Warm Greetings everyone

Thanks so much for allowing me to share a few words with this important platform, the ILPS -US National Assembly.

 

My name is Mariam Al jaajaa and I am speaking on behalf of a peoples movement called the Arab group for the protection of Nature. We focus on enhancing food sovereignty in the Arab region, particularly in the face of war occupation, and settler colonialism: which is people’s right to produce their own food and define their own local food system.

 

This a very critical yet challenging mission as this region, like many across the world, has been suffering from decades of resource extraction through colonialism, and neocolonialism.

 

Initially with carving up the region into fragmented countries between the French and the british in 1916 through the psikes-picot agreement, and later through neoliberal policies imposed by countries and international financial institutions, forcing our countries to enter a global market system that is based on double standards and power imbalances between the rich and the poor, the global north and the global south. 

 

In parallel, the British, USA and other imperial countries have set the stage for settler colonialism in Palestine, a Zionist venture, a military, economic and political fort that defends colonial and neo-colonial interests. They have molded an apartheid system that usurps resources, eliminates the Indigenous Palestinian population and cultivates the seeds for continuous civil strife in the region. 

 

Of course, the peoples of this region haven’t lost hope, as we hear daily stories of resistance heroism in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Stories working towards national and regional unity and liberation. We have to support these movements in their different areas of work, so we can together build a global front for our collective liberation.

 

 In tandem with fighting against political dominion and imperialist wars, it is key to build a resistance food system and economy.  We cannot have political sovereignty without sovereignty over food and natural resources.

 

As Henry Kissinger- a previous US secretary of State- has once said

“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people.” 

 

For all these reasons I mentioned, we believe in the mission and work of ILPS, and its potential power to make an impact on peoples lives around the world.

 

From Jordan, I wish you a successful national assembly.

 

Together towards solidarity, justice and peace.