{"id":186086,"date":"2021-05-31T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=186086"},"modified":"2021-05-30T08:06:24","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T07:06:24","slug":"from-haiti-to-palestine-one-struggle-one-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/05\/from-haiti-to-palestine-one-struggle-one-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"From Haiti to Palestine: One Struggle\/One Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI speak the truth and it hurts, so people call me a radical. This is a revolution. We want to improve the lives of the people. There is no room for compromise.\u201d<\/em>
\n-\u2013 Antoine Izm\u00e9ry<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

24 May 2021 – <\/em>Haiti Action Committee is honored to share this powerful eulogy given by Antoine Izm\u00e9ry in May 1992 for his younger brother, Georges. The Izm\u00e9ry brothers were Palestinian-Haitians who were both assassinated by U.S.-backed death squads following the U.S.-orchestrated coup in 1991 that overthrew the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.<\/p>\n

The Izm\u00e9ry brothers have long symbolized the deep ties of solidarity between Palestinians and Haitians. Now, as U.S.-manufactured Israeli bombs shatter Gaza, Haiti Action Committee reiterates our support for the Palestinian people and their right to resist occupation, colonial terror and ethnic cleansing. We denounce the continued U.S. support \u2013 to the tune of $3.8 billion in arms per year \u2013 for the Israeli apartheid state. On this 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, we note the parallels between the struggle in Haiti and Palestine. Like in Palestine, the people of Haiti have never stopped fighting for their freedom. Like in Palestine, the Haitian people confront a regime backed to the hilt by the U.S. government. Like in Palestine, the Haitian people demand self-determination and an end to occupation, land theft, and state-sponsored terror.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Antoine Izm\u00e9ry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Antoine Izm\u00e9ry was a prominent supporter of Aristide and the democratic movement in Haiti, and an outspoken critic of the coup regime. In the eulogy for his brother, Antoine said \u201cToday, in Georges\u2019 name, I speak for all the people who have disappeared: underprivileged, students, journalists, peasants,workers and peaceful citizens. To understand this hideous crime, beyond pain and emotion, it must be understood that they want to transform Haiti into a vast prison and an immense cemetery.\u201d Following his brother\u2019s assassination, Antoine lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights over Georges\u2019 death, which sparked a sharply critical resolution from the commission.<\/a><\/p>\n

On September 11, 1993, a year and four months after his brother\u2019s murder, Antoine himself was assassinated in broad daylight by a death squad composed of 10 armed men tied to Haiti\u2019s military and police. He was dragged from a memorial church service honoring victims of the 1988 St. Jean Bosco massacre, forced to kneel in the street, and shot point blank in the head despite the presence of domestic and international human rights observers and the press. An international UN investigation later concluded that the elaborate plan to assassinate Antoine Izm\u00e9ry could not have been carried out without the complicity, if not the participation, of highly placed members of the Haitian armed forces. That same military, along with a new group of death squads, has been resurrected today in Haiti, and continues to terrorize the population.<\/p>\n

We salute the Izm\u00e9ry brothers for their courage, their commitment to justice and social change in Haiti, and their love for their fellow human beings.\u00a0We honor their memory as we say: Haiti\/Palestine \u2013 One Struggle, One Fight<\/p>\n

\n

Watch a video Tribute to Antoine Izm\u00e9ry HERE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Read Antoine\u2019s Eulogy for his younger brother, Georges HERE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Excerpt:<\/strong> \u201cI must tell you that my \u2028life is a quest for justice and for social change in Haiti. For me, \u2028the first objective of justice is the right to life, protected and \u2028guaranteed by a government conscious of the claims of all our \u2028people. I will not change. I will always remain a political fighter.<\/p>\n

To our Haitian friends, I will permit myself to say that the \u2028struggle for the triumph of justice will be long and bloody. But \u2028liberty is not given, it is taken. And for one who falls, 10, 100, \u20281000 will follow. Yes, the people of Haiti are hungry and thirsty \u2028for justice. It began on February 7, 1986. It will not stop until the \u2028objectives have been attained: a more humane, just, truthful and \u2028joyous society, a society where all are respected, kote tout moun \u2028se moun.<\/p>\n

To my foreign friends I will say this, I am not looking for death. \u2028But I am not afraid of death. Life is not the most precious good to \u2028humanity. There are conditions that can render life itself odious. \u2028To know that one is governed by assassins or by a band of organized \u2028criminals such as the mafia\u2026. To live under terror, to be deprived \u2028of one\u2019s fundamental liberties, to see oneself robbed of the result \u2028of a vote freely and democratically expressed, to not have the \u2028means to decent housing for oneself, to nourish oneself \u2028comfortably, to be cared for, to send one\u2019s children to school, to be \u2028tortured or imprisoned in a degrading way: here are some of the \u2028conditions that render life odious. The Haitian people will always \u2028find me on their side and on the side of our freely elected leaders \u2028in our march toward life and in our combat against death.\u201d \u2013 Antoine Izm\u00e9ry<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

The <\/em>Haiti Action Committee<\/a><\/strong> is a Bay-Area based network of activists who have supported the Haitian struggle for democracy since 1991.Our members travel frequently to Haiti and are in close touch with Haitian grassroots activists, legal and human rights workers, and victims of repression. Through demonstrations and civil disobedience, Congressional lobbying and educational events, publications and community organizing, we are working to build a strong Haiti solidarity movement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – haitisolidarity.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A powerful eulogy given by Antoine Izm\u00e9ry in May 1992 for his younger brother, Georges. They were Palestinian-Haitians, both assassinated by U.S.-backed death squads following the U.S.-orchestrated coup in 1991 that overthrew the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":186087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[867,1575,975,976,1126,1050,541,427,70],"class_list":["post-186086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean","tag-anglo-america","tag-death-squads","tag-haiti","tag-haiti-action-committee","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-palestine","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}