||| FROM SANDY STREHLOU |||
You may already know that I am organizing a Palestine Solidarity rally and march. It starts at 11 a.m. next Saturday, May 29, at the SJC courthouse lawn. I hope, pray, beg that you will come. 90 minutes, that’s all I ask.
Why
The recent brokered truce in no way means that the oppression will end. To the contrary, there have been many so-called truces in the past, but nothing changed.
Background
The Palestinians have been under occupation and exile for 70 years. The similarities to apartheid South Africa are unforgivable, but unlike that struggle, the United States is a partner in the cultural and human genocide—and I do not use that word casually–in and out of Gaza. Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. Since its inception in 1948 (the transfer of what was already a colonized land by the British to the Zionists), the U.S. has supported the occupation. All told, $146 billion American tax dollars for bilateral assistance and missile defense funding has been allocated for Israel by a succession of administrations. (Adjusted for inflation this sum equals $1.6 trillion in today’s dollars.) At present almost all U.S. aid is in the form of military assistance and is under favorable terms offered no other nation in the world. In 2021 The United States will give Israel $3.8 billion dollars. (Source: Congressional Resource Service, report published in 2020.)
The recent bombing of Gaza and the ongoing settler and Israeli military attacks on Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, in Gaza, the West Bank and toward Israeli Palestinians has been almost, but not entirely unprecedented.
Under the Trump administration the Israeli government was given a green light to provoke and escalate a multi-front strategy of oppression, including residential demolitions, destruction of olive groves and agricultural lands, a further constriction of goods and services in an out of Gaza, the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the control over essential services like electricity, medical supplies, building materials and even humanitarian aid from foreign nations. The Biden administration has not altered the U.S. position on Israel and Palestine.
Right Here, Right Now. Saturday, May 29
The only way to change U.S. foreign policy toward peace and justice for Palestine and the end of the occupation is for ordinary Americans to stand up and say “no more!” To do this our electeds need to see and hear us. Each one of us is a vote and a possible campaign contribution. It is the source of our power to make change.
If you live in or near the San Juan Islands, please join me this coming Saturday to do just that. 90 minutes. We will rally, sign some petitions destined for representatives Larson, Murray, Cantwell, Biden and members of his administration. We will take a group photo to prove that we are real people, citizens of the United States, voters. Then we will do a short march through town, past the holiday weekend tourists, and by the farmers market to demonstrate peacefully that a change is coming, that a change must happen.
If you intend to participate, send me an email or a DM on Facebook. Or call 360.298.8008. If you can, please help in the following ways: we need a drummer to lead the silent march. We need two photographers. We need black arm bands to mourn for the casualties from the recent bombing, we need a large banner for the courthouse lawn. We need signs on sticks for the march. We need participants from the other islands to come. We need a religious leader to speak in support of the Palestinians. Most of all, we need you to come. We need you to contact as any people as you can to
encourage them to be there with you. Let me know how you can help with these tasks.
Do you have a petition residents of other islands could sign? Link?
Thanks!
Do you hate all democracies or just Israel because it’s a “Jewish” state? Why shouldn’t the US support democracy around the globe? Do you object to the deliberate slaughter of Jews as well? Remember, the Palestineans have killed many Jews as well through their bombings and have refused to recognize Israel (yes, it really is a legitimate country….) Have you forgotten that Arabs are allowed full citizenship in Israel and are even voting members of the Knesset (Parliament) there as well? They have a peaceful was of resolving this but will not engage in any real “talks.” There is a border system for people from Gaza to enter Israel and Egypt and other countries have borders to allow the free flow of goods and services from Arab countries. Just saying, there are two sides to every story. Furthering the divisive approach isn’t what I would support.
Israel has become an Apartheid state; even international bodies now recognize this. It is so easy to play the antisemitism card when talking about Israel, but there is a big difference between antisemitism and antizionism. Condemning the Israeli government for its policies is not antisemitism Many Jews in Israel, the US, and around the world oppose the Apartheid policies of the Israeli government. Of course there are those who will accuse us of being self-hating Jews, but that is not the case at all. We simply want fairness and equal treatment for Palestinians. For descendants of survivors of the Holocaust to turn around and treat others in the murderous ways the current Israeli government does betrays the very precepts of all organized religions. While I cannot excuse Hamas firing rockets into Israel and killing a dozen Israelis, how can one justify the Israeli response of killing 248 Palestinians, including at least 66 children, wounding close to 2,000, and making 6,000 people homeless? And why did Hamas fire those rockets? Because Israel is taking the homes of Palestinians to give to Israeli Jews, and nonviolent protest was not working The only way to change the behavior of the Israeli government is to put the annual US $3.8 billion gift to Israel on hold until its behavior changes. There is nothing antisemitic about this.
Boycott. Divest. Sanction.
How can the US claim with a straight face to support any ceasefire in the recent flareup between Hamas and Israel when Congress has considered and decided not to challenge the upcoming 735 million$ military aid package planned to go to Israel shortly. The US has already provided over 140 billion$ of military aid to Israel over the years. Gosh – Is it really difficult to see a connection between these dots? And to add insult, can the US not fathom perhaps a better use for 735 million$ closer to home??
Good for you Sandy for putting together a rally to honor our Palestinian brothers and sisters and their continued plight. We’re going on 7 decades of illegal occupation under a brutal regime largely funded by the U.S. It is time for Palestinians to reclaim their country, and exercise their right of return.
Nobody in history has gotten their freedom by appealing
to the moral sense of the people oppressing them.
Assata Shakur
Neil Kaye: Being horrified by ongoing, organized theft of people’s homes and property is not anti-semitic. It isn’t even anti-Jewish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGj1wmEesPA
Right. Fairness and Equal Treatment? No need for the Iron Dome? Make Orwell Fiction Again.
I appreciate all of the comments and can still disagree. When there is no democracy left in the mid-east you will all be satisfied! I am NOT defending the current Israel government (which I abhor,) but if you had people launching rockets at your homes even a few of you might decide that self-defense was acceptable. You have no idea what it is to live in an area where you can be killed by bombs at any moment. I realize you all think Israel has instigated all of this and that the Arabs have been just peaceful victims minding their own business and leading their lives and but for unprovoked attacks by Jews would be in perfect harmony…but I’m afraid that’s not the last 5700 years of history. And when Hamas uses children, schools, Mosques, and hospitals as “shields” what is Israel to do? When they strap bombs to children and make then human sacrifices why is that defensible? Of course the world has tried to kill off Jews forever and “woke” people in the SJI’s may be no different.
Jews have endured numerous periods of persecution which required them to flee or be exiled, including: from Assyria in 722 BCE, by the Babylonians from 587-538 BCE, by the Romans in 70, by the Muslims from Arabia in 622, from England in the 1200’s, from Spain in 1492, from Poland in 1592, from Germany in 1646, from Dutch Brazil in 1654 (the seeding of “New Amsterdam” by Jews), from Damascus in 1840, from Europe in 1882, from Hitler in the 1930’s-1940’s, from the British Exodus ship in 1947, from Iraq in 1951, and from Ethiopia in 1984.
In 1925, there were about 16,000,000 Jews in the world. Today, there are only about 15,000,000, or 0.2% of the global population. 40% live in the USA and 40% live in Israel. One must ask why the world persecutes such a small number of people and why the world feels so threatened by such a small group?
Of course the Israelis could decide to stop cooperating with the US on intelligence issues and facilitate domestic terrorism that would likely be horrific and make 9/11 look like another happy day. Israel, like it or not has kept Iran from gong nuclear here on our soil, but many of you may not appreciate that security/safety. Another inconvenient truth for you. Kumbaya!