaza is also about fossil fuels. According to a 2019 UN Report, over 3 billion barrels of oil are estimated to exist off the coast and beneath the occupied lands of Palestine. An author of the report said of the current crisis: “In the Middle East, you can never talk about conflict without the corresponding associations of oil and gas.”
May Every Star Protect Palestine by Jess X Snow
Israel has occupied Palestinian land for over 75 years, forcing the displacement of Palestinians. To this day, the Israeli government furthers attempts to erase Palestinians from the land and establish Jewish exclusivity. One scholar writes, “the vibrant Palestinian presence in the land, the everyday resistance to the colonial order, and the robust Palestinian adherence to their rights stand as structural obstacles to the ultimate realization of the ‘Zionist dream.’”
Ultimately, one Palestinian says, “As the Indigenous people and stewards of the lands, these actors view us as an obstacle to their profit.”
Our struggle to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline from destroying, extracting from, and exploiting our land is intertwined with the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Angela Davis writes, “Our histories never unfold in isolation. We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that those other stories are actually our own stories.” For further reading on the power of movements to ensure our collective liberation, we recommend reading Davis’ Freedom is a Constant Struggle.
While we recognize the connections between our struggle for environmental justice in Appalachia, we do not intend to equate our struggles with the war on Palestinians. Our intention is to emphasize our global connections to convey the imperative for solidarity across our struggles.
Appalachians outcry about the genocide of Palestinians is the loudest it has ever been, and it is only growing. Many Appalachians recognize the connections between desecration of their mountains and poisoning of their communities, and Israeli occupation of Gaza and exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, including groundwater.
Join us and hundreds of thousands demanding President Biden to stop sending the Israeli military more weapons and facilitate an immediate ceasefire.