Shimon Peres, former President of Israel, is coming to Colgate this weekend to give a lecture and do some fundraising-- he will no doubt downplay his governments long history of war crimes and human rights violations against the Palestinian population. For those who have suffered under the boot of Israeli occupation and oppression, we stand with you in solidarity. It is my understanding that the state of Israel is an apartheid state, with first class rights for Jews, and second class rights for Arabs. To support the Palestinian plight is to stand, effectively, for the oppressed against the oppressors. To those who stand for gender equality, racial equality, socioeconomic equality, etc., it is a natural continuation of that struggle that you should also support equal rights for Palestinians. Israel as a nation was conceived in war, when Zionist immigrants clashed with the indigenous Arab population in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The end result was the forced deportation of 700,000 Arabs from the region. 85% of the Arab population living within Israeli territory never returned, dispossessed of their homes, and many of all their belongings. Over the past several decades millions of Jews have migrated to Israel, many inhabiting homes already complete with the furniture left behind. Today there are 5 million Palestinian refugees waiting to return to their stolen homeland. Ethnic cleansing is defined by Merriam-Webster as the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority in order to achieve ethnic homogeneity. With the occupation of Palestine after the 6 Day War, the Israeli state has been further encroaching upon Palestinian lands, despite near universal condemnation in the UN, (not including the US of course). Palestinian holdings have been reduced to small pockets, isolated from each other by Israeli settlements. Israel is guilty of numerous human rights violations, including house demolition by the Israeli military. Bulldozers will arrive and destroy homes before the local inhabitants have a chance to grab their belongings. They will then watch as in a few months time, construction begins upon new housing for Israelis. This should be understood for what it is-- colonialism. In todays world this cannot be accepted. The struggle of the Palestinians can be understood very easily, simply as the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor. It is one and the same with the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, the struggle for Civil Rights in the United States, and the list can go on. To support Palestine is to support equality, and to condemn imperialism and colonialism in whatever form it takes. These are my thoughts on the issue, and I urge you to support this demonstration in order to foster greater awareness about the Palestinian struggle, and to create a greater consciousness about the struggles of all oppressed peoples.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:50:17 +0000
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