By Booker Ngesa Omole, National Vice-Chairperson. The Communist Party of Kenya

Down with Zionism! Up with Palestine!

The Communist Party of Kenya (CPK) is privileged and happy to address you today as we mark this important day. As one of the founding members of Kenya na Palestine, CPK is pleased to welcome you to the International Day of Al-Quds.

The international day of Al-Quds is an annual political protest event held to demonstrate solidarity with all the oppressed people globally and particularly the people of Palestine. As communists, the CPK has both an internationalist duty and a moral duty to be in solidarity with all the oppressed people of the world.

We can neither be ashamed of being in solidarity with the struggles of the Palestinian people nor afraid to call the apartheid Israel what they are: the thieves of Palestinian land. CPK recognises Palestine as a country vilified and a demonised victim turned perpetrator. We see powerful propaganda machinery sanctioned and funded by the US government, used daily to call the murdered the murderer, to call the raped the rapist.

CPK is hostile to the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence by Israelis to inculcate fear; intended to coerce and intimidate the Palestinians in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of Israelis.

Comrades and Friends,

CPK takes great exception to the ongoing media terrorism against the Palestinian people. The CNNs, BBCs, and online Zionist bloggers; these are international lie factories, manufacturing and disseminating vicious lies against the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.

These false reports are meant to tilt public opinion. They moralise the indiscriminate killings of innocent Palestinians by Israel's high-powered, lethal conventional fascist army.

As a result of this false coverage, the perceived morality of the killing of Palestinians downplays the cries of children now orphaned and parents mourning their children; killed in a protest to protect their motherland. This demonisation of a just struggle will never kill our spirit.

Over the last few months, the world has watched a different scene play out with how the same media framed the Ukraine-Russia war. According to the Western media, Ukrainian authorities under the leadership of USA puppet Zelenskyy are blameless victims, heroes valiantly defending their land. The racist coverage of the conflict is no longer a going concern, and the hypocrisy of the European refugee and immigrant crisis is now EXPOSED.

The matter has been presented in black and white, not considering the historical and geopolitical issues of the region. The world is expected to accept this framing as reality, and the media and the western governments have worked very hard to silence any dissenting or alternative voices on the matter. Anything progressive is censored, and media narrative rules over truth.

The position of the CPK on the matter is unequivocal. First, the CPK rejects all imperialist wars and remains in solidarity with the working people of Ukraine. We also support the legitimate security concerns of the Putin administration and the threat to the integrity of the Russian state. Usually, the CPK has been anti-EU-NATO-US hegemony, but now, particularly with the eastward expansion of NATO. We, therefore, support any effort to deal with the Neo Nazi movement in Ukraine once and for all, and we justify violence and military intervention against those outfits.

Imagine if the same consideration and nuance were given to the people of Palestine, who have done nothing but defend their country against the Israeli Apartheid regime? What if their valiant efforts were seen as the ordinary course of a people whose home and land are occupied and that fighting back is the natural course for them?

CPK can never be neutral in a question of an oppressor and the oppressed or the exploiter and the exploited. CPK stands with the oppressed and the exploited Palestinian people. In fact, as

African people, we are from a history of resistance: resistance to colonialism, resistance to imperialism.

We acknowledge the oppression that the white settler colonialists visited upon Africa. Colonialism exploited Africa: her people were devastated, raped, robbed, and her dignity shattered. But we resisted.

Building on similarities of our struggles, just as Kenyans had to fight to reclaim their land from the British colonialists and free their prisoners from the British detention camps, so should Palestine living in an open-air prison, fight for their freedom. Palestine's only option is to use any means available to them to reclaim their dignity, fight for their right to self-determination, and their right to statehood.

Friends of Palestine,

Palestine liberation is a question of principle and not of Religion! Quds day is a day to confront the arrogant powers and demand the freedom of all oppressed people.

CPK believes, and rightly so, that however long, protracted and difficult it may be, a just struggle will ultimately triumph. Just as liberation from apartheid in South Africa was unimaginable, the apartheid Israel shall be defeated.

The liberation of Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Algeria and, in fact, all anti- colonial struggles in Africa and the World triumphed because they were just! The Palestinians will triumph because they have a just course.

CPK is convinced that however powerful Israel may appear, Israel will not rob the people of Palestine of their just right to freedom and ancestral land forever. The people of Palestine will never cease to fight for their liberation. However long it takes.

Dear Militants

For those, especially here in Kenya, who think that the war between Israel and Palestine has nothing to do with Kenya, we must remember that if we genuinely love freedom, peace and uphold our morals, the right of all nations, big and small to self - determination must be upheld.

Kenyans especially through our government must act, condemn and isolate Israel and its imperialist collaborators. Kenya must recognise and offer moral and material support to the people of Palestine in their just war of liberation from Israel.

We take this chance to commend and recognise the efforts of the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, who met his promise to welcome the Palestinian Embassy in Nairobi. We have seen an about-turn in Kenyan's foreign policy for the first time, save for the goof on Ukraine- Russia conflict.

We also acknowledge that the Uhuru Kenyatta government has supported the efforts of the people of Western Sahara, who continue to struggle for the liberation of their country that is under occupation by the brutal Kingdom of Morocco. Thanks to his progressive foreign policy, now we enjoy deeper relations with the heroic people of Cuba.

CPK, who founded the Kenya Western Sahara friendship society to protest the occupation of Western Sahara, stands with her people. We believe that Western Sahara will be liberated one day despite the propaganda war.

All the moves and efforts by the government to recognise their struggle and support them diplomatically and recognise their cause officially are indeed noteworthy and have been added to the win column of resistance!

My Comrades

While we have seen some support from the Uhuru Kenyatta government, we worry for the future of Kenya's support for the People of Palestine. The actions and messages from the leading presidential candidates show that both William Ruto and Raila Odinga have been palling around apartheid Israel. Nothing can be further from the truth; the duo wants to sell out the course of the Palestinian people in return for alms from the terrorist state of Israel. They are desperate to get campaign money and are willing to compromise it all! Shame on them!

This worrying trend becomes even more disturbing when you learn that countries like Uganda and Rwanda have made their threat real. Both countries have been warming up to Israel; Museveni and Kagame, known tyrants, have no qualms accepting African 'refugees' from Israel for a fee. Funnelling the racist Israeli policy against people of colour.

We still wonder why any African Nation would be willing to collaborate with Israel, especially in light of the fact that Israel is forcefully deporting African refugees back to Africa. We reject the Israel observer status at the African Union, and all progressive people should continue to condemn any deal with Israel.

We condemn these countries not for their offer to host but because we know the decision to take in the refugees is solely based on the economic benefits they hope to reap from international humanitarian bodies.

We urge all Kenyans to be on their guard, so we are not led down the same path.

Fellow defenders of peace

The marking of Al-Quds day opposes Israel's over 70 years of colonisation and oppression of the Palestine People.

Having a Forum such as this allows us to state our stand as CPK and show continued support for the struggle of the people of Palestine.

We will not tire of exposing the double standards of the media in covering the struggle of the people of Palestine and exposing the looming threat of a pro-Israel regime that could cut back on the gains made in the struggle.

Although this is an annual event, there is a need for action to build an anti-Zionist movement at a global scale.

CPK still believes that it is not enough for Kenya, the African Union or the majority of the members of the United Nations to pass and support resolutions against Israel's colonialism and fascism against Palestinians.

We reiterate that the question of the Palestine situation is not a religious debate but must be extended to national and international debates in our geopolitics.

Actions must speak louder than words. It is time for leaders to walk the talk.

Finally, Comrades

The Communist Party of Kenya supports the total liberation of Palestine.

The two states' solution proposed by some nations and people is as reactionary as illogical. Just as Africa could not allow white South Africans to curve their country inside South Africa, it is unacceptable for Israel to curve an Israeli state inside Palestine.