Thread by @kokokaraib

If you're Jamaican 🇯🇲 and wondering why we should care about non-Black struggles in Palestine 🇵🇸, read this thread

First things first, some Palestinians are indeed Black.

The Israeli occupation also oppresses Black Jews, and migrant workers/refugees from the African continent. Bedouins in Palestine are often Black

Even African Hebrew Israelites are marginalised and without recognition

All these groups of Black people have different relations to Israel at large, but there is no way to reconcile their freedom with the occupation

If you're Jamaican 🇯🇲 and wondering why we should care about Palestine 🇵🇸, a country far away, keep reading

I get it. Jamaica's a small country in a different hemisphere and we have our own problems, some caused by powers in that hemisphere - particularly the US and Canada. But it's still important

The Israel "Defence" Forces (IDF) and the closely-connected Israeli arms industry export equipment - physical and digital alike - and tactics to clients worldwide. These are the same tools and techniques tested on Palestinians sold to be deployed on everyone else

The Holness government, accused of being engaged in unconstitutional intelligence gathering, is in a five-year cybersecurity agreement with Israeli firm ELTA Systems. Though, it may not last much longer than those five, given that ELTA itself was hacked

The JCF/JDF don't receive training from the IDF, but share the ideologies of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism

All three hoard the resources to investigate crime, ensure safety, and respond to emergencies, all the while spying, occupying, and killing in a war on the masses

Also, we all know at least one friend, relative or neighbour who left for overseas, usually the US, Canada or England. London, New York, Toronto and South Florida have our largest diasporas. The Met in London, NYPD, and Miami-Dade police have *all* recently received IDF training!

These police don't learn how to bomb houses and schools (US cops in particular have enough experience doing that, from Tulsa to Philadelphia), but do take home their surveillance and riot control protocols

Jamaicans, both at home and abroad, face the threat of Israeli-style tactics from forces known to prey on Black people, immigrants, and their loved ones

The occupation also deprives Palestinians of water access. Here, the dynamic is a bit more involved. The private water distribution sector gets to siphon water from territory within and beyond the frontier between the (majority of the) Israeli and Palestinian populations

They get away with this because Palestinians can't build without permission from the occupiers, permission rarely granted. This same water is used for Israelis within the core and beyond the frontier in settlements that encroach on the remaining places Palestinians live in

Until last year, Miya Water, the firm currently in partnership with the National Water Commission, was Israeli-owned. Their contract is set to be renewed this year. If renewed, this could signal to other Israeli water firms that Jamaica is a welcome market

Outright privatization of the NWC is a possibility with Holness and the JLP in power. Were that to happen, the diversion of our water from those most vulnerable to those most privileged or willing to pay - the case in Palestine - could worsen

If you're Jamaican 🇯🇲 and wondering how our geopolitical situation can be compared to Palestine 🇵🇸, read on

We also have to watch out for Israel in its foreign policy. Israel behaves much like the Anglophone settler states of the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, plus the UK by way of Northern Ireland. It is not satisfied with domination and genocide in the land it has stolen

Israel is a base from which Israeli power can be projected throughout the region as an imperialist power. It interferes with nearby countries, especially Lebanon and Syria, but also the North and Horn of Africa. This weakens competitors, opens markets and extracts labour

This strategy is the US playbook page for page! We all know the US has its teeth sunk into every country in the Western Hemisphere, including Jamaica. The 1980 election turned out the way it did due to covert, anti-communist intervention (even though Manley was just a socialist)

What's left is a place where our institutions and movements to strenghthen Jamaican workers are decimated and the nation encourages its own to leave, out of hopelessness for what can be done here

While exiled and pushed out of more dire circumstances (the Nabka - catastrophe - of 1948 till today), there is a pressure to leave Israel places on Palestinians is something we can and should sympathise with

This on top of the constant interference we face from the US

Sometimes, the imperialist countries fight each other. But when they collaborate, like they are right now, it becomes easier for any imperialist country to enter any country held down by imperialism

Israel could not have interests here without overall US hegemony in the region. Israel couldn't exist without US and European interests in dominating West Asia. And the US's hegemony worldwide could not be secured without Israel's presence. What they do are intimately related

Our current government grows closer to Israel, the occupiers and oppressors. We must take a stance against this - throw our weight behind Palestine, isolate the Israeli occupiers

What happens in Palestine 🇵🇸is relevant to us in Jamaica 🇯🇲. It is our problem, our concern. If they are not free, we can never be