Black lives matter. Muslim lives matter. And this is a worldwide struggle.
When I heard Michelle Kamal tell us that she is prepared for a long struggle to get justice for her son, Abdul, who was executed without due process – murdered – by police on the streets of Irvington, New Jersey, I thought about all she has in common with Faisal bin Ali Jaber of Hadramout in Yemen.
Faisal’s relatives Salim and Waleed were killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2012. Faisal and his family are seeking justice, and they too are prepared for a long struggle. They have met with US national security officials and members of Congress, but the United States has not formally
acknowledged or apologized for the incident. Now Faisal and the family have brought a legal case for the drone killing of their relatives in a German court against the German government.
Why Germany? Because all – I repeat ALL — lethal US drone strikes are guided via the Satellite Relay Station located on the US Air Force Base Ramstein. It is believed that about 650 people work at the Satellite Relay Station. And the bin Ali Jaber family is demanding in court that the German government “take legal and political responsibility for the US drone war in Yemen” and “forbid use of the Satellite Relay Station in Ramstein.” German law and European law and international law do not accept the premises of the so-called “War Against Terror.” The killing of people all over the world without due process or trial is murder, plain and simple.
And what about AFRICOM in Stuttgart? This is the Pentagon’s Africa Command, responsible for all US military and Special Forces operations in Africa, including choosing the targets in Africa to be killed by drones. AFRICOM was established in Stuttgart in 2008 after the US could find no
African country willing to host it. And since 2008, US military operations in Africa have doubled.
The US is murdering Africans with impunity, and doing so with German government complicity. I wish I had time to tell you more about the strength of anti-war feeling in Germany – where people know so much more than Americans do about what war means. Germans this weekend are commemorating the 70th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis. Germans at all levels of society are deeply dismayed at seeing the US violate all standards of international law that were established at the end of World War Two. And most Germans are well aware that the Red Army played the greatest role in their liberation, and at by far the greatest sacrifice.
There is a growing movement in Germany. This May Day more than 18,000 mainly young Germans together with refugees and immigrants from war-devastated countries in Africa and the Middle East marched through the streets chanting, “Immigrants are welcome here” and “Anti- Anti- Anti Captialista.” This was double the size of last year’s May Day demonstration.
We have great potential to build a worldwide movement. Therefore, I am not here only to bring greetings and a statement of solidarity. Let us work concretely on international projects together. Let us together force the German government to close down the US Africa Command in Stuttgart and the Satellite Relay Station in Ramstein and the use of military bases in Germany for the US wars that are murdering people of color all around the world. And let us bring those responsible before the courts of justice.
(Followed by brief information regarding planning in Germany for May 27th and request that US organizations join us.)