On Thursday, September 19, the MEChA club stationed a table on the Visalia campus with information on the Palestine-Israel conflict. The club has been vocal about the issue before during their march for Cesar Chavez earlier this year, denouncing Israeli apartheid and demanding freedom and human rights for the Palestinian people. On Thursday, the club circulated information and fliers encouraging students to attend protests as well as appear at city council meetings to demand that our county representatives support and endorse a ceasefire.
This is the second Palestine related event to take place on campus within two weeks, with the documentary screening of Where Olive Trees Weep being attended by roughly 100 students and community members.
This demonstration occurred just one day after the United Nations voted to support a resolution that demands Israel end its illegal occupation in Palestine within 12 months, or violate international law. The resolution passed with an overwhelming 124 votes in favor to 14 against, with the United States being the only major Western country to vote against the resolution.
As fliers circulated, MEChA officer Jaki Ramirez took the mic to rally students. They urged: “We have the privilege to be able to walk by and still go to class, we have the privilege to know that we have a safe home to go to.[…]Children are dying everyday [in] their parents’ hands and it’s terrifying to talk about.[…]Why is it they’re getting murdered? Why is it they’re getting bombed? We don’t know? You want to say you don’t know but we know–it’s our money, it’s our ignorance, it’s our privilege to be ignorant.”
Jaki acknowledges the popular point of fact that the United States has provided significant funding to Israel’s military and remains closely allied to them in spite of the blatant and unveiled genocide happening across the world. MEChA strongly urges minority students to see the parallels between their cultural history and the Palestinians’ and become informed about the wider issue.
In an interview with Jaki, I was treated to the following insight: “…all these issues have intersections that also connect with Latine/x history and current issues. We as a people are victims of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism that these issues around the world are almost a [mirror] of what has happened to us and continues to happen to us. We have been displaced and forced out of our home countries to come to one that exploits us to our deaths. As [MEChA] we are trying to dismantle that through education and creating our own communities and spaces where we are free to speak about our issues and histories[…]We will continue to fight for a ceasefire, land back, and complete end of the genocide of the people of Palestine.”
Pro-Palestine demonstrations and informative events have become more frequent in this semester, revealing that what some considered a trend is in fact a life-changing endeavor in the face of history in the making.
