Marianas for Palestine activists hold a protest action at the Governor’s Complex at Adelup, Guam on Nov. 5, 2023.
Protestors with Marianas for Palestine wave Palestinian flags outside the office of Guam’s delegate to the U.S. Congress, James Moylan, on Nov. 14, 2023.
GUAM and CNMI activists are staging protests on Saipan and Guam on Thursday, the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, according to Marianas for Palestine organizers Isa Arriola and Monaeka Flores.
Flores said Marianas for Palestine wants leaders throughout the archipelago to demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to U.S. funding and arms to Israel.
In a statement, Marianas for Palestine expressed support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as an “end to genocide, end to apartheid, end to U.S. arms support for Israel,” and a “Free Palestine.”
On Saipan, the peaceful protest will start at 9 a.m. on Capital Hill at the CNMI Legislature.
In an online call to action, Marianas for Palestine encourages protestors to use non-violent methods, and “the Chamorro value of respetu.” They likewise prohibit attacking any potential counter protestors, to refrain from spoken or written profanity, and to “think of safety at all times.”
Flores, who is affiliated with Independent Guahan and Prutehi Litekyan, said the protests on Saipan and Guam are the latest in a series of solidarity events that have already taken place.
She said Marianas for Palestine has staged rallies on Guam on Nov. 3, 5, and 14 at the Guam Legislature, the Governor’s Complex at Adelup, and outside the office of Guam Delegate James Moylan. Marianas for Palestine has also hosted two webinars in regards to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
For Arriola, who is affiliated with Our Common Wealth 670, increased militarization across the globe is a problem that can affect the Marianas.
“We don’t want to be part of this endless militarizing,” Arriola told Variety. “By relying on militarization to solve crises, you are investing in war, and those investments divert funds from health needs, education, and things that the community actually needs.”
Flores said issues surrounding militarization is something that the Marianas and Gaza have in common.
She said the “extractive and violent war industry profits from occupying lands and oppressing native peoples.”
“We know that the ongoing hyper-militarization of the Mariana Islands has grown out of a similar history of land dispossession, power grabs and denial of our sovereign Indigenous rights,” she said.
