I am not pro-Palestine or anti-Israel. This isn’t a football game between two equally-matched teams where you support your favourite. I am anti-genocide and Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
I am begging you all once more to understand - the point of bringing up the decades long and systematic abuse, apartheid, and Occupation by the Israeli government of Palestinians ISN'T to "excuse" Hamas. It's to point out that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to build a lasting peace even IF Hamas is removed, as long the deliberate and ongoing IDF and Occupation violence continues.
“Palestinians are forbidden from gathering rain water for domestic or agricultural needs.”
– Third Periodic Report of Israel’s violations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with regard to the human rights to water and sanitation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
“The most shocking thing about my time over there was how uncomplicated it actually is,” says Coates, who calls segregation in Palestine and Israel “evil.”
“There’s no way for me, as an African American, to come back and stand before you, to witness segregation and not say anything…”
Coates acknowledges the suppression of those advocating for Palestinian rights … “I have to measure my fear against the misery that I saw.”
On this day in 1980, the South African government banned Pink Floyd's single 'Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)' after Black children adopted the song as their anthem in protest against inferior education.
South African photographer who documented apartheid
“I did not want to leave the country to find another life. I was going to stay and fight with my camera as my gun. I did not want to kill anyone, though. I wanted to kill apartheid.”
“They will move… they will move… The Arabs will move … if we don’t give them food, if we don’t give the Arabs anything, they will have to leave”
– Daniella Weiss at Gaza settlement conference in Israel when asked what will happen to the Arabs living in Gaza when the Israelis settle on their land.
GENTLE REQUEST
let's use #StudentSpring to mark the #BDS protests spreading across USA campuses. hopefully, like the Spring and Summer of 1968, these will gain momentum across the world.
for those new to BDS: it's the 1980s strategy used for successfully organizing citizens against #Apartheid:
Boycott
Divest
Sanction
Bishop Desmond Tutu compared #Israel's treatment of Palestinians as not just apartheid but the kind of humiliation that leads to #genocide.