It is imperative that we stand up for Palestine and keep standing up for Palestinians’ right to their homeland. The violent imperialist ideologies that destroyed our homeland and killed and displaced millions of Vietnamese people is the same violence that the Palestinian people have faced and continue to face.
Vietnam and Palestine have a rich history with each other, stemming from a common cause against foreign aggressors. The two nations have historically stood in solidarity with each other in the face of Western imperialism.
History
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) established diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLO) in 1968, making it one of the first countries to do so.
In 1988, Vietnam also officially recognized the State of Palestine after the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in Algiers, Algeria.
A shared struggle
Palestinian revolutionary groups like Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were inspired by the Vietnamese Revolution and Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF), along with Cuban, Chinese, and Algerian revolutionaries. PFLP published pamphlets that studied the Vietnamese Revolution — viewing it as a model for guerrilla warfare due to Israeli military superiority, mirroring the brute strength of the United States over Vietnam.
“The Vietnamese people fully support the Palestinian people’s liberation movement and the struggle of the Arab peoples for the liberation of territories occupied by Israeli forces.” – Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnamese President, at the International Conference for the Support of Arab Peoples (1969).
In the 1970s, members of the PLO were given military training in Vietnam and even translated the works of Vo Nguyen Giap, leading army general of Vietnam’s People’s Army, into Arabic.
The historic ties between Vietnam and Palestine show that global solidarity is a powerful and meaningful method of resistance. There is no liberation until we are all liberated.
We have a duty to speak up for Palestine, because their struggle is our struggle. We remember our own history and the legacy of war in the Vietnamese peoples collective memory. Israel’s genocidal violence towards the Palestinian people is no different than what the United States did to Vietnam and its neighbors.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Sources
A Brief History of Vietnam and Palestine by Joe Buckley
Remembering the Palestinian Declaration of Independence – WAFA (Palestinian News & Info Agency)
