Existence and resistance. That's the daily reality of Animal League PAL Palestine entrepreneurs. Existence, resistance and struggle. One brings the other. The members of the PAL Ahlam Tarayra and Ahmad Safi, all of them present in the Basque Country, referred to this. They were at the Urumea Civic Center of Hernani and at the Herriko Taberna de Deusto in Bilbao. PAL entrepreneurs wanted to send a clear message: “If we want to liberate our land, we first have to liberate human beings and other animals.”

Relationship between oppressions

The Urumea Herri Gunea was filled with people yesterday, Sunday, to listen to the Palestinians who have participated in the talk on the subject. The initiative aroused great interest. “Euskal Herria and Palestine share many things; we need solidarity among peoples,” said Ahmad Safi, thanking the welcome. The Palestinians underlined from the outset that the core of their work is that all oppressions are united and that, therefore, we must combat all and all inevitably. That is why they made it clear that the struggles for the freedom of human beings and non-human animals must go hand in hand. That is why they strongly denounced the attitude of those who use the fight for animals of the human species to justify and justify violence and oppression against the Palestinians.

This position has a specific name: veganwashing. In Israel there are several support groups for animals of the human species; 269 Life and many other groups, in Hernani, were mentioned by Palestinian activists. “Veganism is not a diet, it is an ethical attitude. He cannot applaud the fact that the Israeli Army is using boots that have no leather, while those soldiers are killing us plalestinos,” Safi said.

To combat oppression, no other can be justified. This motto was assumed by the members of the PAL. We must not forget that the context in which they carry out their work is very different from that which they may be in the Basque Country or in any other people around them: the Palestinians live under military occupation; they have been robbed of their land and their land resources; and that oppression directly affects human beings and animals. “The Palestinians treat us as humans treat other animals.”

“We have normalized violence to a large extent,” said Ahlam Tarayra. And the PAL group has set out to change that reality at its core. To this end, they have been working to empower Palestinian children and young people since the group was created in 2011. At the beginning of this work, the entrepreneurs of the PAL group began to develop care programs for dogs and cats living on the streets of Palestine, promoting that children and young people take responsibility for them. The relationship they created with these other animals led PAL to develop its objectives and current work. In addition, it has a monitoring programme for donkeys and horses working in Palestine, and in 2016 several young people set up a vegan cafeteria under the sponsorship of the group. He could not continue, but Ramala is working for a new attempt.

Now it's occupation, but before it was colonialism. This was also highlighted by Palestinian activists, as this colonialism has directly influenced the daily lives of today’s Palestinians. “It was originally a vegetarian or vegan diet of the Palestinians; it was colonialism that brought the meat.” Activists also talked about the rights of women or homosexuals, among others. “Our books and history clearly show that there was no homophobia in Palestine; colonialism brought it,” Ahlam Tarayra explained, by way of example.

Palestine without colonialism or occupation is the objective of the PAL group. Land free from violence and oppression against human beings and non-human animals. The group is preparing the documentary and the name they have given it perfectly reflects the wishes of the Palestinian activists: Nations of their own. The title refers to a verse received by the Koran. The text states that birds and other animals are nations. Nations that want to own themselves.

This article has been published by the anti-specialist group Nor and we have brought it thanks to the Creative Commons license.