A statement of solidarity initiated by the Progressive Student Action Front - Palestine and the Palestinian Progressive Youth Union. Endorsements welcome:

From one stolen land to another, we express our highest solidarity with the Mi'kmaq and Elsipogtog people, the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society and the members of their blockade, defending their lands and confronting colonial resource extraction and profiteering. The blockade, which began September 30, closed Highway 134 in New Brunswick, in the Canadian state, in order to prevent devastating resource extraction (hydraulic fracturing or "fracking") by SWN Resources, a large U.S. corporation.

This blockade is a powerful action of Indigenous people exerting their right to their land, to protect it and prevent its exploitation and destruction taking place, and demanding justice, dignity and decolonization. SWN Resources claims the blockade has cost it $60,000 daily as it attempts to carry out natural gas exploration in the area for hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is a destructive process to extract shale gas that is devastating to the environment and water.

The Mi'kmaq Warriors Society and their allies at the blockade were attacked on October 17 by approximately 200 armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who besieged the blockaders, releasing tear gas, tasering protesters, using police dogs and firing rubber bullets. At least 40 land defenders, including Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock, Mi'kmaq Warriors, and reporters, have been arrested.

Indigenous people in Canada have faced genocide and crimes against humanity, including cultural genocide in residential schools, forced displacement, containment on reservations, controls on movement, and massive land theft and expropriation. They have been resisting for hundreds of years on their land, continually confronting settler colonialism and occupation.

As Palestinians, we also face a settler colonial occupier. We also face occupation, apartheid, resource exploitation, the destruction of our olive trees and the theft of our land and labour for a colonial settler project based on the dispossession, expulsion and oppression of our people. We are struggling to bring settler colonial rule to an end, along with the occupation and apartheid that it creates, and for the right of return of Palestinian refugees, expelled from their homeland for over 65 years.

The Canadian settler colonial state has been one of the foremost international supporters of our settler colonial occupier, Israel. Canada supported the partition of our land, and is now constantly heard in international arenas supporting Israeli wars against Palestinians and Arabs, attacking Palestinian rights, and labelling itself Israel's best friend. Canadian state officials denounce Palestinian efforts to hold Israel accountable under international law for its crimes against Palestinians, the indigenous people of Palestine - at the same time that Canada attempts to quash and suppress international efforts by Indigenous people to seek justice, accountability and decolonization.

From Palestine to Turtle Island, we have one struggle, and we affirm our solidarity and common resistance!  

Progressive Student Action Front (Palestine)
Palestinian Progressive Youth Union
Students for Justice in Palestine - National, ad hoc steering committee
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-UBC
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - Calgary Chapter
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at Western University
General Union of Palestinian Students - San Francisco
Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University (SAIA York)
Students for Justice in Palestine at Brooklyn College
Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers University - Newark
Toronto Students for Justice in Palestine
Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine
Students for Justice in Palestine - Cornell University
Students for Justice in Palestine - Columbia University
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign Vancouver
Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign

To sign on please use the form below or email:  palestineindigenoussolidarity@gmail.com