The Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, announced its first conference in North America will take place in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, between April 28-30, 2023, under the slogan, “Together Confronting Colonialism, Zionism and Racism: Towards a Global Front for Return and Liberation.”
Mohammed Khatib, a member of the follow-up committee of the Masar Badil from Brussels, Belgium, noted that labour, student and youth organizations from various U.S. and Canadian cities will participate in organizing the conference, which will work towards building an international united front against Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine.
He noted that the announcement of the conference comes to build on what was achieved at the founding conference in Madrid in 2021 and the March for Return and Liberation in Brussels in late October 2022. The announcement also coincides with the anniversary of the great Palestinian popular intifada of 1987, a glorious part of the history of the Palestinian people and for all struggling peoples, leading to the word “intifada” entering the dictionaries of international languages, Khatib said.
“What we need today, as peoples suffering under the yoke of imperialism and settler colonialism, is to unite our international front, globalize the popular intifada and strengthen our common struggle against this form of colonialism from Palestine to North America, Latin America, Australia and Africa, and against the system of oppression and exploitation dominated by the United States and the reactionary forces of imperialism, colonialism and Zionism,” he said.
Khatib further noted that Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, of which he is the Europe coordinator, will be actively involved alongside others in mobilizing for the conference. “This North American conference aims to support the struggle and the resistance in occupied Palestine, restore the role of our Palestinian people in exile and diaspora, and strengthen the unity among liberation movements at the national and global levels.”
Rumzi Farooqi, coordinator of the organizing committee of the conference in North America, said that the Masar Badil aims to “strengthen the role of Palestinians and friends of Palestine in confronting the Zionist movement and settler colonialism in North America, and building the united front including the Black liberation movement, Indigenous liberation movements, and global liberation movements, such as from Asia, Africa and Latin America, to confront common enemies and struggle together for justice and liberation. We aim to confront the forces of the racist right wing and pave a revolutionary path forward together.”
“We also aim to strengthen the ability of Palestinians and Arabs in diaspora and the presence of the Palestinian people’s liberation struggle within the framework of peoples’ struggles against imperialism and Zionism, especially considering the Palestinian national liberation movement is an integral part in the movement of radical and revolutionary forces in confronting racism, imperialism and settler colonialism everywhere,” he said.
Various organizations and institutions, such as the International League of Peoples’ Struggle and Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, will participate in organizing and building for the conference. The conference will also include a mass march on the concluding day, with the slogan: From Ottawa to Palestine, occupation is a crime. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”