We are honored to host Chief Mandela, grandson of late South African anti-apartheid leader and political prisoner, Nelson Mandela. This show is in collaboration with U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) as they prepare to host Chief Mandela on a six-city tour across Turtle Island.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba ("Catastrophe" in English), when over 750,000 Palestinians were banished from their homes upon the formation of the settler-colonial state of Israel. Today, there are close to five million Palestinian refugees who continue to demand their Right to Return to their homes and lands.
Chief Mandela, also the tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council, holds a degree and a post-graduate diploma in Political Science and International Studies from Rhodes University. Unabashed in his support for the Palestinian people, and a progressive who advocates and fights for justice for oppressed people across the world, just like his grandfather did, Chief Mandela speaks regularly about Palestinian liberation and resistance to zionist settler-colonialism at conferences, rallies, and other events across the world.
In honor of the 75th commemoration of the Nakba, the Palestinian Feminist Collective releases the following statement:
On the 75th commemoration of the Nakba, we, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, express deep gratitude to the indigenous communities across Turtle Island, the original stewards of this land in deep solidarity with their continued presence and struggle. The PFC stands with its co-strugglers against all forms of racialized and genocidal state violence.
Since 1948, the Palestinian people have been subjected to these forms of violence. On this day we remember our on-going Nakba, an ever-unfolding catastrophe of dispossession, forced exile, violent subjugation, ruthless military occupation, imprisonment, and death at the hands of the Zionist settler colonial project. Throughout this time, we Palestinians have resisted in multiple ways. Our people remain steadfast in our pursuit and celebration of life, as the indigenous caretakers of our land, even if separated from Palestine. We continue to nurture our social, political and cultural presence as a people in our homeland and across the shatat. This continued practice of resistance reminds us that the past and present are tethered to one another and are central to making a liberated future. This is our method and practice of asserting our history, and our belonging to Palestine, a willful defiance to the act of forgetting, and a challenge to Zionist erasure of Palestine and Palestinians.
Today, and everyday, we affirm that our land and people are one, indivisible watan (homeland and peoplehood). The PFC aims to abolish Zionism’s systemic regime of rightlessness, dispossession, military occupation, apartheid, siege, war, and gendered and sexual violence that have been ongoing since before the 1948 Nakba. We resist erasure, subjugation, and fragmentation through the restoration of lost land, time, peoplehood, and cultures. We are committed to the reunion of our people, communities, and homeland, from the Northern Galilee to the southernmost tip of al-Naqab, from the Mediterranean coastal lands, to the sacred city of Jerusalem, to the terrain west of the Jordan River. Across historic Palestine, throughout the shatat, and through our intergenerational connections, diverse and rich traditions, histories, and organizing practices, the Palestinian Feminist Collective affirms that we are one people. We invite you to get more involved in our work by visiting us at palestinianfeministcollective.org.
Join USPCN, NAARPR, and other community organizations in Orange County on Thursday May 18th at Santa Ana High School at 6pm. RSVP at mandelatour.com. Admission to all speaking tour events is free. You can support this tour with a donation on the reservations page.
