Nuseirat started with the call for a completely free Palestine. A year after his speech at Wayne State University’s State Hall, Malcolm X visited Khan Yunus, Gaza, Palestine.
“The Palestinian struggle is not just a cry for justice. It's a blistering battle for the most fundamental human rights that every living soul on this planet should inherit by birthright. Just as the civil rights movement in the United States fought against the chains of racial discrimination, so too do the Palestinian people strive to shatter the chains of occupation and tyranny. Never forget my friends that the Palestinians, much like African Americans in the United States, have been subjected to a heart-wrenching history of suffering and torment."
Malcolm X emphasized that the fight for justice knows no borders and called for solidarity with all oppressed peoples worldwide. The Palestinian struggle, Malcolm X explained, “is an agonizing reminder that the fight for justice knows no borders, and we must stand united in solidarity with all oppressed peoples whether they reside in the United States, South Africa, or anywhere around the world."
The University’s plaque dedication to the State Hall speech given by Malcolm X highlights Wayne State’s selective amnesia regarding Malcolm’s politics. This willful and racially loaded erasure is just another instance of the university’s anti-Palestinian politics. Our lives and struggles in Detroit, MI, and the United States are inextricably linked to the lives of Palestinians, not just in history, but also in the shared experiences and oppression across continents, national borders, religious beliefs, and racial identities of shared conditions.
Detroit and Gaza, equal in size, carry the scars of racial violence, exclusion, and ongoing expulsion. The United Nations investigated the DTE water shut-offs in Detroit and found human rights violations. Across the sea, Palestinians face the same human rights violations and experience severe water restrictions. Israel did not and could not exist without the genocide, erasure, and dispossession of the Indigenous people of Palestine. It is therefore built upon the same processes that work to oppress people from Palestine to Detroiters.
The Nuseirat Collective mission focuses on the rights of oppressed people everywhere. The Collective is calling for an immediate divestment from all war-manufacturing companies aiding the genocide in Gaza and facilitating oppression around the world. This collective aims to globalize the intifada, revolution.