WHAT HAVE THE PALESTINIANS EVER DONE FOR CONGO?
"Many people do not know the P*lestinians help the Congo movement," explained Kambale Musavuli, Lead Policy Analyst at the Centre for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa.
During a discussion with Sovereign Media's Ahmed Kaballo, Musavuli detailed the historic solidarity connecting the Democratic Republic of Congo and P*lestine.
"We are both exploited by the same system," Musavuli said, as he challenged the superficial online framing that often pits these movements against each other.
The Congolese activist highlighted instances where P*lestinian activists have consistently supported Congolese liberation efforts long before mainstream social media trends emerged.
Alongside noting instances where P*lestinian students at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank organised Congo Week, he also cited a 2011 protest organised by P*lestinians in New York in front of the home of Peter Grossman, the co-founder of a vulture fund widely described as "predatory" named FG Hemisphere.
At the time, Grossman's firm was reported to have illegally purchased a $3 million debt - originally a loan from Yugoslavia to Zaire.
As Musavuli noted, neither Yugoslavia nor Zaire existed by 2011, but that did not stop FG Hemisphere from "going to many international courts to try to seize Congo's properties, business operations," in an attempt to get over $100 million from the Congolese government.
In addition, Musavuli credited Palestinians for sharing with him the story of Isr*eli billionaire Dan Gertler - whose wealth derived from mineral and diamond extraction in the DRC also flowed into companies connected to the construction of the wall in P*lestine.
Pointing out that the US government simultaneously backs Isr*el's aggression against Palestinians and Rwanda and Uganda's aggression against the DRC, Musavuli called for solidarity.
"We are fighting the same beast," he said.