We Can’t Just Let Blinken Give Israeli Apartheid the US Stamp of Approval

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Battle and Solidarity: Writing Towards Palestinian Liberation

On his current go to to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed the U.S.’s “ironclad” assist for the Israeli state, which lately voted in essentially the most fascist, anti-Palestinian, far proper authorities in its historical past. In a surprising show of doublespeak, Blinken mentioned:

All through the connection between our nations, what we come again to repeatedly is that it’s rooted each in shared pursuits and shared values. That features our assist for core democratic ideas and establishments, together with respect for human rights, the equal administration of justice for all, the equal rights of minority teams, the rule of legislation, free press, a sturdy civil society — and the vibrancy of Israel’s civil society has been on full show of late.

It does appear true that the connection between Israel and U.S. is rooted in “shared values,” as Blinken suggests, however these values are extra precisely described as settler-colonialism, displacement, oppression, ethnic cleaning, denial of Palestinian rights to freedom and equality, crimes of apartheid, land theft, evictions, residence demolitions, checkpoints, constructing of settlements on confiscated land, harassment of Palestinians by armed settlers, a 15-year siege of Gaza, dehumanization, evening raids of properties, imprisonment of kids and annexation of the West Financial institution.

It’s fairly alarming to assume that Israel’s systemic oppression of Palestinians and its denial of Palestinian rights is about to get even worse. The yr 2022 had the best loss of life toll of Palestinians and the worst settler violence in opposition to civilians. In January of this yr alone, the Israeli Protection Forces have murdered 36 Palestinians. Israel’s horrific bloodbath of 10 Palestinians in Jenin Refugee Camp on January 26, 2023, was the deadliest bloodbath within the West Financial institution since 2002.

In an op-ed in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, human rights lawyer Michael Sfard wrote that Israel’s new administration might be one which “doesn’t conceal its intention to protect and additional entrench the apartheid tyranny over the Palestinians, whereas totally cultivating Jewish supremacy as a political and authorized credo.”

However whereas there’s speak about Israel’s present management being its most extremist authorities in historical past, there’s an uncanny silence about its enablers, which carry a big share of the blame for Israel’s habits: america, Europe and their mainstream media’s framing of the Palestinian battle for freedom and equality that belittles the fact of Zionism as a settler colonial motion that advocates Jewish supremacy.

The U.S. Congress’s worry of criticizing the Israeli authorities makes it complicit within the ongoing struggling of Palestinians and the systematic segregation and discrimination of a inhabitants on the premise of race. Worldwide human rights organizations reminiscent of Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch, the Jerusalem-based human rights nonprofit B’Tselem, and different teams have issued intensive reviews that concluded that Israel practices apartheid. The UN particular rapporteur on human rights within the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has come underneath vicious assault following her report highlighting Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid. But, our elected officers select to disregard all this, together with the Worldwide Legal Court docket’s labeling of apartheid as “against the law in opposition to humanity.”

For much too lengthy now we have seen hypocrisy and double requirements being utilized in protection of the Israeli apartheid state. It’s outrageous and infuriating to see the U.S. authorities speeding to help Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion by sending billions of {dollars} value of subtle weapons, missiles and tanks, whereas in the identical breath calling Palestinian resistance “terrorism” — no matter whether or not it’s a totally nonviolent protest or it pertains to a determined younger man nonetheless grieving his grandfather killed by Israeli settlers who finds a gun and shoots at an unlawful settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.

In January of this yr alone, the Israeli Protection Forces have murdered 36 Palestinians.

Whereas I stay vehemently against violent resistance — I believe it’s ineffective and does extra hurt to individuals’s lives — it is very important be aware that international law ensures the proper of individuals dwelling underneath a colonial occupying power to battle for his or her freedom.

The 2-state answer promised to Palestinians within the Oslo Accords is now not doable; the possibilities of a one-state answer with equal citizenship rights for everybody are even slimmer, since Zionists insist on conserving Israel a Jewish state with Jews-only democratic rights. Now many within the new extremist Israeli authorities are pushing for what I’m calling the “out-of-state answer”: an try and switch Palestinians — or maintain oppressing them till they provide up and go away — to neighboring Arab nations, dispossessing them of their homeland. However as a Palestinian, I do know very deeply that Palestinians are decided to maintain their battle alive, so this too will finally fail.

It’s onerous for Palestinians to not really feel helpless when they’re subjected to those mega-injustices for thus lengthy. However they’ve proven large resilience and are impressed by the collective assist of individuals within the world group. Right here at residence, activists, native organizers, advocacy organizations and Palestine solidarity motion leaders should work collectively to withstand the oppression and denial of Palestinian rights. And because the new authorities begins advancing its hard-line agenda, the worldwide group should intervene to cease the normalization of Israeli state terrorism and each day killing of Palestinians.

Even at a time when Palestinians in Gaza and the West Financial institution really feel that the noose retains squeezing tighter and tighter and they’re working out of choices, we should proceed to assist nonviolent resistance to Israeli oppression.

Even when our authorities tries to criminalize dissent, we should proceed to advocate for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to indicate solidarity with Palestinians dwelling underneath a brutal and harsh army occupation.

Even when our so-called “progressive” lawmakers don’t want to admit that the Palestinians are occupied and Israel is an apartheid state, we should proceed to name them and display in entrance of their places of work to place strain on them to cease funding the Israeli killing machine and finish the U.S. authorities’s complicity in Israel’s violence.

And even when our books are banned and hate mail fills our inboxes, we should proceed to withstand by writing and publishing books that amplify Palestinian voices and counteract Israel’s makes an attempt at erasure of Palestinian tradition.