On Palestine

This week, facilitator Marzian Alam speaks to another facet of Re/Creation’s purpose as an abolitionist, restorative, anti-carceral collective, drawing a connection from the non-profit industrial complex to the global prison industrial complex. Here, she reflects on the recent attack on Al Aqsa Mosque and Sheik Jarrah, and the western world's relationship to Palestine.

I am a Muslim in North America; part of the post-9/11 era. I’m part of a generation that saw the expansion of surveillance, discrimination, and criminalization of Islam and by extension our communities and allies, and the simultaneous limitation of resources and support for working class immigrants. 

My family moved to Canada during this time, knowing that remaining in America would be too difficult. While Muslim communities sustained ourselves through the generosity of local networks, our governments granted charitable status to organizations like the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which finances the destruction of Palestine and the displacement of Palestinian people.  

In an eco-capitalist phenomenon called "greenwashing", JNF in Canada publicises its use of Canadian taxpayer dollars to build Canada Park. Canada Park began its illegal construction in 1967. The park, along with a number of other "green initiatives" that started around the same time, created what was later called "the Green Line"-- the pre-1967 border of encroaching Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The construction of Canada Park displaced Palestinian families and ensured that there was no way for them to return to their land. What was once a thriving neighborhood was turned into a national park. 

This is nothing new; Israel has a history of using non-native species to drive Palestinians out of their homes and erase any trace of their existence on the land. Many Palestinians carry the collective memory of the smell of olive trees burning in the early days of the occupation. This was done to make room for eucalyptus and berries that would fundamentally alter the landscape. 

Canada Park was cleverly built just past the edge of Israel's Separation Barrier, thereby expanding Israeli territory. This is a violation of the Geneva convention. 

When neighbouring Iraq was accused of defying UN conventions, it catalyzed a massive global response that justified a decade-long war in Iraq and Afghanistan and military occupation of the entire region. The Geneva convention, and the end of World War II, marked the conclusion of European imperialism. The agreement ended the relentless carving up of Asia, Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean Islands, and Latin America.  

This rule did not apply to Israel, as they continue to defy countless UN conventions without consequence. 

Our tax dollars subsidise donations to known Zionist organizations, reducing the economic burden on individual and corporate donors. This is one of the ways Western governments support and even incentivize the illegal occupation of Palestine. No one--I mean, no Muslim--thinks that countries like America and Canada will save us from ongoing Islamaphobic violence. They won’t save us in Palestine or Kashmir, or in France where the hijab has been criminalized. Instead all we ask is that they not incentivize our destruction.

Marzian Alam is a founding member and facilitator with Re/Creation. She is an abolitionist and gender justice organizer. Marzian began co-facilitating workshops with John Proctor at Rikers Island that created the foundation for Re/Creation. Marzian is now in Toronto, Canada but continues actively organizing for progress in social and political spaces in NYC.