LALIT member Kisna Kistnasamy just Back from Volunteering in Palestine
26.10.2024
LALIT leading member Ragini Kistnasamy, affectionately called Kisna, is back from Palestine where she was in an international team of Palestine supporters, who come from all over the world and volunteer, providing protective presence to Palestinians facing up to violent Israeli settlers, who are, on the opposite side, supported by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) whose mission it is to “protect the settlers” even as they attack Palestinians. The volunteers also engage to document settler violence on behalf of the families they provide protective presence to.
She, together with other “internationals”, made up small groups, who provide this protective presence during shepherding, alongside Palestinian farmers taking their sheep out to graze, accompany children to and from school, and at this particular time of the year, during the olive harvest, alongside Palestinian families, as they put down tarpaulin sheets, and harvest olives on to them.
The reason the Palestinians need this kind of international protective presence for work they have done by themselves every year for centuries is that almost every day since October 7 last year, Israeli settlers harass them, injure them, burn down their houses, cut down their olive trees, and often assassinate Palestinians – just for being on the land they have always lived on, just for caring for the orchards they have always tended, just for shepherding their sheep as they have done from time immemorial. This kind of harassment has taken place at a low level constantly since 1948, when Israel was created as a State on Palestinian land, and accelerated from 1967, when Israel began its occupation of the part of Palestine that was supposed to become a Palestinian State began, and has reached its violent crescendo during the time of the speeded-up genocide that Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians living in Gaza, after the 7 October “prison break” out of Gaza.
During the time of the small window for harvesting the olives every year, the Palestinians are particularly exposed to settler violence. The families doing their harvesting are outdoors, away from shelter. Many are killed. The Israeli army and police stand by and protect the settlers during these attacks. Most families missed last year’s harvest because it was too dangerous to be out. Many Palestinians were killed. This is the third time that Kisna, as a LALIT member, has been in the West Bank. Another leading member Alain Ah Vee participated in the march from Jenin to Jerusalem against Israel’s Apartheid Wall that snakes its way through Palestinian land. Just as in the past, this time Kisna is volunteering via international organizations that are in touch with neighbourhood organizations in Palestine. It is through this political work – standing with Palestinians – that LALIT has developed its program, as well as by reading and listening to great activists, historians and academics – a program to end the occupation and to end the genocide against Palestinians, a process begun in 1948.
Alongside the internationals, the Palestinian families conduct their harvest. And every day, there are other important volunteers, young and old, who describe themselves as “Hebrew speaking”. They are an important interface because they understand the Hebrew being spoken by the soldiers, and they – in their support of Palestinians – represent a breach of the hegemony of the Zionist colonizers’ propaganda.
LALIT did not announce the name or the whereabouts of our member at the time of her leaving for and being in Palestine. This was for not just her security but for the security of the neighbourhood teams and local organizers in Palestine. We informed former President of the Republic, a member alongside unions, LALIT, and other organizations, of her visit before she went.
Kisna, over the past month, was in the West Bank in small villages around Ramallah and also around Hebron, where violent settlers and the IOF constantly attack Palestinian homes and fields. Kisna was due to be back in order to stand as one of our six candidates for the general elections, but could not get back in time for Nomination Day. Two of our members have been in touch with her throughout her time in Palestine – the difficulty of getting in to Palestine, and the difficulty of moving around within Palestine, and even the difficulty of leaving Palestine – as she experienced living under the total military occupation that Palestinian families live under all year round.
She has given her first Report Back today, just to LALIT members.
So, the first plank of our 12-Point Platform for the general elections – to end the Israeli occupation and stop the genocide – is based on up-to-the-minute knowledge, and feet-firmly-on-the-ground political work. Just as the second plank of our Program – to close the USA-UK military base on Diego – is based on up-to-the minute information and analysis, and includes over 40 years of political struggle, including demonstrations, petitions, court cases, international conferences, and constant pressure on Governments. And it is the same for the other 10 points of our Platform, too.
LALIT will soon announce a second Report Back that will be open to the public. Kisna will share her experience as part of her commitment to documenting the Israeli settler violence as well as IOF violence against Palestinians.
