World without Walls delegations
In 2017 and 2019, Stop the Wall has organized World without Walls delegations to build concrete connections between the struggles.
The first delegation in 2017 came to Palestine in response to an invitation issued by the Stop the Wall Campaign and extended to all those resisting Trump’s Israel-inspired wall projects at the US/Mexican border. The delegation, which included journalists, students, clergy, and community organizers from both sides of the US/Mexico border wall, among them members of the Tohono O’odham tribe whose ancestral lands are divided by the US/Mexico border and wall, met, learned from, and shared with Palestinians resisting Israel’s apartheid wall in order to build toward a world without walls.
For more about the delegation click here.
Upon the return, the delegates issued a statement of nine commitments, and pledging to continue their joint struggle with the Palestinian people for a world without walls and of freedom, justice, and equality for all peoples. The declaration affirms:
1. We will continue the international mobilization to denounce the imperialist aggression of the state of Israel and the United States that keeps the Palestinian territory occupied.
2. We fight against all policies of exclusion, discrimination, repression, militarized borders, division of peoples, and rights of the displaced.
3. We do not accept the wall and illegal Israeli settlements, which divide families, steal natural resources, and lead to institutionalized discrimination.
4. We deplore the systematic and widespread practice of torture; we demand due process for all, especially in the case of administrative detentions, and we insist on the release of all political prisoners.
5. We support the call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), including denouncing Israeli companies that build the wall in Palestine.
6. We demand that the Mexican company CEMEX withdraw its participation in the construction of occupation walls and illegal settlements it carries out in the Palestinian territory.
7. We demand that the United States discontinue funding these illegal settlements and collaborating with Elbit Systems Ltd. and ELTA North America in building walls and creating unprecedented surveillance.
8. We pledge our solidarity with and continuous support for the heroic Palestinian people who fight against the attempt to erase their history, culture, and territory.
9. We will continue working to break down visible and invisible walls in Palestine, Mexico, and the United States, and we will fight to build A World Without Walls.
For the full declaration, click here.
In 2019, seven Indigenous, Black, and Chicanx leaders in the immigration justice, anti-border wall, and anti-militarism movements have participated in the second “World Without Walls” delegation, organized by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), Stop the Wall, and Eyewitness Palestine. Over six days, the World Without Walls delegates shared their experiences and tactics for resisting walls and border militarization with native Palestinians resisting Israel’s Separation Wall, which encroaches on Palestinian land, cuts them off from homes, schools, and families, and was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2005.
“I am participating in this delegation because I am a fierce advocate for the abolition of borders and walls. I am Indigenous and I believe that we all have a place in Indigenous liberation. My liberation is tied to the liberation of all poor, marginalized, and oppressed peoples across the world. We all have an obligation to each other. Our struggles intersect and so must we. I have organized locally and internationally with migrants seeking liberation from the violent and oppressive material conditions they are fleeing from. Much of that violence is tied to U.S. imperialism, capitalism, and settler colonialism,” said Hope Alvarado, organizer with the Red Nation Albuquerque Freedom Council and founder/chair of Beyond Borders.
For more about the 2019 World without Walls delegation, click here.