Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas with Extinction Rebellion in New York

Singer and actress Melba Moore (left) with Ofelia Rivas in New York.
Photo courtesy Ofelia Rivas

Photo by Ofelia Rivas

Photo Ofelia Rivas

Photo Ofelia Rivas

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas with Extinction Rebellion in New York

Consumerism driven by the corporate system threatens Mother Earth -- Ofelia Rivas

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

NEW YORK -- Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas spoke to a gathering of Extinction Rebellion in New York on Black Friday, sharing the need to protect Mother Earth.

Ofelia Rivas said she "shared the message for people to consider a personal conscious choice to end consumerism driven by this corporate system."

"The message from Indigenous Peoples is to protect Mother Earth. They are here taking this action, and it is a sign that people have heard our message," Rivas told Censored News.

In New York, Rivas opened the 20 Million Women Strong organization event in the East Village.

While in New York, Rivas provided a prayer song for Bolivians at the "Impunity with the Aymara Community of Bolivia," gathering of The Center for Constitutional Rights and Harvard Law.

At the Concerned Citizens for Change meeting at Manhattan College, Rivas also delivered a presentation.

The Extinction Rebellion action in New York was part of planned Black Friday protests around the world, with activists blockading shopping malls in Paris, Montreal and Madrid, calling for an end to consumerism.

Rivas is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall and has lived her life on her homeland, battling the U.S. Border Patrol who sit outside her home. One U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Agent from El Paso pulled a gun on her as he was stalking her at her gate. 

After testifying before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica in May on the militarization of her homeland, and abuses by U.S. Homeland Security and its Border Patrol on the Tohono O'odham Nation, Ofelia was delayed two days returning home after being targeted by U.S. Homeland Security with repeated searches because of her testimony.

Currently, protected Saguaro Cactus and endangered species are being destroyed near Rivas' home on the Tohono O'odham Nation. At the nearby Organ Pipe National Monument, construction of a border wall segment, now endangers a sacred spring. The border wall construction all along the Arizona border is now blocking the migration paths of jaguar, pronghorn and other rare and endangered species.

The border wall has already proved worthless, as an eight-year-old climber scaled a mock wall in seconds. On the California border recently, the border wall was cut open and a truck driven through it. 

Previously Rivas and O'odham elders returned the remains of their ancestors to their resting place after they were dug up by the United States' construction of a border vehicle barrier on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Now, the human rights violator Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor responsible for Apartheid security in Palestine, is constructing spy towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation. These integrated fixed towers, contracted by U.S. Homeland Security in remote O'odham communities will continue the spying and stalking of O'odham, which is already underway by the U.S. Border Patrol.

On Friday, at least 27 members of the Extinction Rebellion were arrested in New York.

“This is a real crisis. It’s a moral crisis. We’re in a very sad place,” said Manhattan resident Sarah Kollodny, 80, reports The New York Post.

“We really want to draw attention to what’s happening in the world. Black Friday is a day of strong consumerism,” she added, urging people to “reflect on our resources and consumerism.”

Extinction Rebellion members carried signs calling for “Empathy, humility, frugality” and declaring a “climate emergency,” caused by what they said were carbon emissions from excessive consumption.

Photos copyright Ofelia Rivas
Article copyright Ofelia Rivas, Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Navajos in Palestine 'NO to Apartheid!'

Lyla June Johnston and Orlando Begay

Navajos say 'NO!' to Strangulation by Apartheid in Palestine
Massacres and Displacement of Palestinians by Israel Repeats Genocide of Native Americans in the United States 

By Lyla June Johnston in Palestine
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

Watch video below -- Lyla in Palestine stands before a home demolished by Israel. She  describes Israel's goal of "maximum territory" and "minimum population" of Palestinians, who are removed by force, beaten and often hospitalized as Israel destroys Palestinian homes and forces them into refugee camps.

"A Palestinian city strangled by apartheid wall construction. Over 2500 people were forced to move their livelihoods to refugee/concentration camps. Because of the wall construction, kids had to get up at 4 am just to get around the wall to their school. If someone has a heart attack they would have to take over an hour to get to the hospital. They were isolated out of existence and now it is a huge ghost city in ancestral Palestine." -- Lyla June Johnston

"These are the windows of a school for Palestinian girls that were broken with rubber bullets and tear gas bombs by the Israeli army. This is in the refugee camp called Shu'fat camp. 
It is across the street from Jewish settlements where people not only don’t have to pay taxes but receive benefits to live there. Here in Shu’fat people are taxed and resources are extracted. No services are provided and so there is no way to push out the trash which gathers on the side of streets or is burned." -- Lyla June Johnston

"Today I am visiting the ancient city of Lifta. It was 'depopulated' in 1947 by Zionist Militias. And by this I mean the people were driven out by force. Around this time 120 men women and children were massacred.

The whole area has remnants of indigenous land stewardship: almond trees, fig trees, rich soil, greenery all around, a sacred spring. We are now on our way to the refugee camp 20 minutes away where the displaced people live to this day. Sound familiar? For native Americans, it sure does... It is time for us as Americans to raise our voices and pressure the American government to cease the veto-ing process at the UN. The veto power used by the US prevents international law and treaties from protecting Palestinians.

No matter what your religion is or what your sacred texts say, myself and many progressive Jews understand that nothing justifies us to kill others or behave in a dominator mindset or violently displace a person who has lived there for hundreds if not thousands of years. — in Lifta, Yerushalayim, Israel." -- Lyla June Johnston

Watch Lyla's video below

The Massacre of LIfta

.

"Whenever you see these cactus trees, you know it was a “depopulated” Palestinian village. Although not indigenous to Palestine, they were a favorite plant species of Palestinian communities as they served many purposes. Thus the cactus has become a symbol of #AlNakba, or “The Catastrophe,” of 1947 when Zionist militias drove out 700,000 Palestinian people by force, massacring hundreds and hundreds along the way. A second removal occurred in 1967 during the Six Day War and they were forced to leave everything they knew once again. Today, people are routinely imprisoned, killed and every movement they make is controlled and monitored by cameras and checkpoints hidden as much as possible from the affluent Israeli community right next door. Grandmothers have watched three generations of children be war torn and wonder when it will stop. The answer to the question depends on each of us."-- Lyla June Johnston #BoycottSanctionDivest

"What if every time you simply wanted to get back home from work you had to go through a checkpoint full of armed guards that may or may not harass you? This is what Palestinians go through. What if at the age of 18 you were forced to join the Israeli Army and check people you don’t even know who just want to get home at night? This is what Jewish Israeli youth go through. In the context of oppression, nobody wins and all are held in the bondage of untruth." -- Lyla June Johnston

Photos and article copyright Lyla June Johnston
May not be used without permission