Allowing our country to become another apartheid Israel

Anyone interested in understanding the state of Israel, doesn't have to make much of an effort. Even the New York Times is often blunt about the government sanctioned racism and ethnic cleansing going on in the West Bank and Gaza. Even the propaganda spinners in the Pentagon can't use the usual catchword phrases like "protecting freedom" or "restoring democracy" to explain away Israel's brutal behavior. The Palestinians living under the boot of Israel's apartheid state have never experienced either of these fine principals.

Rather than promoting freedom or democracy, our country actively supports Israel's constant military attacks, home demolitions, detentions of minors, and destruction of infrastructure. How can a country that celebrates the inalienable  rights of its citizens, turn around and pay billions to Israel for denying basic human rights to its non Jewish population?

The website OpenSecrets.org explains part of it. Most members of Congress are feeding at the trough of the Israel Lobby, and are well paid to look the other way. They are scared too. The lobby threatens to defeat any candidate who even mentions Palestinian suffering.

Another supporter of Israel's apartheid is the right wing Evangelical Church. Christian fundamentalists believe that Jesus will appear when all Jews are returned to the Holy Land. And that fits nicely with their plans to restore the supremacy of conservative, Christian, Republican males in the United States.

A third interest group that favors Israel is made up of Jews who believe that the next Holocaust is bound to happen. In their fear, they assume that an ethnically cleansed Israel is the only safe place for them to ever live. For this sanctuary, they are willing to sacrifice the lives of five million Palestinians who are simply in the way.

To change US policy in Palestine, we have to reform Congress. It should be illegal for the Israel Lobby to spend millions bribing our representatives. At the next town meeting held by your House or Senate member, why don't you ask them how much the Israel Lobby pays them each year. Let's put an end to this interference in our elections by a foreign country.

Challenging the Christian right in the US should also be a priority. A theocracy based on Christianity would be as morally reprehensible as one based on Jewish Supremacy. We must protect the rights of all our minorities: immigrants, gays, Jews, Blacks, and Asians. To end Israeli apartheid, we must win the battle against fascism here at home. We cannot allow our country to become another apartheid Israel.

Fred Nagel

Have you no shame?

Law students graduating from CUNY Law School enter a hostile world. The curriculum is all about standing up for the poor and oppressed in society, using one's legal skills to speak truth to power.

But the powerful in our society have learned to use their influence and money  to make such goals difficult indeed. Our representatives in government rarely stand up for the powerless. Our media has no interest in home grown oppression. And our colleges have become dependent on the very rich to fund them. There is hardly room for idealism in the neoliberal world we have created.

So when a young CUNY graduate has the courage to give a commencement speech about the victims no one wants to hear about, all hell breaks loose. Five million Palestinians suffer under a ruthless apartheid occupation, and our country pays for the whole human rights catastrophe. But that subject is taboo, especially in the minds of all the politicians who are generously funded by the Israel Lobby. For ours is a democracy hanging by a thread. The very richest get to speak for us all. How else to explain the obscene disparity between the billionaires and everyone else?

Maybe Fatima Mohammed's commencement address to her class will be the tipping point. Perhaps the American people will finally ask the right question of the Israel Lobby: "Have you no shame?"

Fred Nagel

Israeli aggression

 Dear Editor: 

Since 2006 I have been supporting The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Occupied Palestine. I am outraged at the massive Israeli army attacks on Jenin refugee camp and The Freedom Theatre.  While it is impossible to assess the true extent of the damage while the Israeli army bars entrance to the camp, we know rockets were fired into the Theatre's courtyard and the Theatre was broken into and occupied by Israeli troops. We know the refugee camp infrastructure -- streets, sewers, electricity -- has been destroyed. We know many have been killed, more injured, and hundreds arrested. This nightmarish invasion has blocked ambulances and assistance to civilians, terrorized inhabitants, and forced thousands to flee their homes. There is no excuse for this war on a civilian population. The Israeli actions are war crimes.

I am equally outraged that our government's main reaction is to repeat well-worn, empty phrases about Israel's "right to defend itself" to cover up its unstinting support for Israeli aggression. Israeli land thefts, settler violence, military raids, and thousands of arrests are the authors of resistance from a people simply insisting on their right to live in dignity. Israel is not defending itself, it is, as Israeli politicians have made so clear recently, embarked on an all-out attempt to drive Palestinians out of their homeland and annex more territory.  

We must insist the US stop enabling Israeli impunity and end the funding of $3.8+ billion/year of our U.S. tax dollars to Israel’s out-of-control military.

Felice Gelman

The Freedom Theatre

 I've just sent this to Pat Ryan and will send similar to Schumer:

Dear Representative Pat Ryan,

 

I am writing with urgency to ask you to immediately demand an end to the Israeli forces' murderous collective punishment of Palestinians.

 

The IDF could not do what it’s doing without the US’s $3.8 billion per year. Therefore we, US citizens, and you particularly, as a Congress representative, have a moral responsibility regarding how that massive funding is used. 

 

Right now, the IDF is brutally attacking the Jenin refugee camp as if they intend to obliterate it—which perhaps they do. There have been numerous civilian casualties including elderly people and children.

 

Here is an excerpt from The Freedom Theatre’s update today. TFT, in the heart of the refugee camp, is a major cultural institution devoted to creating original theatre with local young people. 

 

“The Israeli army blew the entrance of The Freedom Theatre at approx. 02:00 this morning. They took the Naghnaghiye family to the theatre stage including the father of the 14-year old Sadeel that was killed by the army last week, and Adnan, the technical manager of The Freedom Theatre. They locked the entire family including elders and children inside the theatre and interrogated them there. Some members were held until the late morning. Adnan was taken by the army and there’s no further news on his status.” (See the full update below.)

 

Representative Ryan, you and I have met several times. We are neighbors in Gardiner. Through me, you are no more than two degrees of separation from Adnan. Some years ago I taught theatre at TFT and drove with Adnan to a deeply moving performance in a Bedouin village. 

 

The people in the Jenin refugee camp are not faceless “terrorists”. They are human beings who have endured unthinkable trauma and oppression for generations. 

 

Israel’s rightwing government claims it is taking these violent actions in order to keep Jewish Israelis safe. A far more moral and more effective way to achieve that goal would be to stop denying Palestinians basic human rights and grant them citizenship.  

 

I ask you to respond to the specific points I am making. It is not helpful to receive your standard response on this topic, defending Israel’s actions. 

Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jo Salas

To support and not silence Palestinian voices

Hello Dr. Solimene.

I have read the communication to students. Your statement endorses anti-Palestinian ethnic cleansing, illegal under international law.

The student’s statement affirmed international law and UN resolutions, which say that Palestinians have legal right to East Jerusalem. That legal right has been denied by the Israeli Interior Minister, and by soldiers and mobs chanting “death to Arabs” in Palestinian neighborhoods. The Israeli government also recently criminalized the Palestinian flag. 

Incredibly, your email to students says that they cannot speak about their rights under the law, or object when their identity is criminalized.

The student’s statement is not hate speech. It is a statement of the self-determination of the Palestinian people. Silencing speech, chilling dissent and censorship have no place in public education. 

What is being done to rectify this harm? “Reviewing our yearbook content and procedures going forward.." is absolutely important for the future. I would like to know specifically, in regards to the remaining academic year and graduation, what steps Arlington will take to support and not silence Palestinian voices and challenge colonialism and genocide.

Regards,  John Francis Mulligan

 

Palestinian Children and Failies Act

In Solidarity,
Peace Action New York State
 
TAKE ACTION NOW!

We are unfortunately continuing to lend support for the Israeli government's violence and oppression of Palestinians through our tax dollars. The unconditional support of Israel by the United States, which includes $3.8 billion of our taxpayer dollars per year, reinforces a militaristic policy that includes annexation, evictions, home demolitions, and the detention and torture of Palestinians — even young children.

Now we have a chance to help change this. Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) and 16 other representatives recently re-introduced the Palestinian Children and Families Act (H.R. 3103). This historic bill would help curtail any U.S. military funding to Israel that pays for the military detention of Palestinian children, the demolition of Palestinian homes, or the annexation of Palestinian land.

Take a quick moment to urge your representative to become a co-sponsor!

(And, if you are in Rep. Jamaal Bowman or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district, please thank them for already being original co-sponsors!)

https://click.everyaction.com/k/65058245/412187242/-2040536341

Have you no shame?

Law students graduating from CUNY Law School enter a hostile world. The curriculum is all about standing up for the poor and oppressed in society, using one's legal skills to speak truth to power.

But the powerful in our society have learned to use their influence and money  to make such goals difficult indeed. Our representatives in government rarely stand up for the powerless. Our media has no interest in home grown oppression. And our colleges have become dependent on the very rich to fund them. There is hardly room for idealism in the neoliberal world we have created.

So when a young CUNY graduate has the courage to give a speech about the victims no one wants to hear about, all hell breaks loose. Five million Palestinians suffer under a ruthless apartheid occupation, and our country pays for the whole human rights catastrophe. But that subject is taboo, especially in the minds of all the politicians who are generously funded by the Israel Lobby. For ours is a democracy hanging by a thread. The very richest get to speak for us all. How else to explain the obscene disparity between the billionaires and everyone else?

Maybe Fatima Mohammed's commencement address to her class will be the tipping point. Perhaps the American people will finally ask the right question of the Israel Lobby: "Have you no shame?" 

Fred Nagel