- Israel is a racist and apartheid state
The US Congress cannot change that
Only those who resist apartheid racism hold the key
And they are below and not on top of the hill
1.*Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison*
There “is a total denial of the rights of the people of Palestine.
…. People can’t travel out of here; they can’t travel in.”
Yet the prisoners hold the key to the jailers liberation
2.*Gaza is a ghetto*
Not like any ghetto in the US or elsewhere where the poor reside
But a Ghetto in Eastern Europe occupied by the nazis
And the ghetto is being liquidated
We’re in this world together and there is a single narrative for some and not others
- The mass bombings and destruction inside (and outside) Gaza
This happens under the fog of war, All are denied food and drinking water
This year’s war on Gaza marks the 5th (since 2008)
Over a million and half Palestinians are forcibly displaced
*This is ethnic cleansing*. It has happened before and we must learn from history
4.*There is an unfolding genocide in Gaza*
So, say the victims and survivors – only international human rights organisations
After WW2, the Genocide Convention was passed to stop these acts of barbarism
And the words Never Again were engraved in our conscience – but now conveniently forgotten
The number of holocaust museums in many parts of the world constructed to remember those millions massacred by fellow human beings are many. These include the Jewish Holocaust, the Cambodian holocaust, the Rwandan holocaust and many others that are yet to be initiated.
- Anti-semitism is real
- against Jewish people
and Palestinian semites
Palestinians’ anti semitism is the work of Zionists
Ignoring or muting Palestine leads to anti Palestinian discrimination. It also involves some so-called liberals / radicals who can freely talk about solidarity with all anti-colonial forces, racism, sexism but miraculously stop short on Palestine. It has been called Progressive except for Palestine = PeP = it aims to call out this duplicity as human rights and justice are indivisible and applicable wherever oppression, marginalisation and exploitation exists.
These practices are very pronounced in the USA, Germany and other European capitals of the world where those holding political office have been influenced to censor free speech and ban activism on boycotts, sanctions and disinvestment aimed at advancing the struggle for the liberation of Palestine – “from the river to the sea”. In these cowardly endeavours they are joined by the owners of social media platforms like X, Facebook, Whatsapp and the like, whilst the “real antisemites” and those who work against freedom and justice get a free pass. They cannot stop the intifada (uprising) of knowledge and resistance.
Anti semitism is wrong and must be stopped.
We must always ask who benefits and who loses from antisemitism?
- All the oppressed and occupied have the right to resist
This sentiment is found wherever free people live or those who overcame oppression.
The AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS article 20, puts it plainly that Colonised or oppressed peoples shall have the right to free themselves from the bonds of domination by resorting to any means recognized by the international community.
The oppressed and exploited, the wretched of the earth have the right to resist and fight for their liberation by “any means necessary”.
The bully, on the other hand, has no right to defend himself
In this unipolar world, this bully is not a victim
- Palestinians are the victims of the victims
Palestinians are suffering for the sins of Europe
the hate that resulted in and murder of 6 million European Jews, gipsies, communists, Seventh day adventists, homosexuals and “other undesirables”
And not forgetting the centuries old christian anti semitism.
Duplicity must come to an end and words must begin to reclaim their meanings
- What is happening in Gaza is another holocaust
The word originates from the ancient Greek word holokauston
It refers to forms of sacrifice offered to a god in which the whole (olos) animal is completely burnt (kaustos).
After the Nazi genocide it was mostly used to talk about the annihilation of European Jews. Subsequently, it has been used to refer to many massacres, such as the African holocaust which includes the lives lost in the transatlantic slave trade.
The holocaust is a crime of genocide based on ethnicity
This is the Palestinian holocaust
There is no denying that
- Palestinians know what happened to them and it has not stopped
They call it the NAKBA, the catastrophe.
It began in 1948 and it has not stopped.
Progressive Jews know that “learning about the Nakba and providing recognition of Palestinian history. Knowing the histories that made Israel a state and Palestinians dispossessed is critical to establishing a just and lasting peace that can truly be agreed upon by Palestinians and Israelis. A resolution to the refugee issue must be resolved equitably and in a manner that promotes peace and is consistent with international law.”
- When can we begin to call zionists fascist? Everyone is talking about it. The Israeli political far right party called Jewish Power, for instance, in theory and deed “walks” the talk as it brings fascism into the open.
Those who were dispossessed and living under occupation and the solidarity movements have a right to criticise injustices of the Zionist state against the indigenous people of Palestine.
11. The right of return
The Zionist regime unanimously passed a law in their Parliament, on 5 July 1950 something that they called the law of return, thereby giving: “Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh. Sadly this denies the Palestinians with keys and historic links to the land, are forbidden from returning to the land they were forced to leave in the nakba of 1948.
The Palestinians demand and are organising for the right to return so that all Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees who are still alive as well as their descendants
The Nakba was a systematic, violent, systematic and forced displacement – only matched in its brutality by the ongoing massacres and displacements since October 23 – 2023 onwards including the time I am writing in (28.12.2023).
The founding document of the UN, the Universal Declaration of Human RIghts article 13(b) boldly states that: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” In addition, UN Resolution 194 confirms the rights of those who became refugees to return if successful will see those displaced then, close to 7 and a half million Palestinian refugees – return to their homeland.
As the indigenous people of the world teach us: if this is your land, where are your stories? We add, show us your keys to the homes of your ancestors?
References
- In response to many prestigious human rights bodies and scholars declaring that Israel is a racist and apartheid state, the Israeli lobby ran to the US Congress. This was their result: they ruled that Israel is not racist.
https://www.congress.gov/118/crec/2023/07/18/169/123/modified/CREC-2023-07-18-pt1-PgH3670-2.htm
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that–
(1) the State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state;
(2) Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and
xenophobia; and
(3) the United States will always be a staunch partner and
supporter of Israel.
1.Gerry Adams Sinn Fein [3] Guardian, April 9, 2009. Gaza is an open air prison
2.Masha Gessen essay in the New Yorkerhttps://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust
The hasbara sponsored definition of antisemitism outlaws -drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
- Ethnic cleansing
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml
and
Article II of the Genocide Convention provides that “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- (a) Killing members of the group;
- (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
4.2. For other holocaust museums, check out these:Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Tuol Sleng preserves evidence of a tragic period in Cambodian history with the aim of encouraging visitors to be messengers of peace.
In Rwanda, the Kigali Genocide Memorial,
- http://www.miftah.org/display.cfm?DocId=5910&CategoryId=5
- Israel is not victim
- The right of the oppressed to resist is widely recognised.
https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36390-treaty-0011_-_african_charter_on_human_and_peoples_rights_e.pdf
- The Jewish holocaust
https://hmh.org/education/resources/frequently-asked-questions/
- Nakba
https://bdsmovement.net/news/ten-facts-you-need-know-about-palestinian-nakba
https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JVP-Nakba-Fact-Sheet.pdf
- On the extreme right and fascism
And
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/25/world/israeli-minister-racist-claim-intl/index.html
And
Just in
Is Israel a Fascist State? – Media Review Network
- Between the one pomegranate tree and the Sumud of olives A- Poem - October 13, 2024
- We Witness - August 14, 2024
- The sports double standards by the civilised world - July 25, 2024