I’m
going to take a leap here and make an
assumption that BlackCommentator readers are
familiar with the long and tortuous conflict
in the Middle East. You know that it has been
lopsided, both in terms of media coverage and
the devastating impact of occupation by
Israeli forces of Palestinian land. What’s
different about the latest escalation is its
scale on several different levels.
There
was irony in the use of the word ‘surprise’
when mainstream media first reported the
attack by Hamas. The force of the attack may
have caught the world by surprise but for
many, it was seen as a response to the decades
of repression, destruction of Palestinian land
and culture and the genocide of its people.
Condemnation
of Israel has been swift and expected but
defense for the Palestinian cause was not
always a natural outgrowth. This latest
incident witnessed a visible growing support
from unsuspecting places and people. When 140
groups signed a joint statement calling on the
Biden administration to condemn the Israeli
government’s war crimes against the
Palestinians, it was not just the usual
suspects. It included environmental,
faith-based and housing groups.
For
the last decade - most notably since the
Ferguson Uprising - social media has been the
battleground for changing the Israeli
narrative. The massive protests in the U.S.
around police terror have definitely been an
inspiring boost for the Palestinian struggle.
Celebrities
such as Mark Ruffalo, Viola Davis, Zara
Larsson, Selena Gomez, Zayn Malik, Susan
Sarandon, Angela Davis and a host of others
have used their high-profile status to voice
support for the Palestinians. There’s
also Hollywood’s Artists4Ceasefire,
who called on President Biden for a ceasefire.
There
have been real-time exchanges between the
world and Palestinians on the ground. Mohammed
el-Kurd who shares a running diary about his
family’s looming eviction from his
neighborhood under the hashtag
#SaveSheikhJarrah. Mapping apps are readily
available that reveal the disparate living
conditions between life in Tel Aviv and the
Gaza Strip.
Retaliation
has come in many forms and has been brutal and
even deadly. A six-year-old Palestinian child
was stabbed to death and his mother seriously
wounded by their Jewish landlord in a Chicago
suburb.
Powerful
Jewish donors are pressuring universities to
muzzle Pro-Palestinian student groups on their
campuses. Jewish-influenced funders are
threatening to halt dollars to social justice
groups who take a side against Israel.
Kooper
Caraway, head of Service Employees
International Union Connecticut (SEIU), was
forced to resign after a rally where they made
remarks in support of the
Palestinians.
Coffee mogul Starbucks is suing Starbucks
Workers United for its social media support of
the Palestinian struggle.
The
list goes on. These types of retaliatory
actions have only served to affirm Israeli
dominance and its repressive tactics to turn
every word for Palestinian support into
anti-Semitism. It’s using its abusive power to
suppress the most basic human right - the
right to free speech. This is offensive to
most freedom-loving people but not nearly as
much as the Israeli atrocities against the
Palestinian people since the 1948
Nakba.
It
appears that the Israeli Zionists have a
two-fold strategy: to force Palestinians into
neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt as
refugees and to obliterate any signs of
Palestinian life and culture. Israeli is using
the attack of
Hamas as an excuse to rid themselves of
Palestinians once and for all.
The
governments of Egypt and Jordan have objected
to this strategy and are holding fast to what
seems like, to many, an inhumane response to
giving Palestinians safe passage and refuge.
Their refusal is rooted in suspicions that
this is Israel’s plan to force a permanent
expulsion of Palestinians and thereby squash
the Palestinian demands for statehood. Their
distrust is justified. Over the years, Arab
countries and Palestinians have witnessed how
Israel has changed the demographic landscape
by pushing out Palestinians in order to make
room for a Jewish majority.
Those
of us in this country have a special
obligation to hold our own government
accountable. Israel could not be the military
might it is without the billions of dollars in
annual aid from the United States. Our
hard-earned tax dollars are paying for
militarized occupation and for the elected
body who keeps authorizing them.
We
must continue the calls for an immediate
ceasefire, the end to all current military
operations and the halt of forced evictions.
We must support the efforts to supply the Gaza
Strip with the basic necessities for life.
That’s for right now.
Self-determination
for Palestine is a righteous demand. The world
must condemn the apartheid situation created
by Israel that maintains the hostile and
unbearable living conditions for the
Palestinian people. Just like Israel sees an
opening to move its Zionist agenda forward, we
who believe in freedom must use this as an
opportunity to bring the conditions for peace
to the region. Actual peace won’t be real for
years to come but it starts with acknowledging
the historic injustices upon Palestinians
that, if unrequited, will always foment
resistance and revolution by the oppressed.
