[Português abaixo / Portuguese follows]

We, Palestinian and Rio de Janeiro’s favelas’ social movements, have been resisting the militarization of our lives and struggling daily for equality, freedom and justice for decades. The election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil and Wilson Witzel as governor of Rio de Janeiro should further strengthen our ties of solidarity and joint struggle against oppression.

It doesn't surprise us that the racist, militarist, LGBTQ-phobic, sexist and anti-indigenous extreme-right that is advancing in Brazil is aligned with the state of Israel, which since 1948 has implemented a brutal regime of apartheid, colonization and occupation against the indigenous people of Palestine.

While Jair Bolsonaro announces plans to follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump and move the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Witzel and congressman Flávio Bolsonaro show interest in acquiring Israeli drones to be used to enhance repression as well as shoot and kill in Rio de Janeiro´s favelas and beyond. For decades, the Palestinian people have been used by the Israeli state and complict companies as a laboratory of repressive and murderous technologies and tactics, which are exported to the world, including Brazil, as “field-tested.”

The response to these growing links between the far-right regimes that challenge our lives, our dignity and our rights, must be a joint and global struggle against racism and militarization. From the favelas in Rio de Janeiro to the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, from the Brazilian poor neighborhoods to the Palestinian refugee camps, we call on all social movements and civil society organizations around the world to fight together with us: