An abridged version of the following article appeared in the print edition (issue 3) of the Occupied Oakland Tribune.

by Scott Campbell

Graffiti in Ramallah. Photo by Scott Campbell.

Sitting in solitary in Glenn Dyre jail after being arrested during the first raid on the Occupy Oakland camp at Oscar Grant Plaza, I had no idea what was playing out on the streets just blocks away. Not until getting out the following day did I see footage of the massive police violence that was unleashed on the evening of October 25.

As someone who has worked in solidarity with Palestinians for years, that footage reminded me of scenes that play out frequently in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Villages there whose land is being taken for the construction of Israel’s illegal separation wall hold weekly nonviolent protests against their continued dispossession. As happened on October 25 in Oakland, these peaceful rallies are met with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets from Israeli forces. Often live ammunition is deployed and since 2004, 22 Palestinians, almost half children, have been killed by Israeli forces while protesting against the usurpation of their lands and livelihoods.

When I heard about Scott Olsen, I was reminded of Bay Area resident Tristan Anderson, who in 2009 was shot in the head with a tear gas canister by Israeli forces at a protest against the wall in the village of Nil’in. He suffered a shattered skull, brain damage and months of hospitalization. I am similarly reminded of Jawaher Abu Rahme, 36, from the West Bank village of Bil’in, who died on January 1, 2011 from tear gas asphyxiation after Israeli forces fired on a demonstration there. And Jawaher’s brother, Bassem, 29, killed in 2009 after being shot in the chest with a tear gas round while at a demonstration. Or Mustafa Tamimi, 28, from Nabi Saleh, who died after being shot in the face with tear gas canister on December 9, 2011.

The comparison extends further, as some of the tear gas used by Israel against Palestinian protesters comes from the same company, Defense Technology of Casper, Wyoming, that manufactures many of the chemical munitions used against Occupy Oakland. Defense Technology’s weaponry has also been used in the brutal crackdown against uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain.

The use of U.S.-based weaponry in Israel against peaceful Palestinian protesters is made possible due to the billions in aid sent yearly by the U.S. to Israel, along with the U.S.’ unconditional diplomatic backing of Israel, a theme that has been picked up on by the Occupy movement across the U.S. and articulated in Oakland particularly by formations such as the Intifada Tent and the Arab Resource Organizing Center.

Moving from the jail cells, court dates, police-inflicted injuries and the resultant steadfast defiance of Occupy Oakland, I now find myself in occupied Palestine. Naturally, “to occupy” takes on a much different connotation here, a distinction not lost on the streets of Ramallah where the walls proclaim: “#Occupy Wall St. Not Palestine” and “#Unoccupy.” The detourned language of occupy as we understand and manifest it in the U.S. has been adopted and positively appropriated here as disassociate from the Israeli occupation. Individuals I’ve spoken with here are very familiar with, and supportive of, the Occupy movement, including the struggle of Occupy Oakland.

While similarities exist between Oakland and Palestine in terms of state repression in response to a civil society mobilizing to demand their rights, it would be inaccurate and presumptuous to conflate the two as equal. As severe as the Kafkorwellian crackdown on Occupy Oakland has been, it pales in comparison to Israel’s systemic and institutionalized regime of apartheid which impacts each and every Palestinian to varying degrees – be they residing in the occupied territories, Israel or the diaspora.

Yet here, even in the role of observer instead of participant, encountering and interacting with a vibrant civil society has been an invigorating and educational experience. For example, in the one week I have been here, two distinct but related civil society actions have taken place.

On Tuesday, January 10, organizers primarily from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee assembled a 50 car convoy in Jericho, bedecked with Palestinian flags, in an attempt to drive to Ramallah on settler-only roads. In the occupied West Bank, 72.6 kilometers of roads are forbidden for use by Palestinians, while another 155.2 kilometers are restricted for use. The convoy was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint just outside of Jericho and not allowed to proceed. Four people at the scene were arrested and a fifth was detained after receiving a call from Shin Bet ordering him to report to a military base for arrest as a result of his participation in the nonviolent action of attempting to drive a car in his occupied homeland.

A few days later, on Saturday, January 14, the ad hoc group Palestinians for Dignity held the first-ever protest in from the Muqata’a, the Palestinian Authority’s fortress-like headquarters in Ramallah. More than 50 individuals gathered despite the cold and pouring rain to express their opposition to the PA’s reentry into negotiations with Israel, accurately proclaiming that the rights guaranteed to Palestinians by international law are not open to negotiation with their occupier.

In facing down both the complicity of the PA and the daily violence and humiliation of the Israeli occupation, Palestinian civil society is reasserting a voice that has not been lost despite the brutal repression of two intifadas, 63 years of dispossession, 44 years of occupation, and 20 years of a sham peace process. It is a struggle that has and rightly must have resonance worldwide. While Occupy Oakland and Occupied Palestine may face vastly different situational oppressions, we are also bound by a mutually recognized commonality of struggle.

And we literally breathe the same tear gas.

Scott Campbell is an Oakland Occupier currently living in Ramallah.