Disgusting and disturbing racist incident in New Paltz

Dear friends,
I watched  the recent New Paltz Town Board meeting on 10/9 where the discussion focused on a recent act of vile racism directed at Town Board member Esi Lewis  and her daughter.  All of the remarks and comments were heart-felt and upsetting.  The question of racism in New Paltz was explored and discussed.  However,  the racism on display every Saturday in New Paltz was not mentioned.  I sent the letter below to the Town Board and Hudson Valley One for publication.  I hope it generates some discussion.
Peace,
Eli

To the editor:

As the result of a disgusting and disturbing racist incident in New Paltz, the Town Board is addressing  racism in our own  hometown.  I join with the community in condemning this despicable and cowardly act of hatred.  Perhaps, the Board needs to also consider the racism on display every Saturday in New Paltz where demonstrators carry  Israeli/Zionist  flags and spew  vile and violent language and messages.  At its core Zionism is racist.   Zionists (mostly white Europeans)  support the murder and forced removal  of indigenous, dark skinned Palestinians. Since 1948 millions of Palestinians  have been murdered, expelled, or forced into refugee camps like Gaza.  The Zionist, apartheid, ethno-supremacist  State of Israel’s ongoing  genocide, land theft,  and ethnic cleansing  of indigenous Palestinians is racist.  In addition to the flag waving and  unbridled support for the murderous State of Israel, frequent expressions of violence,  sexism, and trans-phobia  are hurled at passing cars and pedestrians.  Perhaps, the Town Board should consider a statement condemning this blatant weekly display of racism  here in New Paltz?

WIB stand up for Palestine

 

As we write, Trump ("The Art of the Deal") has announced a new "deal" for Gaza. Details remain unclear, but they have not yet provided aid for the starving in Gaza or an end to Israel's deadly bombing campaign. The genocide is not over.

Even the N.Y. Times refers to it as an "elusive" deal on Gaza hostages, cautiously refraining from claiming it will lead to a permanent ceasefire and reconstruction of the devastated land and lives. 

We do know that Egypt refused Trump's (and the West's) pressure to accept the forced displacement of Palestinians. We know that "Phase 1" will involve a hostage/prisoner exchange, the bombing should stop, and aid should "surge" into the region. But where is the permanent ceasefire? We know what happened to "Phase 2" of the previous accords--it never happened.

Plans to administer Gaza with Palestinian technocrats, disarm the resistance, and allow Israel to intervene at will? Plans to prevent Palestinian self-determination, to normalize Israeli apartheid across the region, to stymie the rebuilding of Gaza by Palestinians for Palestinians--let's not forget this is a plan that originated with Trump, champion of the "Gaza Riviera."

Trump, Netanyahu, Tony Blair, and the rest of the engineers of this war have no right to decide the future of Gaza. That right belongs to the people of Palestine.

Trump and his housebroken mass media would like us to believe that now we can relax--that the Gaza crisis is over. Nothing could be further from the truth. We will stay mobilized as long as the genocide continues unabated and until the people of Gaza have gained their self-determination. 

Join us!

Israel’s doomsday machine

Israel’s doomsday machine motors ahead at warp speed.     

PM Netanyahu has approved a plan to expand illegal West Bank settlements, proclaiming “There won’t be a Palestinian State....This place is ours.”  In parallel, Israel has intensified its campaign to clear Palestinians from Gaza City, systematically bombing residential high-rise buildings, schools, homes and tent encampments. There’s no “safe zone”. Dozens of lives are sacrificed each day from imposed starvation and a scorched earth strategy. The goal is to achieve a Greater Israel  - Jewish only, from the river to the sea, as enshrined in the Basic Laws of the state.

Doctors returning home from Gaza say Israel is deliberately targeting children with sniper and drone fire, based on wound patterns. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) confirms this policy. Its report  “Generation Wiped Out: Gaza’s Children in the Crosshairs of Genocide” concludes Israel is subjecting children to living conditions intended to destroy them, with Western support.  An average of 28 children are being killed daily in Gaza due to Israel’s military operations and its restrictions on the delivery of direly needed humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.

Israel’s attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar was a cynical ploy to torpedo ceasefire talks. Qatar’s PM has called the deadly strike an “act of state terror” that has “killed any hope” for hostages in Gaza. Poor Israel just can’t find a partner for peace.

Tom

Whitewashing their crimes

From Ahmad--

Every day, it breaks my heart to watch the genocide. At the same time, the complicity and lip service of European leaders, the attacks on our liberty in the US, and the silence of people are infuriating. I can't add any words to convince anyone of the genocide, merciless bombing, and starvation. It is on everyone’s 4k screen if you care to look. Amazingly, people either do not know or opt not to know that fascism is taking center stage in the world.
 
What is happening in Gaza is nothing but the continuation of settler colonialism.  The so-called free and democratic countries of the world think that they have successfully whitewashed their crimes against humanity throughout the centuries. However, we know that they are continuing their crimes today, aiding and abetting the Zionist colonial power. The continuation of white supremacy, war mongering, and subjugation of people can't be sustained in the long run, and our hope is that a future generation will bring an end to all colonial powers.

The Zionists had the intention of colonizing Palestine along the same doctrines of the early colonizers of North America, Australia and New Zealand. The Zionists established a military state and indoctrinated its citizens into a cult based on elitism and warfare. The religious Zionists believe their elitism is bestowed on them by God. God, in all of his wisdom, ignored all humanity except for them and thus gave them free hand to justify everything and anything. Secular Zionists created a supremacist system and racial hierarchy. They rewrote the ethical codes and laws in order to support and legalize their supremacy. They created a military state where the military controls all aspects of life, including the educational system from early childhood to graduate studies. Israel has two courts, one primarily for the Jewish Israelis and another military one to oppress and subjugate everyone else.

The Zionists never wanted peace. The colonial ideology is the antithesis of peace. Colonial ideologies only seek continuous war and feed on fear and insecurity for all people--those within their society and the people they are oppressing. Case in point, settlement in the West Bank escalated to an unprecented scale after signing the Oslo peace accord with the PLO, pretending to have peace while pursuing their colonial objectives. Gaza remained a bloody thorn for the Zionists with no path to make the ground in Gaza like that in the West Bank (silent settlement expansion to a defacto Jewish state). With fascism rising across the world, Israel saw a ripe time to ethnically cleanse Gaza under the disguise of stopping terrorism. The genocide in Gaza over the past two years has been sanctioned by primary colonial powers, spearheaded by the US, who are providing political and financial cover for their agent of destruction, the Zionists.

Zionism is like cancer: if not excised, it will metastasize and destroy morality and human norms exemplified in standard ethics. As I mentioned earlier, the Zionists have created their own set of ethics and international laws to support their action for supremacy. A successful breaking of the norms that govern all of us will give way to lawlessness. The Zionist ideology must be neutralized.

Freedom and justice to the people in Palestine, the occupied Palestinians, and the indoctrinated Israelis, and to the thousands of Palestinians, including children, held hostage in Israeli prisons!

From Alejandro-

    As more than 50 ships head towards Gaza in this latest effort to deliver urgent humanitarian aid, Israhell continues bombing, sniping, starving, and massacring Palestinians.

    The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land by any means necessary, and in this case by means of illegally blockading foreign aid (food, water, medical supplies), is yet another illegal act against Palestinian human rights which that nefarious state still seems to commit with abundant impunity in the face of the international community. 

    All the civilians putting their lives at risk to bring aid into Gaza via the Flotillas--this is one of the most incredibly beautiful actions I’ve seen in defiance of this live-streamed genocide.

    The action of the Flotillas is a direct response to the inability of government bodies worldwide to do what is needed in order to save lives and to stop Israhell from further continuing the televised nightmare of the past almost 2 years. 

    If there is a silver lining to this latest catastrophe taking place to Palestinians, it  is this: that due to the persistent and consistent actions of people in the front lines of protests/vigils and other actions of resistance to genocide and wars, the tide of popular opinion has palpably changed toward support of Palestine and against Israhell; this, to me, is deeply significant. 

    It projects an end to the madness, and it lets us who have been so active for so long know that we are not as alone as we once might have thought. It is validating our humanity, the sacrifices we’ve made, and the hope that regardless of the outcome, humanity is waking up to the scale of this struggle towards liberation--collective liberation from the tentacles of imperialism / settler colonialism and all the toxic legacy left behind from such atrocities. 

    Palestinian Liberation will be the much-needed catalyst to further liberate oppressed folks world-wide and domestically. 

    Israhell might win all kinds of battles, but to win the crown of legitimate statehood, it needs to do an absolute about-face to the legacy of the last 77 years. It would be a great surprise if this genocide could legitimize the Zionist state, knowing that at present close to 80% of Israhellis are not bothered by the famine their government is imposing in Gaza. 

      The UN General Assembly is due to gather all world leaders this month in NY, many of which will recognize Palestine as a state. It remains to be seen if such a ludicrous idea as a two-state solution will still continue to have any teeth, but what is certain is that Palestine existing, by default, implies that Israhell, simply put, is Occupied Palestine. 

    God Bless you all for all the actions and sacrifices you do to bring light to the madness of our times. In particular, my beautiful Jewish people: my heart is yours and I will protect you till my dying day for all you’ve done this far for our Palestinian families worldwide and in all Greater Palestine. 

Palestine will be free!

Dave Grunland's cartoon

 

Dear Editor:

I commend your publication of Dave Grunland's cartoon of September 1, 2025. Sadly, he quite accurately depicts the end goal of the slaughter in Gaza. The Israeli military, pictured as a behemoth tank, proudly flying the Israeli flag, finishes pushing the people of Gaza off a cliff, obliterating them. As an American Jew, I am outraged that this flag, which is being used to commit these atrocities, carries the symbol of my religion.

We in the US are watching as our tax dollars are used to starve a captive population. The weapons we purchase for Israel are being used to slaughter civilians, including women, children, and infants. Those who survive are left maimed for life.

A resolution was passed yesterday, by International Association of Genocide Scholars defining the ongoing slaughter in Gaza a genocide. They join other groups, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, and United Nations experts who have also stated Israel is committing genocide. When will the US stop this atrocity being committed in our name?

Marcy

Israel-right or wrong

 

 

 

“I did not know” is no excuse! The news from Palestine is not a secret, even in part of the Israeli press and other media. Just this past week, August 24-28, Haaretz, one of the most serious newspapers in Israel, published these headlines, among many others, in Hebrew and in English:

“One Thousand Attacks on Palestinians by Israelis in the West Bank Since the Beginning of the Year”

“Sick and Elderly Shelter in Gaza City Churches with Nowhere to Go Amid Looming IDF Siege”  

“West Bank Settler Attack on Palestinian and Israeli Activists Wounds Seven”
“Dozens Wounded as IDF Troops Raid West Bank City Ramallah, Confiscate Cash From Local Foreign Exchange Bureau”

“ 'Better Late Than Never': Israeli Journalists Hail Killing of Palestinian Colleagues in Gaza”

“Israel Committed a War Crime That Was Broadcast Live to the World" -- Haaretz editorial

“Israel Police Bans Anti-Gaza War and Anti-Government Protest Signs at Haifa Pride Parade”

“Targeting Truth: Israel's Killing of Gazan Journalists in Nasser Hospital Is No 'Mishap' ”

So, yes, the truth and facts are out there for anyone to see, learn and act! Awareness and support for Palestine, both in Gaza and the West Bank, is central and ongoing.

Nowadays many more Israelis want a ceasefire deal to end the war and free all remaining hostages, and even participate in massive demonstrations--but many are mostly driven by concerns about hostages still in Gaza and the impact of two years of war on Israeli society and its economy.

On the other hand, demonstrations and opposition to ethnic cleansing and genocide, while still usually a small minority, continue to grow in Israel. Protests call for refusal to serve in the army and an end to the starving and the slaughter of Palestinians. 

This past week in Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians demonstrated together, symbolizing the breaking of another psychological barrier among Palestinian citizens in Israel, and perhaps also constituting another small brick in the foundation of a common political camp. This is a thing that can truly threaten the horrific Zionist regime.

Unfortunately, polling this week showed that nearly three-quarters of Jewish Israelis partially or totally agree with the claim made by Israel’s government that “there are no innocents in Gaza.”So, no time to waste for those that struggle for justice!

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, the “Anti-Zionism=Antisemitism” charge used by the “Israel-right or wrong” people for so long is facing new challenges to its credibility. More thoughtful leaders in the world Jewish community and institutions are publicly decrying the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. These are not just the Orthodox Jewish communities that opposed the Israeli state from its inception. These are now scholars of the Holocaust, rabbis and community organizers. Just last week rabbis demonstrating in NYC were detained and harassed by the police!

Palestine Will Be Free!       From Yakov--            

 

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I would like to invite you to a potluck fundraiser on Saturday, September 6th at 6pm  for  INTERNATIONAL GAZA RELIEF-  a humanitarian organization that has found a way through the blockade to feed  and provide clean water to hungry children in Gaza. There will be music, speakers, camaraderie and good food! It is being held at  Unframed Artists Gallery- 173 Huguenot St, New Paltz, NY 12561  

 Please go to igirelief.org  for more information, or contact me- Michele Riddell- you can call, text or email.🌹