Rising Voices believes in organizing and developing the leadership capacity of AAPI women across Michigan for self-determination, to build power so AAPI women and young people are at the table where decisions are being made on the issues that matter most to us and our families. We know that our liberation is tied up with all other BIPOC people, and that especially as we organize people from across the Asian diaspora, we know that just as the forces of imperialism and capitalism know no borders, what is international is also domestic and local.
Rising Voices stands with our Palestinian siblings in their struggle for liberation and self-determination. Just as we oppose evictions and displacement and support refugees here in Michigan, we also oppose the forced and illegal evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and the illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank. Just as Rising Voices stands with our Black siblings in the movement against police brutality and state sponsored violence here in Michigan, Rising Voices stands with our Palestinian siblings against US-funded and backed, state sponsored violence in Palestine. Rising Voices stands with mothers and women and young people in Michigan, we stand with Palestinian mothers and women and children in Palestine, and grieve for those who have been killed by the IDF.
The Palestinian people have been and continue to be at the forefront of many movements around the globe, lending their support and solidarity to the movement for Black Lives, to the liberation movements in Myanmar, to organizers on the ground in Colombia, and beyond. Rising Voices is inspired by the solidarity the Palestinians have shown other people fighting for self-determination, and we hope to show the same solidarity.
When taking a stance on supporting one “side” in the “conflict”, Rising Voices’ stance is a simple one: we oppose apartheid.
When one party to a conflict has one of the most sophisticated missile defense systems in the world, and the other party is kettled into an open-air prison with a blockade preventing even the most basic construction, medical, and humanitarian aid from entering to rebuild after decades of bombardment, with near-universally condemned illegal settlements evicting families from the homes they sought refuge in after being forcibly displaced…how is it a question which side you are on?
The occupation defines the resistance. There is no comparison between air strikes, tanks, and a ground invasion to rockets and stones.
Apartheid and military occupation are mutually exclusive with freedom and democracy. We believe in human rights, we support the boycott, divest and sanction movement, we stand with Palestine.