'Pose' Actor Indya Moore Shows Solidarity With Palestine Amid Violent Conflict With Israel
At least 192 people have been killed since the attacks in Gaza began a week ago, Al Jazeera reported.
May 17, 2021 at 7:50 pm
Pose star Indya Moore is speaking up for Palestine amid the nation's growing conflict with Israel.
"It's so easy for people to be like, 'The Palestinians, look they have guns and are shooting,'" Moore said in an Instagram live with Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed el-Kurd. "Sure, but they've been retaliating against ethnic cleansing, right?"
“People cannot create peace if they don’t understand the ways their history has made violence,” the Pose actor said.
Moore, who has Haitian ancestry, drew parallels between the formerly enslaved people in Haiti who revolted against French colonizers in 1791 and Palestinians who are defending themselves against modern-day colonialism.
The conversation largely focused on the violence that is taking place in the Middle East, the colonization of Palestine by Israeli forces and the removal of Palestinians from their homes.
"It's also disproportionate," el-Kurd said, referring to assertions that conflict between Israel and Palestine is mutual. "They talk about this as if it's an equal side conflict when in reality, you have one entity that is one of the most powerful arms in the world; that is the only power in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, that is besieging people in the Gaza strip, that is subjecting them to starvation, to hunger to no medical help," he continued.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike demolished a high-rise building in Gaza that housed prominent news outlets including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, according to NPR.
"The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today," Associated Press President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. "We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP's bureau and other news organizations in Gaza."
Employees and residents who lived in the 12-story building were able to evacuate safely, with a one-hour notice of an imminent airstrike.
At least 192 people, including 58 children and 34 women, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the attacks began a week ago, Al Jazeera reported.
"It's just sad the ways that people will try to stifle the liberation of marginalized folks however which way they can, and we just can't allow them to do that," Moore said.