From Mexico to Palestine and Beyond, Global Demand for #WorldWithoutWalls Jessica Corbett - CommonDreams
go to original November 10, 2017

A coalition of Palestinian and Mexican advocacy groups launched the #WorldWithoutWalls Global Day of Action on Thursday, the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, to "unite against the global proliferation of walls," which they say serve as "monuments of expulsion, exclusion, oppression, discrimination, and exploitation."

A webpage dedicated to day of action, Stop the Wall - which is spearheading the effort - features a call to action that describes how nations worldwide contruct barriers to control people. The statement features signatories representing more than 370 organizations from some 30 countries, and says, in part:

From Israel's apartheid Wall on Palestinian land to the U.S. Wall of Shame on indigenous land at the border with Mexico - almost 70 walls across all continents are today ripping through people's lives and lands as they fortify often unilaterally defined borders or limits of state control. They cause thousands of deaths every year and destroy means of livelihoods and hope for many more. They are monuments of expulsion, exclusion, oppression, discrimination, and exploitation....

From India, to Saudi Arabia, to Turkey, Western Sahara, and Europe, today, the number of walls designed to forcibly define and seal borders has almost tripled over the last two decades. These walls bar the right to freedom of movement and self-determination. They have become are cornerstones in a world where wars, militarization, and exclusion are to substitute justice, freedom, and equality.

Stop the Wall primarily advocates against the barrier erected by the Israeli government along and within the West Bank - often called the "apartheid wall" by critics. U.S. President Donald Trump's continuous calls for the federal government to build up a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has drawn comparisons to the wall in the West Bank.

"In particular over the last year, we have seen a global rise of racist, repressive, exclusionary, and supremacist ideologies," Jamal Juma', an activist with Stop the Wall, said in a statement. "Governments are developing and expanding with ever more freedom policies that criminalize and kill migrants, poor people, all those that are not of the dominant color, religion, caste, race, gender or sexual orientation as well as all those that stand in the way of the profits of the powerful."



The advocacy groups have compiled an interactive map to track demonstrations and movements taking place as part of Thursday's day of action, and several supporters and journalists from across the globe have posted photos on social media to document the actions.

UPDATED MAP - Find the activities in your region/country #WorldWithoutWalls @BDSmovement ! https://t.co/nIo5OJ3j3r

— Stop The Wall (@stopthewall) November 9, 2017

Outside #Brighton station now marking international #WorldWithoutWalls day @Nov9_NoWalls pic.twitter.com/qYcfhODSkG

— Brighton BDS (@BrightonBDS) November 9, 2017

Today #WorldWithoutWalls event at Townsend Park, Albany, NY 5:30-7:30 #togetherforaworldwithoutwalls #FreePalestine #Mexico2Palestine @acousticsounds pic.twitter.com/ktnv0SJBuB

— Samantha M Thorne (@SamiTheArtist1) November 9, 2017

De la Palestine au Mexique en passant par Calais, les murs d'exclusion, d'oppression, de discrimination et d'exploitation doivent tomber#9Novembre#WorldWithoutWalls pic.twitter.com/EysoMD2hM6

— joujou74 (@joujou74_) November 9, 2017

PHOTOS: In #Paris today for the international #WorldWithoutWalls mobilization via @Campagnebds : pic.twitter.com/kIPqooBChs

— AgenceMediaPalestine (@AgenceMediaPal) November 9, 2017

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