Open letter to the indignadxs of Israel Written by the working group Politica Internacional 15M, Sol

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We are very glad to see that the flame of rebellion that was lit in the Southern Mediterranean (Tunisia and Egypt) and then in Spain has also been lit on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean in a land that, like ours, has been crossed time and time again by different peoples moving from north to south and from east to west.

As in our case, tired of suffering the effects of property speculation, the privatisation of public services and price rises on essential commodities while salaries remain the same, you have gone out into the streets and squares of your towns and cities to call for a change of direction. All of these policies have already been tried in Latin America and have failed; they only lead to the enrichment of a small minority while the rest of the population becomes impoverished and leads a precarious existence.

Unlike you, however, we did not stay within our frontiers but made contact straight away with the French, the Belgians and other Europeans in the belief that our frontiers should not remain closed. We also adopted the demands of the people who had come to our towns and cities in search of a better future: the immigrants. This is because we believe that the rights that we demand should be extended to encompass all of humanity. We have noticed that your demands include no mention of the rights of a people that lives in the same strip of territory as you and that is suffering enormous social injustice in the form of military occupation and segregation at the hands of the elites that control the Israeli state.

The occupation of East Jerusalem, where houses are systematically destroyed and their inhabitants evicted; the military occupation of the West Bank, where land and resources – especially water – are stolen as an intrinsic part of the colonisation process; the Wall that separates and expropriates land; the blockade of Gaza that prevents its inhabitants from living in decent conditions, the denial of the Palestinian refugees  rights and the occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, the laws that discriminate against the Palestinians who live in Israel, all form part of the great injustice that is being committed against your neighbours.

Although we have not heard any reference to these problems in your demonstrations so far, we believe that in a movement like your own which campaigns for true social justice it is absolutely necessary to incorporate them. What is more, we believe that your own popular struggles can unite with those of the Palestinian people. After all, who is making money from the perpetual state of war in which you are immersed? Is it you, or the large security and arms companies? What happens to the resources that should be used to improve your schools and hospitals? Do they go to the companies that construct settlements on lands stolen from the Palestinians? Who really benefits from this situation?

For all of these reasons, it will be important for you to condemn the occupation of East Jerusalem and the blockade of Gaza, demand that the Wall be dismantled and the laws that discriminate against Palestinians revoked, and stand up for the rights of the Palestinian refugees, in order to feel that we are walking side by side on the long road that leads to a better world.

We hope for the liberation of all the peoples of the region from dictatorship, tyrannical government and all forms of oppression, whether they are national, social or economic.