No Detention Centers in Michigan stands in full solidarity with ongoing movements for freedom and dignity in both Colombia and Palestine that have faced massive repression and state violence in recent weeks.
These struggles are closely linked to the work of the NDCM coalition, not only because Palestinians and Colombians are among those affected by the violence of the detention and deportation machine in Michigan and across the United States, but because all movements against oppression and carceral power are connected. Though the recently announced Israel-Gaza ceasefire means some measure of relief for the occupied people of Gaza as they mourn over 250 killed, the harm of Israeli settler colonialism persists in the ongoing occupation. Expulsions of indigenous Palestinians from their homes in neighborhoods like Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan continue, along with a nationwide system of discrimination recently recognized as apartheid by Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem בצלם. In Colombia, under the rightwing regime of Ivan Duque, police forces have killed dozens of protesters and indigenous organizers who spoke out over the last month against neoliberal austerity measures and militarism. More than a thousand others have been arbitrarily detained, and hundreds have disappeared.
Administrative detention—the practice of incarcerating a person without charge or trial—has been a prominent feature of both Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and the Colombian government’s crackdown on activists. It is also a cornerstone of ICE’s policy in the U.S., another settler state that continues directly to enable and aid state violence against resistance movements in Palestine, Colombia, and around the world.
NDCM demands an end to the use of torture and administrative detention by the governments of Colombia, Israel, and the U.S.; the release of all Colombian, Palestinian and U.S. political prisoners; and an end to U.S. military and police aid to Colombia and Israel. In accordance with this last demand, we support Palestinian civil society’s call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli state.
Please consider joining us in donating here to support urgent mutual aid efforts on the ground in Colombia. Another donation link organized by Colombian immigrants and disbursed directly to groups on the ground can be found here. For more information on the international anti-racist BDS movement for justice and Palestinian freedom from occupation, you can visit the BDS website.
No Detention Centers in Michigan 