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Tag: Israel

  • When Oppressors Fall, Lessons are Learned

    When Oppressors Fall, Lessons are Learned

    Human history is rife with oppression, often cloaked by illusions of grandeur, military strength, and wealth. Yet the Qur’an reminds us of one unchanging reality: When the powerful resort to tyranny, they will inevitably face divine justice. It’s easy to believe might makes right, but the Qur’an demonstrates that no degree of power, wealth, or influence can avert God’s decree. Whether in the past or today, the same pattern emerges – tyrants rise, grow arrogant, oppress others, and are eventually undone.

    The Arrogance and Fall of Pharaoh

    Consider Pharaoh, who ruled Egypt with absolute power and committed crimes fueled by pride, declaring, “I am your lord, most high!” (Qur’an 79:24). His unchecked arrogance led him to subject the Children of Israel to forced labor, to deny them basic rights, and to have their newborn sons killed. Today we witness tyrants using lethal force against innocents, like Zionist forces in Palestine. Like Pharaoh, they disregard human life, believing political or military power shields them from moral accountability.

    Yet Pharaoh suffered Allan’s wrath when he and his army drowned in the Red Sea, obliterating his empire. No worldly luxuries nor amassed wealth shielded him. The lesson? When tyranny challenges divine authority, it’s condemned to failure.

    Wealth and the Pitfalls of Arrogance

    And what of Qarun, of Prophet Musa’s (peace be upon him) community? He had immense wealth and believed it a result of his intellect and skill, not divine blessings, making him arrogant.

    Yet his wealth, like Pharaoh’s armies, couldn’t save him. The earth swallowed him and his treasure. “So, We caused the earth to swallow him and his home.” (Qur’an 28:81) Qarun’s downfall challenges materialism. We often celebrate wealthy people and view them as paragons of success. But the Qur’an tells us that, while wealth can be a blessing, if it fosters arrogance and neglect of moral and spiritual responsibilities, it can become a curse. Qarun’s story teaches blessings must be used to serve God’s creation rather than to inflate personal egos.

    Historical Empires’ Collapse

    Historically, grand empires and powerful regimes that once seemed immutable have vanished. The Persian Empire, the Roman-Byzantine Empire, and other colonial powers have crumbled, leaving behind ruins and lessons.

    When the French colonized Algeria from1830–1962, indigenous Muslim populations suffered. Cultural suppression was rampant, and those who resisted were persecuted, imprisoned, and subjected to violence. The French believed themselves invincible, supported by a powerful military and a sense of cultural superiority. Yet the colonial edifice eventually collapsed, just like past empires.

    At its zenith, the British Empire included large swaths of South Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Many Muslims lived under restrictive policies that stunted their economic growth, suppressed Islamic institutions, and dismissed local voices. Though it presented itself as a beacon of civilization, the Empire disintegrated over the course of the twentieth century.

    Modern Examples of Tyranny’s End

    Syria’s Assad regime once appeared unassailable, surviving over fifty years of systematic oppression, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, and extrajudicial killings. Political power once considered monolithic is now fragmented and unstable. Many Syrians, those who endured torture, families who lost children, and the displaced who fled for safety, rejoiced at even partial signs of this regime’s weakening. Despite an uncertain future, we know oppressors who believe their power permanent eventually face their vulnerability.

    Leaders aren’t alone in their tyranny. Abusers who harm via physical, emotional, or psychological means, can oppress as well. When they face justice, their victims are relieved, yet believers recognize real accountability extends beyond this life. The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught, “No one who has an atom’s weight of pride in his heart will enter Paradise” (Muslim), underscoring how even a small measure of arrogance leads to spiritual ruin.

    Pride and Paradise

    Pride doesn’t just lead to external oppression; it poisons from within. It blinds individuals to their flaws, distances them from divine mercy, and deceives them into thinking themselves self-sufficient. The Prophet (peace be upon him) warns pride is destructive and must be rejected, teaching that humility is the path to divine success.

    The Question of Justice Delayed

    If oppressors’ downfalls are certain, why do many live long, successful lives with no punishment. Both Belgium’s Leopold II and Russia’s Joseph Stalin’s regimes led to the deaths of countless people yet they died in bed, seemingly without earthly retribution. Countless Zionist politicians seem to “escape” with barbaric crimes against humanity.

    This can test faith. The story of the People of the Ditch in Surah al-Burūj depicts believers thrown alive into a ditch of fire. The Qur’an doesn’t mention their oppressors’ immediate downfall, suggesting they escaped punishment. However, the message is this: Divine justice is never absent, only delayed. “And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them until a Day when eyes will stare [in horror].” (Qur’an 14:42)

    When oppressors die without accountability, we must remember our perception is limited. Complete justice belongs to God, whose knows all and who settles all moral debts on Judgement Day. This knowledge strengthens faith.

    Having Hope in Divine Justice

    Delayed or unseen justice encourages a profound relationship with Allah. The believer’s trust doesn’t just hinge on what happens in this world but rests in the conviction that God’s justice transcends human limitations. While this can be a severe test for oppressed communities, the Qur’an reassures us. “The way [of blame] is only against those who wrong the people and tyrannize upon the earth without right. Those will have a painful punishment.” (Qur’an 42:42)

    Moreover, martyrs’ fate reminds us that one’s spiritual standing trumps one’s worldly circumstances. The People of the Ditch perished in flames, but they are immortalized as paragons of faith and resistance. Conversely, their oppressors remain examples of moral bankruptcy who faced the ultimate reckoning. As a result, we recognize that patience and steadfastness have cosmic value.

    Responding to Oppression

    The Qur’an and hadith emphasize believers mustn’t despair when oppressed. Even when the wheels of justice grind slowly, or not at all, Muslims must remember Allah’s accounting is meticulous. This perspective pushes believers to stand against injustice, advocate for the oppressed, foster goodness in their communities, and speak against international atrocities, making Muslims ethical change agents.

    Sometimes regimes collapse abruptly. Other times oppressors remain entrenched, leaving suffering behind. Yet the moral imperative remains the same – work to oppose oppression through lawful, ethical means while maintaining confidence in divine justice. Allah says, “That home of the Hereafter We assign to those who do not desire exaltedness upon the earth or corruption. And the [best] outcome is for the righteous.” (Qur’an 28:83).

    By remembering Pharaoh, Qarun, and historical despots, believers realign their priorities, ensuring their pursuit of power or wealth never eclipses the goal of pleasing Allah and serving humanity. We also must guard against arrogance in daily home life, at work, or among friends, lest it manifest in oppressing others.

    Navigating Modern Complexities

    When criminals profiteering off healthcare, warfare, or exploitative industries face justice, many celebrate. However, believers should be cautious. While feeling relief is natural, gloating over another’s downfall can cultivate a hidden seed of arrogance. Believers can acknowledge that divine or worldly justice has come to pass, especially if it protects victims. However, we must remain humble, conscious that ultimate reckoning belongs to God.

    This caution extends to vigilante justice. In Islam, justice must come via legitimate means like due process and moral restraint, not deliberate acts of revenge killing or extrajudicial violence. This doesn’t diminish the oppressor’s crimes, rather it preserves the dignity and consistency of religious ethics from social anarchy.

    Remaining Steadfast Amid Uncertainty

    In the present, where new conflicts emerge and old tyrannies persist, Muslims must anchor themselves in the divine justice’s certainty. This makes us resilient and hopeful that suffering isn’t in vain while reminding potential oppressors that no worldly advantage can shield them forever.

    Finally, it’s crucial to build institutions and communities that embody ethical conduct, social justice, and spiritual wisdom. Islamic scholarship, community activism, charitable work, and moral leadership are practical expressions of faith. In these efforts, we reflect historical and scripture-based lessons, destroying arrogance, while humility and righteousness build societies worth living in.

  • Can Israel Survive Its Current Downward Spiral?

    Can Israel Survive Its Current Downward Spiral?

    Considering our world’s fast-changing geopolitical landscape and Israel’s horrific actions over the years and particularly since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, I doubt Israel can survive much longer. I can’t predict the future, but I find the trajectory of Israel’s recent moves indicative of a great demise.

    Factors Leading to Failure

     

    First, when it comes to its geographical position, Israel is in a losing demographic situation. Its population will likely never surpass that of Palestinians and certainly not that of Middle East Arabs. In Israel, there are 7 million Jews and 1.9 million Arabs, i.e. Palestinians. An additional 5.5 million Palestinians live in the occupied territories. Outside these borders, Arabs number approximately 450 million, including 7 million Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Europe and the United States. However, only about 7 million Jews live in America and Europe.

     

    Second, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the general Israeli population have shifted from the support of a two-state solution and instead want to create a Greater Israel — defined as Israel and the Palestinian territories — where Jews will be first-class citizens and others, including Muslims and Christians, will be second-class citizens. However, they know a one-state solution under current demographics, with a 50 percent or higher non-Jewish voter base, won’t allow a Jewish nation to survive. As a result, Israel has turned to brazen ethnic cleansing, driving Palestinians out of their homes and cities, forbidding their return, and, finally, committing genocide. This leads to a third problem. Israel is pushing its agenda hard, but in our modern age, with social media and live streaming, their agenda is on full display for the world to see.

     

    Considering these factors, coupled with the resolute and courageous character of the Palestinians, it’s no wonder that despite Israel’s scheming, violent occupation, and controlling of the narrative for 75 years, it hasn’t gained a firm grip on the occupied land or full control of those living there.

     

    Its Own Worst Enemy

     

    Despite this, Israel’s arrogance and defiance demonstrate that it views success through a different lens, namely its strong economy, the Abraham Accords, Saudi Arabia’s plan to recognize Israel, and most importantly, its influence on American politicians and policymakers, as well as significant control of U.S. media. However, the U.S. is a democracy, and policy will shift when popular support changes. What’s more, there are signs this shift is happening fast—particularly among young people.

     

    In the world geopolitical hierarchy, America is still the superpower and enjoys unparalleled influence. However, its unflinching support of Israeli brutality, be it militarily or in the United Nations Security Council, has significantly damaged America’s global standing. Coupled with misguided military campaigns over the past decades in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and various Latin American countries, unquestioned support of Israel has damaged the American brand, one earned through two world wars when the U.S. stood against colonialism and fascist regimes. Now, its influence is declining, and nations like South Africa, China, Russia, Turkey, and India are seeing theirs grow.

     

    Negative Public Perception and Missed Opportunities

     

    Other factors are also weakening Israel’s position. The Holocaust engendered great sympathy for Jewish people and for those who created the modern nation of Israel. However, the past year-plus assault on Gaza has been a horrific exposé of death and destruction and has shifted sympathy from Israelis to Palestinians, with live streaming of massacres and wanton destruction shocking people worldwide.

     

    A press release on the website of the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner notes that the International Court of Justice ruling on July 19 of this year, “declared that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources. The Court added that Israel’s legislation and measures violate the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The ICJ mandated Israel to end its occupation, dismantle its settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims and facilitate the return of displaced people.” This ruling cuts to the very heart of Israel’s latest campaign of destruction in Gaza and the West Bank, discrediting all justifications for its lethal rhetoric and actions. Finally, Muslim countries, while not very influential, are returning to the world stage with economic, technological, and military powers, all factors likely to influence global policymaking.

     

    Of course, one could argue Israel can simply course correct, right? After all, if the issues noted above are leading to Israel’s demise, it could just change policy and avoid any negative consequences. Perhaps, but it is not likely.  In my mind, Israel squandered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after the Hamas attack when images of invasions of homes and women being taken as hostages to Gaza horrified the global community. Had Israel worked to investigate war crimes committed that day and focused on freeing hostages through negotiation rather than genocide, I believe they would now enjoy worldwide support. But that’s not what happened, and as a result, support for Israel has dwindled, and Netanyahu is largely to blame.

     

    Flawed Leadership

     

    The Israeli Prime Minister is shrewd, leading his country on a wild ride. He’s logged successes, including strong economic development and political recognition from nations both Muslim and non-Muslim. He has weakened Palestinian leadership by corrupting leaders, fueling divisions, slowly destroying the West Bank with settlements, containing Gaza in an open-air prison, and, most significantly, creating an illusion of security and stability in Israel.

     

    However, over time he’s became more arrogant, autocratic, and defiant of opposition. Like other autocratic leaders, he’s lengthened his political life by weakening or controlling democratic institutions. He’s also succumbed to corruption and is scheduled to testify in court when his trial resumes in December, as he is charged with fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. Meanwhile, the Israeli population has become more extremist, leading to radical politicians gaining prominence. Netanyahu’s ambitions, successes, and the real possibility of facing up to ten years in jail have pushed him to a point of no return.

     

    The U.S., led by President Joe Biden, made it worse. Biden, an ardent supporter of Israel and self-proclaimed Zionist, has supported Israel throughout his political career. Naturally, when Hamas attacked Israel and Israel retaliated, Biden stood firm in his support for his long-time ally, even when it became clear that Israel intended a widespread destruction of Gaza with a death toll mounting by the day. But Biden isn’t the only U.S. politician to unfailingly support the Jewish state. Due to AIPAC’s influence on American politicians, it’s nearly impossible for a politician to attain and keep office without the blessing of the lobby. Its power means Israel can do nearly anything it wants without repercussions and with little pushback.

     

    Dim View of Israel’s Future

     

    Looking forward, how does Israel’s current aggression play out over the next few years? It’s decades-long PR campaign has demonized Palestinians, and for many the killing of non-combatants, even women, children, and the elderly, seems justified. They’re viewed as “collateral damage” because, supposedly, Hamas and Hezbollah used them as “human shields.” Powerful nations, particularly America and some in Europe, buy into this narrative thanks to media propaganda. However, the unprecedented rise of news consumption via social media has made it increasingly difficult for Israel to hide its atrocities.

     

    Consequently, the tactic of labeling anyone who criticizes Israel or sympathizes with the Palestinians as an anti-Semite is weakening, despite it working well for decades. Recently, the global consciousness has shifted, recognizing Palestinians’ legitimate right to self-determination and calling out the apartheid state. As horrors in Palestine remain at the forefront, this trend will continue in Europe and America, driving a dramatic change in public opinion and, ultimately, in government policy. It’s already happening in Ireland and Spain, and to some extent in the UK and the U.S.

     

    Israel’s actions today may significantly diminish any sympathy it still enjoys and possibly spur a resurgence of anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe and America. Should this happen, it could force U.S. presidents to rethink their unflinching support, both in the UN Security Council and by the military aid it provides to Israel.

     

    If the current hostilities escalate, the ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West bank and/or between Israel and Lebanon, there could be bloodshed for millions and even a possible WWIII. Is there any way to avoid this? In my view, Israel must accept a two-state solution with a viable Palestinian state. If that happens, Israel may survive. Many Jews in America already understand this, and more are coming around to this position. However, Israel is not only making life difficult for Jews in their own state, but it also is creating an unsafe environment for Jews worldwide. The sooner Israelis understand this, the better for their fellow Jews everywhere, and the sooner a major impediment to peace in the world might be resolved.

  • Israel: Exploding International Law

    Israel: Exploding International Law

    On September 17, pagers exploded across Lebanon. According to a UN press release, as of 9/19, 32 people were killed and 3,250 wounded. An NPR article states that a “U.S. official told NPR that Israel told the U.S. it carried out the attack.” The deaths resulting from the exploding pagers were not only Hezbollah fighters, but many civilians including two children. Surveillance video from a grocery store showed a small handheld device next to a cashier exploding. Other pagers exploded throughout southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. After the explosion, hospitals saw an influx of patients who had been injured by the attack, suffering with wounds to the face, eyes, and hands. The following day more explosions occurred, this time with walkie-talkies.

    A Violation of International Law

    Human rights and international watchdog groups called for an investigation of the attack. The day after the explosions, Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa director posted this on X: “Lebanon: International law prohibits the use of booby traps precisely to avoid the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon today. A prompt and impartial investigation into the exploding pager attacks should be urgently conducted.”

    Ms. Fakih was referring to the international treaty signed by more than one hundred countries, including Israel, which bans “the use of booby traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects that are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.” A booby trap is defined as “any device designed or adapted to kill or injure, and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object,” according to Article 7 of a 1996 additional protocol  of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

    Hezbollah members used pagers, wireless telecommunications devices that receive and display messages, as a means of communicating with one another in attempts to avoid Israeli surveillance. The New York Times reported that Israel hid explosive material in the Taiwan-made Gold Apollo pagers before they were imported to Lebanon. Inside the pager, the explosive material was placed next to the battery with a switch that could be triggered remotely to detonate. It is believed that a message was sent to thousands of pagers and triggered the explosives.

    While a plain reading of the treaty and description of the explosive device demonstrates that this was a coordinated attack using everyday objects, there are some that say it still might not be considered a violation of international law. Retired Lieutenant Charles Faint at West Point, said that if Israel actually intended to target Hezbollah fighters knowing they used pagers for secret messages, then that would be considered a “legitimate target” and therefore would not violate international law. However, international law also prohibits indiscriminate attacks that “are not directed at a specific military objective.” Using a method of war, however, that creates no distinction between civilians and combatants is a violation of international law.

    Some go even further than justifying the attack. Srulik Einhorn, in an opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post, glorified the operation, writing this: “This operation stands as one of the most successful military feats since the Second World War—not only because of its flawless execution but because Israel achieved something unprecedented: the most precisely targeted anti-terrorist operation in the history of the world. This was not just a disruption of terrorist capabilities but also a psychological dismantling of the minds of tens of thousands of Hezbollah members. Even those who were not physically harmed are now mentally wounded. Their mindset will never be the same. They will no longer view a refrigerator, microwave, or light bulb in the same way. Until their last day, they will never feel safe, no matter where they are. They will live in constant fear of what might explode next.”

    This kind of mindset does not bode well for the world.

    Looking at the Bigger Picture

    Since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Israel has repeatedly shown that it does not care to abide by international law in its retaliation. This can be seen through both their words and actions. Over the last year, the world has witnessed countless attacks on hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches in Gaza. Israel has targeted refugee camps and people sleeping in tents, and there have been reports of IDF soldiers running over bodies, both dead and alive, with tanks. Israel has also stopped aid from entering the country and created a man-made famine and a hotbed for disease.

    According to an NBC news report on October 14, the “Israeli military has launched a series of deadly strikes in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, including on a flour distribution center, a school and a hospital where displaced Palestinians were sheltering.” Even areas designated by Israel itself as safe zones for Palestinians have been targeted. An Israeli air strike in Deir el-Balah was near a hospital which had been designated by Israel as safe so Palestinians could bring their children for a polio vaccine. Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian who supports economic, political, and academic boycotts of Israel, was interviewed after the strike and had this to say: “We’ve been here before…when supposedly safe zones for Palestinians in Gaza were bombed, this keeps repeating itself.” Pappe states that Netanyahu “would do everything possible to make sure that there are no conditions or circumstances for ending the Israeli genocidal attack on Gaza.”

    Israel claims to be searching for Hamas fighters, but in reality, their objective is to clear the land for settlement purposes. If Israel had any respect for international law, there wouldn’t be mass casualties of civilians with entire cities and towns destroyed. Given Israel’s actions over the last year, and the fact that major powers like the United States have turned a blind eye to the abuses of international law, I believe the international bodies and their laws are at risk. While the ultimate arbiter of human rights law, the United Nations, has largely denounced Israel for their actions, they have failed to act in a way that would definitively push Israel to stop. I fear that Israel’s ability to act in such unlawful ways without repercussion by the international community will set a precedent for continued erosion of international law. If Israel can get away with this, so can other nations. Therefore, to preserve the sanctity of international law, Israel must be held accountable.

  • University Encampments for Justice in Palestine: 3 Key Insights

    University Encampments for Justice in Palestine: 3 Key Insights

    After visiting several university encampments in the United States and engaging in hundreds of conversations with university personnel, faculty, student organizers, and national leaders, I feel it is important to share key insights for the global Muslim community and others interested in important foundational elements of the movement.

    First, the stance of anti-genocide is a self-evident principle of the most basic moral virtue.

    It is morally natural and expected for students to side with justice. People of all backgrounds are fed up with genocide and a blatantly hypocritical status quo. There is no peace while genocide is ongoing. There is no peace as long as Gaza is under occupation. Without justice and peace in Palestine, there is no true peace in the world.

    Students have much less to lose than American politicians who have collectively received millions of dollars in bribes—disguised as lobbying—from pro-Zionist groups. How can we expect politicians to advocate for true universal justice, for all people including Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, and others, when their decisions are swayed by external entities and financial incentives?

    University administrators are not exempt from scrutiny. Virtually no American university president has condemned Israel’s actions as genocide, nor have they protected the rights of students to protest occupation, immoral investments, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. University presidents and regents often receive direct pressure from wealthy donors, including Zionist supporters of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and they prioritize their careers, political connections, and long-term ambitions over ethical concerns. The higher one climbs within an unethical system, the less independence they retain, especially when moral causes require the sacrifice of their comfortable status. Only those with moral fortitude would resign from their positions rather than renounce their moral values.

    As for the everyday citizens who criticize students, it may be the media they consume shapes their perceptions of peoples, places, and events. It is the unfiltered social media documentation of genocide that has informed students and faculty worldwide.

    Second, people who advocate for universal justice are increasingly frustrated with the double standards, hypocrisy, and selective justice they observe.

    We see individuals, political groups, and institutions espouse morality and justice but then look away and remain silent when a clear injustice is taking place; they, directly or indirectly, support and promote a government and media narrative that inverts reality. This ruling class quagmire of self-interest, networked with ideological delusion, feeds a growing disgust among activists and the general population. Worse still is when peaceful protests against the genocide happening in real time, on screens in front of our eyes, are misrepresented as antisemitic and promoting of violence. How is it justifiable to violently arrest students peacefully protesting against the utter destruction of Gaza and the bombing that has killed so many tens of thousands, a majority of them women and children? The students are peacefully protesting settler-colonial structures that lead to ethnic cleansing, discrimination, land theft, oppression, violence, and now, genocide. Shutting down the peaceful protests against what is demonstrably wrong, let alone violently doing so, is the height of hypocrisy, displaying a double standard and selective justice that is beyond shameful.

    For Muslims, standing against injustice involves a full commitment to the truth, not blind allegiance to a nation’s military-industrial complex, a political party, a particular politician, influencer, or even a “religious” scholar if he speaks or acts in any way that deviates from Islamic orthodoxy. In Islam, allegiance is to universal justice and truth as defined by God. Therefore, if a Muslim commits a crime, Muslims stand with the truth by willingness to condemn his crime and support his prosecution by the law, just as Muslims worldwide have condemned the terrorist movements that do not represent Islamic teachings. Similarly, many Jews condemn the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the inherent racism and supremacism in Zionism and in the far-right extremist groups in Israeli society, as well as the weaponization of antisemitism and the Holocaust. Some of the most vocal advocates for Palestinian liberation, calling for the end of occupation and injustice, are, themselves, Holocaust survivors. Organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace are at the forefront of numerous campaigns and university encampments.

    Furthermore, students are tired of being lied to and deceived. Western media often portray peaceful protestors as radical anti-Semitic agitators, while ignoring the reality that these encampments are protesting genocide, immoral investments, and the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices. It has been documented on numerous occasions that agitators and undercover pro-Zionists frequently infiltrate these protests to provoke students, incite violence, and cause the mainstream media to portray the protestors as anti-Semitic.

    Universities preach “freedom of speech” and when people freely speak about Palestine, they respond, “No, not like that.” Universities preach “inclusivity” and when we include Palestinian dignity and rights, they say, “No, not that kind of inclusive.” Universities preach “academic freedom” but when professors and scholars speak about Israeli settler-colonialism and the Palestinian right to freedom, they say, “Not that kind of freedom.” American norms preach “freedom to protest,” but when students and faculty protest genocide, they suppress them, suspend them, expel them, and assault them with military-trained police in scenes that resemble the IDF’s brutal and barbaric assault on innocent Palestinians.

    Third, know that students and faculty involved in encampments are principled, courageous, and resilient.

    The students understand the risks of protesting at institutions like Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Yale, UNC, Northwestern, University of Michigan, and literally hundreds of other campuses. They risk their educational and career ambitions, their comfort, and often their safety, to stand up for those who have been silenced or, worse, slaughtered. If Palestinian voices are ignored and lives obliterated with U.S.-funded weapons and the ideological extremism of Zionist settler-colonialism, then university students worldwide will speak and act on their behalf.

    We should all recognize these truths: the more you suppress students and faculty who protest against genocide and the immoral investments in the Israeli economy, the stronger and more frequent the protests will become. The more you deploy military-style police to suppress peaceful protesters, to tase and assault them, to ban and intimidate them, the more that Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others will continue to rise up. And these efforts may not immediately change the status quo, but as they clearly are disrupting those in power, the Israeli war criminals, and those who fund them, protestors also recognize that the matter is intricate, complex, and contains many variables, and protest alone is not going to cause a shift in policy. It is but one part of the equation, and a necessary and inspirational one.

    History shows that many contemporary figures once considered enemies of the state are now glorified and emulated. A good example is Martin Luther King Jr. Similarly, today’s students, faculty, and others who support the end of genocide and occupation will be viewed positively by future generations, and this recognition may not be so far off. The tides have turned. The fervent desire to stop a genocide generated by a supremacist and racist ideology and 75 years of occupation cannot be extinguished. The spark ignited on university campuses worldwide is spreading rapidly. And whether or not we see the immediate results, we will persist in our efforts to end genocide, replace it with universal justice for all people, and hold those accountable who have perpetrated and enabled one of the most barbaric and violent injustices of our times. Furthermore, whether future generations see us as being on the right side of truth and justice is not the ultimate factor in our decision-making and resilience; rather, it is the awareness that God sees our actions and is our ultimate judge.

    And soon, God-willing, Palestine will be free.

  • Palestine: Where is God’s Help?

    Palestine: Where is God’s Help?

    “Where is God’s help,” Muslims ask. In Palestine and around the world, in times of mild, moderate, or extremely severe injustice, the question comes up. We believe fully in the promises of Allah, that He is the wisest of the wise, the Most Merciful, the All-Seeing, and that He is just. We believe that He responds to the prayers of the righteous and the oppressed. Thus, how do we reconcile our understanding of those promises with the extended suffering experienced by individuals or groups of people in the world, such as in Gaza today?

    First, we begin with foundations. Who is Allah? Allah is the one and only God, Creator and Sustainer of the created world. He is perfect. He has no flaws. When we say Allah is the All-Wise, it means that His wisdom places everything in the right place, right time, and in the right way, sometimes for some reason or wisdom that we cannot know, see, or comprehend with our limited minds. If we were to comprehend them, we would be at the level of the Divine, but we are limited human beings. Allah is perfect, so if He tells us there is no injustice from the Creator to the creation, then we believe in what He says without any doubt whatsoever. We do not question Him, and we do not question Divine destiny, but we may wonder at times about the suffering that we experience or see others experiencing.

    Second, Allah has informed us about the reality of this world. So, when we wonder about the suffering, we remember that this is the life of trials, sometimes easy and sometimes difficult. What follows is that this life is an opportunity to practice patience and perseverance, an opportunity to do good. And we are to remember that this life is short and fleeting. The afterlife is eternal, the life of consequences, of reward or punishment, and the opportunity for rights to be truly restored in the court of Allah.

    Allah is aware of the good-doers and promises that an eternal life of bliss will be worth whatever has befallen them in this world, where those in Paradise will have whatever they desire (see Qur’an 50:35). These are the people who express gratitude to Allah for guidance, protection against ongoing difficulties, and the fulfilment of His promise of paradise. The evildoers, the oppressors, those who violate the rights of God and creation, will face accountability as Allah The Just sees fit. He is more just, wise, and merciful than we can imagine, and we are not in a position to question His authoritative decisions. If we establish this fact and believe in it, and are constantly reminded of it, it helps us to frame this life’s trials through that lens. Some people are good, and some are evil, and Allah is aware and will compensate both. The final verse revealed to humankind summarizes this reality perfectly: “Be mindful of the Day when you will be returned to Allah, then every soul will be paid in full for what it has done, and none will be wronged” (Qur’an 2:281).

    Third, Allah has informed us of His promises and that His promises are true (see Qur’an 35:5). He has informed us about the acceptance of the prayer of the oppressed, the righteous, the one who sincerely calls upon Him, and that not only are His promises true, but also that He is nearby (see Qur’an 2:186). Someone may wonder, then, where is Allah’s response to the du’a of the people of Palestine? The answer to that is found in the narration where Prophet Muhammad said to those with him: “There is no Muslim who calls upon Allah, without sin or cutting family ties, but that Allah will give him one of three answers: He will quickly fulfill his supplication; He will store it for him in the Hereafter; or He will divert an evil from him similar to it.” They said, “In that case we will ask for more [in du’a].” The Prophet said, “Allah has even more” (Musnad Ahmad). While du’a is answered in different forms, the one calling upon Allah is always rewarded for every single sincere du’a, and no du’a goes unanswered.

    Furthermore, one cannot ignore Allah all year and then make du’a and expect, even demand, it be fulfilled immediately on their terms, giving up if it’s not manifesting the way they requested. Du’a, as we are taught in Islam, is a means of communication and relationship between the Master and the servant, the Creator and the created being. It is an ongoing relationship, whether in times of ease or difficulty, whether to cry out in desperate need or to express gratitude, amplified if the believer is consistently pious all year. Making du’a shows that the believer recognizes how much we are in need of Allah, regardless of how much one has been blessed with worldly things, or not. The truth is that we are always in need of Allah, not just during calamities. Additionally, one does not know which form the du’a is being accepted in, but one must persevere and not be hasty, for Allah’s promise is always true.

    Fourth, we learn from stories of the most righteous humans, the prophets and messengers. We learn that Allah could instantly change a person’s situation but sometimes tests the believer for various reasons in His unlimited wisdom. If anyone “deserved” instantaneous relief from oppressors and the fulfillment of their requests, it would be the prophets who went through severe pain for years, sometimes decades, with patience and sincere dedication. This is a lesson we learn historically and, also, we see today in the resilience of the righteous Muslims in Gaza. Their faith is tested, their sins are purified, their rank in paradise is raised, their du’a is elevated, their resilience is strengthened, their eman is manifest, their shahaadah (martyrdom) is eternal bliss. Their worldly loss leads to increased gratitude and trust in Allah, and their firmness is inspiration for other Muslims. Without doubt, their pain is unequivocally recorded and will ultimately be ameliorated and rewarded by Allah SWT.

    Allah informs us of so many people historically who went through suffering, and yet persevered, in order for us to learn lessons from their resilience and promised reward. Some of them won battles when they were attacked by others, and the victory given to them in this world is a type of worldly success. But many of them did not live to experience relief or victory. Some were martyred in battles like Badr and Uhud. Their success was in holding on to their faith and enduring difficulty with patience and dedicated convictions about Allah, His wisdom, His justice, His promises. Leaving this world in a good spiritual state is the true success, when the believer enters the realm of eternal bliss and reward.

    None of us chooses the tests that come our way. The tests are sometimes hard and sometimes almost inconceivably difficult. Palestinians did not choose the test of being occupied. But we believe with full conviction that Allah will never burden us with a test we cannot handle and will reward each of us based on the personal tests we encounter. We do not know what tests may come our way in this life. But we are only accountable for our reactions and decisions relative to those tests. Whoever surrenders to Allah SWT, is patient, inculcates goodness in himself and enjoins it in the world, and stands firm in justice — Allah does not fail to reward him or her.

    We are required to persevere against injustice in all forms, to free others from oppression, and to stand firm for justice consistently, regardless of the religion, ethnicity, or background of the one being oppressed. If we are the ones enduring injustice, we are commanded to persevere, spread optimism, be strong, avoid faltering and becoming weak of heart. We are to turn to Allah in prayer and du’a, until the last breath of life. The meeting with Allah is near, so we cannot let this world distract us from why we are here; we cannot let this transitory world obscure what awaits us in the next life, the life of eternity.

    To answer the question posed — Where is God’s help? Allah says: “Do you think you will be admitted into Paradise without being tested like those before you? They were afflicted with suffering and adversity and were so shaken that the Messenger and the believers with him cried out, ‘When will Allah’s help come?’ Indeed, Allah’s help is near” (Qur’an 2:214). Allah’s help is near.

    May Allah grant justice and relief to our brothers and sisters in Palestine and all around the world. May He use us as a means of facilitating justice for them and for all oppressed people, wherever they are.

  • A Spotlight on the Israel-Gaza War

    A Spotlight on the Israel-Gaza War

    The items below are from a variety of media sources, some of which are written from a pointedly pro-Israel perspective. They are included because within the content is some information that is relevant in any attempt to dig deeper than the official American and Israeli narrative.

    Clamping down on free speech, criminalizing support of Palestinian rights
    • Consortium News article:
      “At least 57 members of Jewish Voices for Peace were arrested while showing their solidarity with Palestinians in New York City. Pro-Palestinian rallies in France and Germany have been outlawed. And the British home secretary likewise warned about criminalizing flying the Palestinian flag.”

     

    • THE Hill article:
      “BBC apologizes for saying pro-Palestine demonstrators were ‘backing’ Hamas”

     

    • Yahoo News article:
      ‘BBC Takes Six Reporters Off Air Amid Investigation Into Anti-Israeli Tweets’

     

    • AlJazeera article:
      ‘Twitter under fire for censoring Palestinian public figures’
    Open letters and public statements from Congressional staffers, scholars, lawyers:
    • 411 Congressional staffers anonymously sign letter calling for ceasefire:
      “Today, we write to implore our bosses, Members of the United States Congress, to join calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Millions of lives hang in the balance, including the 2.3 million civilians — half of whom are children — in Gaza, civilians in Israel, and Jews and Muslims around the world. This is especially urgent with antisemitism, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian sentiment on the rise nationwide, which instigated the brutal murder of a six-year-old Palestinian-American child, Wadea Al-Fayoume.”

     

    • 178 legal scholars write open letter demanding that the U.S. stop supporting the attacks on Gaza and warn of humanitarian catastrophe:“We fear that this humanitarian crisis is poised to get significantly worse as the Israeli government prepares an expected ground invasion of northern Gaza, killing and forcibly relocating even more Palestinian people. Israeli officials have ordered that there be ‘no electricity, no food, no fuel’ in Gaza because Israel is ‘fighting human animals’ and is ‘acting accordingly.’ The Israeli President, meanwhile, stated, ‘It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible,’ insisting ‘this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true,’ and that Gazans ‘could have risen up, they could have fought against, that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat. Although Israeli officials claim that civilians in Gaza can avoid further harm if they ‘leave immediately,’ the International Committee of the Red Cross warns that ‘the instructions issued by the Israeli authorities for the population of Gaza City to immediately leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law.’”

     

    • Almost 800 lawyers, scholars, and academics put out public statement to warn of the crime of genocide in Gaza:
      “As scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies, we are compelled to sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. We do not do so lightly, recognising the weight of this crime, but the gravity of the current situation demands it.”
    International investigation needed to sort out responsibility for Israeli civilian deaths
    • Mondweiss article:
      ‘A growing number of reports indicate Israeli forces responsible for Israeli civilian and military deaths following October 7 attack’

     

    • GRAYZONE article:
      “Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been ‘burned alive’ were actually killed by friendly fire?”

     

    • Mondoweiss article:
      Using the Hannibal Directive?
      According to Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, the Israeli commander of the Gaza Division, “Many of the soldiers, most of them not combat personnel, were killed or wounded outside. The division was compelled to request an aerial strike against the base itself in order to repulse the terrorists.”

     

    • Electronic Intifada article:
      “Israel’s Haaretznewspaper on 20 October published an interview – only in its Hebrew edition – with a man called Tuval who lived in Kibbutz Be’eri, but who was away on 7 October. Tuval’s partner was however killed in the events. Haaretz reports: ‘According to him [Tuval], only on Monday night and only after the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses with all their occupants inside in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages – did the IDF [Israeli army] complete the takeover of the kibbutz. The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri people were killed. Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.’”
    Some observers see something strange in Hamas attacks
    • Efret Fenigson substack article:
      An Israeli woman, Efret Fenigson, who served in the IDF years ago, points out that “something is very wrong here.” She says in her podcast —“I served in the IDF 25 years ago, in the intelligence forces. There’s no way Israel did not know of what’s coming. A cat moving alongside the fence is triggering all forces. So this?? What happened to the ‘strongest army in the world’? How come border crossings were wide open?? Something is VERY WRONG HERE, something is very strange, this chain of events is very unusual and not typical for the Israeli defense system.”

     

    • Fenigson noted in an update that —
      “…about 3 years ago, the IDF started a process of taking back weapons from people living in the Gaza envelope villages, under the excuse that these weapons are being stolen. A certain allowance of permitted weapons for each village was granted, which created even more anxiety and distrust amongst the citizens, who wish to protect themselves.” Further, Efret states that in the past year, more guns were taken from these communities, also on the pretext that they were stolen.

     

     

    • The Guardian article:
      While Netanyahu denies having advanced warning, The Guardian reports, ‘Egypt warned Israel of Hamas attack days earlier, senior US politician says’The article states, “An Egyptian official told the Associated Press that Egypt, which often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, had spoken repeatedly with the Israelis about ‘something big’. The unnamed official claimed Israeli officials were focused on the West Bank and had played down the threat from Gaza. ‘We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,’ said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.”

     

    • Times of Israel article:‘Surveillance soldiers warned of Hamas activity on Gaza border for months before Oct. 7’
      “Survivors of massacre on IDF base say they passed information up the chain of command on digging, mapping, training near the fence long before mass onslaught, but were ignored.”
    Al-Ahli hospital bombing
    • Mint Press News article:
      “The Israeli military dropped ‘roof knocking’ rockets with no warheads on the hospital in the days leading up to the Oct. 17 strike, the familiar warning given by Israel to evacuate buildings, according to al-Ahli hospital officials. Hospital officials also said they had received calls from Israel saying ‘we warned you to evacuate twice.’ Israel has demanded that all hospitals in northern Gaza be evacuated.”

     

    • CNN article:
      Gaza officials say IDF had warned al-Ahli hospital 4 days ago that it should be evacuated

     

    • UN News article:
      “During a virtual press conference held later on Tuesday, senior officials underlined WHO’s condemnation over the strike on the hospital. There have been over 115 attacks on healthcare across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the start of the conflict on 7 October, sparked by Hamas’s bloody incursion into southern Israel. Of this number, 51 occurred in the Gaza Strip, with 15 healthcare workers killed and 27 injured, said Hyo-Jeong Kim, Lead of WHO’s Attacks on Health Care Initiative.  The remaining incidents took place in the West Bank.”

     

    • Mint Press News article:
      “Following the strike on the hospital, Hananya Naftali, a ‘digital aide’ to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terrorist base inside a hospital in Gaza.’ The post was quickly deleted.
    Atrocity stories used to justify bombing and ground invasion of Gaza
    • Al Jazeera article:
      “The beheaded babies tale originated with a report on Israel’s i24News site by reporter Nicole Zedeck, from her interview with Israeli reserve soldier David Ben Zion. Max Blumenthal and Alexander Rubinstein reported on October 11 that Ben Zion is a notorious radical leader in Israel’s West Bank settler movement. Among other things, he called on rampaging armed settlers earlier this year to wipe out the Palestinian village of Harawa, which settlers attacked and burned several times.”

     

    • Mint Press News article:“The claims of ‘beheaded babies’ made headlines on various news outlets, including CNN. The source of this claim was the Israeli channel i24 News, but it later emerged that the source was David Ben Zion, an extremist settler known for inciting race riots against Palestinians. A Haaretz investigation previously found that i24 News functions as a proxy for the Netanyahu family, with directives coming straight from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office at times. Subsequently, the Israeli military distanced itself from these claims, CNN retracted the story, and the White House acknowledged a lack of evidence.”

     

    • The Intercept article:
      “The Israel Defense Forces could not confirm a horrific claim that Hamas beheaded babies during a weekend assault, a spokesperson for the military told The Intercept on Tuesday. The claim went viral, becoming a headline-grabbing aspect of a massacre that left more than 1,000 Israelis dead.”
    Released elderly hostage says the hostages were treated well
    • i24 news article:
      Released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 years old, said, “They told us, ‘We believe in the Quran, and [that they] will do us no harm. They will give us the same conditions they have,’ she said, adding ‘They were with gentle us. Our needs were met. They were prepared for us.’” She continued, “There was a paramedic and a doctor also came every couple of days. We lay there on mattresses and they took great care of the sanitary side, so that we didn’t get sick. They were very afraid of diseases spreading. They made sure we had everything, they were very friendly.”
  • Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: The BDS Movement Gains Traction

    Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: The BDS Movement Gains Traction

    Support for Palestinian rights waxes and wanes in the public sphere. Attempts by activists to increase visibility of the plight of Gazans and the suffering in all the occupied lands under Israeli rule is instantly stomped out with cries of anti-Semitism. Now Ben & Jerry’s, a popular ice cream brand and socially conscious company, announced mid-July that they would no longer sell their products in the occupied territories, beyond the pre-1967 borders. The company’s founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, made their decision public on July 19, stating in part, “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).”

    Those who support Israel unequivocally, including most politicians in the U.S. government, are more than disturbed by the position taken by Ben & Jerry’s. What they fear is a snowball effect. A decade ago, Ehud Barak, then Israel’s defense minister, presaged this development. Speaking at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, he stated, “We face a diplomatic tsunami that the majority of the public is unaware of,” and that “Israel’s delegitimization is in sight.” He also referenced the prime minister at that time, Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that he “was pushing Israel into a corner from which the old South Africa’s deterioration began.”

    The snowball has picked up speed. While Ben & Jerry’s issued a public statement about their decision, most don’t know that McDonald’s decided in 2013 not to open a franchise in the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. According to an article in The Times of Israel in July of this year, McDonald’s decision was in line with their position that they would not operate anywhere in the occupied territories, including the Israeli settlements. McDonald’s did not publicize this decision and it flew under the radar. Not so with Ben & Jerry’s and their decision increases the mainstream denunciations of Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians.

    Mainstream Criticism of Occupation Grows

    The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has called the Israeli form of apartheid, a “regime of Jewish supremacy from the river to the sea.” In March, the International Criminal Court announced its decision to investigate the charge of war crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip since June 2014. A paper published in April this year by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace declares that the Israelis and Palestinians “do not live as equals” and that the U.S. must “seek to mitigate the fundamental asymmetry of power between Israel, an occupying state, and Palestinians, an occupied people, and devise strategies to confront the enduring structural barriers to conflict resolution.” Human Rights Watch reported this year that Israeli “…authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”

    These are just a few examples of the increasing criticism of Israeli policy and practice toward Palestinians. After Ben & Jerry’s took its stand, many tried to smear them as anti-Semitic. They responded to all the negative reactions in a Bottom of Form New York Times op-ed with the following: “The company’s stated decision to more fully align its operations with its values is not a rejection of Israel. It is a rejection of Israeli policy, which perpetuates an illegal occupation that is a barrier to peace and violates the basic human rights of the Palestinian people who live under the occupation. As Jewish supporters of the State of Israel, we fundamentally reject the notion that it is anti-Semitic to question the policies of the State of Israel.”

    Opposition to BDS

    For sixteen years the BDS movement has been urging the use of the same tactics which helped to end apartheid in South Africa. Yet, as the BDS movement gains strength, some Western governments have either ruled BDS as anti-Semitic (Germany) or passed laws to prevent boycotts of Israel (U.K). Since 2005, 35 U.S. states have also written resolutions and executive orders to punish boycotters or block pension fund investments to BDS-supporting companies, while others are placed on blacklists.

    According to an article on the news website Axios, Israel has created a special task force “to pressure Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and its parent company Unilever to reverse their decision to boycott Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” Many political leaders in Israel have accused the ice cream company of anti-Semitism and Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and the U.N., has contacted the governors of the 35 U.S. states that have sought to outlaw boycotting Israel. In a letter, he urged them to denounce Ben & Jerry’s and to take “any other relevant steps, including in relation to your state laws and the commercial dealings between Ben & Jerry’s and your state.” His letter continued, “We view this decision very severely, as it is the de-facto adoption of anti-Semitic practices and advancement of the de-legitimization of the Jewish state and the de-humanization of the Jewish people.” Ironically, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former Prime Minister, encourages boycotting Ben & Jerry’s, saying, “Now we Israelis know which ice cream NOT to buy.”

    Declining Support for Israel’s Occupation

    International support for Israel has been on the decline in the past decade as their human rights abuses continue and more and more Americans see the occupation for what it is. A Brookings Institution poll from 2019 showed that 48 percent of Democrats who know about BDS, support it. Yet, Israel reflexively paints critics of its policies as anti-Semitic. Now they have pushed that further, labeling Ben & Jerry’s move as a new type of terrorism. Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated, “The boycott of Israel is a new sort of terrorism, economic terrorism.”

    Lawsuits have challenged the anti-boycott laws in a number of states including Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, and Texas. Four federal district courts have ruled that the boycotts are protected by the First Amendment and, as of July of this year, none of the anti-boycott laws has been upheld by the courts. As BDS continues to gain traction, there is enormous pressure from pro-Israel political and media forces in the U.S. While Ben & Jerry’s move is a minor economic threat to Israel, they fear this will signal to other corporations and companies that it is possible to follow suit.

    In recent times, Americans have risen up to highlight the need to face the malevolence of racism, and grassroots activists from different groups increasingly support one another’s movements, knowing that a struggle for the rights of indigenous people and other minorities in the U.S. intersects with the Palestinian struggle, and that each success advances the other movements for human rights and non-discrimination. BDS activists still have a target on their backs as governments, evangelicals, and Israel-firsters campaign hard to bring them down. Time will tell who will come out on top.

  • On Palestine: Many Voices, Same Message

    On Palestine: Many Voices, Same Message

    The discourse about Israel and Palestine has widened, become more honest and aligned with facts rather than ideological positioning and propaganda. Many people around the world are speaking up, no longer willing to stay silent even though the reprisals against them might include branding them as anti-Semitic. Below is a small sampling of recent (except for the first item) statements, reports, and critiques about Israeli abuses that demonstrate the tide is turning. The first one is a video of an Irish MP Richard Boyd Barrett who “speaks truth to power,” in this case to the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland. This video clip is of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade in the Irish parliament, discussing in 2014 the situation in Gaza. But is well worth watching and realizing that until 2021, almost no politician in the U.S. would have dared to speak with such courage and candidness about Israel.

    Irish politician condemns Israel and rebukes Israeli ambassador

    “Why do you allow it [the expansion of settlements] to happen, if you’re serious about giving this land to the Palestinians. It’s absolutely extraordinary. Are you not just taking us, Ambassador, for idiots that you can say with a straight face ‘we’re serious about peace but while we’re serious about peace we’re going to seize Palestinian land’ and you expect the Palestinians to sit back and do nothing about that…”

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUp3hGEPHk&width=864&height=648&rel=-1[/embedyt]

     
     

    Former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa: “…actions in the occupied territories now meet the legal definition of the crime of apartheid under international law”

    Two former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa, Ilan Baruch and Alon Liel, wrote an opinion piece published by a South African news site, GroundUp.org. The two former Israeli diplomats state that, based on what they saw in South Africa during their time as ambassadors, Israel operates an apartheid system in the occupied territories. What is newsworthy is that these two are Israelis, former ambassadors to apartheid South Africa. It is worth reading the entire piece but here is a short excerpt:

    “The bantustans of South Africa under the apartheid regime and the map of the occupied Palestinian territories today are predicated on the same idea of concentrating the ‘undesirable’ population in as small an area as possible, in a series of non-contiguous enclaves. By gradually driving these populations from their land and concentrating them into dense and fractured pockets, both South Africa then and Israel today worked to thwart political autonomy and true democracy.”

    Baruch and Liel go on to state, “This week, we mark the fifty-fifth year since the occupation of the West Bank began. It is clearer than ever that the occupation is not temporary, and there is not the political will in the Israeli government to bring about its end. Human Rights Watch recently concluded that Israel has crossed a threshold and its actions in the occupied territories now meet the legal definition of the crime of apartheid under international law. Israel is the sole sovereign power that operates in this land, and it systematically discriminates on the basis of nationality and ethnicity. Such a reality is, as we saw ourselves, apartheid. It is time for the world to recognize that what we saw in South Africa decades ago is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories too. And just as the world joined the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, it is time for the world to take decisive diplomatic action in our case as well and work towards building a future of equality, dignity, and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”

    https://www.groundup.org.za/article/israeli-ambassadors-compare-israel-south-africa/

    Human Rights Watch: ‘The Crimes Against Humanity of Apartheid and Persecution’

    In a report in April of this year, A Threshold Crossed – Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution, Human Rights Watch described Israeli crimes against humanity. HRW is an NGO that refuses all government funding so as to remain independent and non-partisan in its research and advocacy. HRW won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its campaign to ban landmines. The report says in part: “Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”

    https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

    B’Tselem: Israel Promotes the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians

    In January of this year, B’Tselem published a report titled A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid. B’Tselem is the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. On their website they state that the organization “strives to end Israel’s occupation, recognizing that this is the only way to achieve a future that ensures human rights, democracy, liberty and equality to all people, Palestinian and Israeli alike, living on the bit of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” In the report, they state the following:

    “A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime. Israeli apartheid, which promotes the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians, was not born in one day or of a single speech. It is a process that has gradually grown more institutionalized and explicit, with mechanisms introduced over time in law and practice to promote Jewish supremacy. These accumulated measures, their pervasiveness in legislation and political practice, and the public and judicial support they receive – all form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labeling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met.”

    https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid

    American politicians condemn the recent military assault on Gaza

    • Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, spoke at length to the House of Representatives on May 13 about the situation in Palestine. Part of what he told members of Congress is the following: “When serious human rights abuses compound, such as the recent attacks on places of worship, like the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the forced removal of people from their homes, most recently in East Jerusalem, but ongoing in the West Bank for way too long, the jailing and military court trials for Palestinian children, the dehumanization of the lives of the Palestinians by having roads and entrances that are separate for some people–which all too often looks like a former South Africa, the blockade and open-air prison conditions for the people in Gaza, where food and clean water is often scarce…Today, we want to talk about the very long-term problems that have been, for too long, ignored by U.S. policies in the region. Fortunately, now more and more Members of Congress are wanting to address peace in this region in a more forthright way. As human rights giant South African Desmond Tutu said, ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’”

    • Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) came right out and described Israel as an “apartheid” state.

    • Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) told President Biden when he arrived in Detroit in mid-May, “The U.S. cannot continue to give the right-wing [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government billions each year to commit crimes against Palestinians. Atrocities like bombing schools cannot be tolerated, much less conducted with U.S.-supplied weapons.”

    • Ilhan Omar, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL-MN), has stated, “The United States should not stand idly by while crimes against humanity are being committed with our backing.”

    • Cori Bush (D-MO) stated explicitly in a speech to Congress, “The fight for Black lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected. We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are anti-war. We are anti-occupation. And we are anti-apartheid. Period.”

    Mainstream media condemn Israeli assault on Gaza

    • MSNBC host Ali Velshi, in mid-May, talked about the situation in Israel and Palestine. He said, “The idea that it is even remotely controversial to call what Israel has imposed on Palestinians a form of apartheid is laughable. One look at a current map of Israel, Gaza, and the Occupied Territories conjures up only one other example: apartheid-era South Africa… After more than seven decades of being deprived of land from which they were evicted, Palestinian frustration runs deep. It may be worth going deeper than what you may hear inside your bubble and understanding the depth to which the Palestinian people are subject to apartheid in their own land, deprived of basic necessities and subject to relentless civil right violations.”

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKkjPtleWEU&width=864&height=486&rel=-1[/embedyt]

     
     

    • HBO’s show Last Week Tonight is hosted by political commentator and comedian John Oliver. During his show on May 17, he talked about the assault on Gaza. He said, “While most of the rockets aimed toward Israeli citizens this week were intercepted, Israel’s airstrikes were not. They hit their targets, including a … 13-story office and apartment building. And while Israel insisted there were military targets in that building, and they destroyed it as humanely as possible — even warning people to evacuate beforehand — for the record, destroying a civilian residence sure seems like a war crime, regardless of whether you send a courtesy ‘Heads up’ text.” He also stated, “Multiple children have been killed this week — eight in a single strike just yesterday — and the U.S. is heavily implicated here, not just by serving as Israel’s diplomatic shield at the U.N. but by constantly refusing to criticize the indefensible…”

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMLiv9jBp0Q&width=864&height=648&rel=-1[/embedyt]

     
     

    • In an opinion piece in the New York Times on May 19, The ‘Unshakable’ Bonds of Friendship With Israel Are Shaking, senior NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof, wrote, “If you oppose war crimes only by your enemies, it’s not clear that you actually oppose war crimes.” He notes that “…today, especially within the Democratic Party, those bonds [of friendship] are shaking as Netanyahu resisted a cease-fire in Gaza. He leaves us wondering: Why should our tax dollars subsidize a rain of destruction that has killed scores of children, damaged 17 hospitals and clinics and forced 72,000 people to flee their homes?” He writes, “Netanyahu has used American cover to expand settlements and pretty much destroy any hope of a two-state solution. He has winked at domestic extremism, so that at least 100 new WhatsApp groups in Israel (with names like ‘Death to Arabs’) encourage violence against Palestinians. And now he is bombing Gaza and igniting street fighting that President Reuven Rivlin of Israel has called a ‘civil war.’”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/opinion/israel-democrats-united-states.html

    Academic labor union passes resolution in support of Palestinian people

    On June 10, the Delegate Assembly of the Professional Staff Congress, the academic labor union at CUNY (City University of New York), passed a resolution in support of the Palestinian people and condemning Israel of sponsoring policies of settler colonialism. The resolution also “calls on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to stop all aid funding human rights violations and an occupation that is illegal under international law.”

    https://www.psc-cuny.org/sites/default/files/Final_Resolution_in_Support_of_the_Palestinian_People.pdf

    California activists stop Israeli ship from offloading its cargo

    The first week in June, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) led a group of activists in a demonstration that prevented an Israeli container ship from offloading its cargo in Oakland, California. Dock workers with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 made the decision to not cross the protest line to unload the ship’s cargo. AROC organizers state that the “Block the Boat” protests will continue in various cities including Detroit, Philadelphia, Vancouver, and London.

    http://araborganizing.org/block-the-boat-declares-decisive-victory-over-apartheid-israel/

  • Let Us Call It What It Is

    Let Us Call It What It Is

    From time immemorial, men have constructed dehumanizing systems of exploitation that stagger even the most vivid imagination. Each of these inhumane structures of society share some common characteristics including a self-serving distortion or disregard of divine guidance, creation of racial, ethnic, and/or religious hierarchies, extreme monopolization of resources, and implementation by the dominant class of systematic oppression or even brutality to subdue the subordinate population. The well-documented practices of the Pharaonic system imposed on the populace of Egypt for thousands of years perhaps best epitomizes the extent to which oppression was systematized in societies during antiquity.

    Feudalism and Its Caste System

    One of the exploitative social systems during the medieval ages, particularly from the 9th to the 15th century, was European feudalism. Feudalism was a tightly structured caste-like social system in which individuals were relegated to exclusive roles in society. At the top of the feudalism pyramid were the nobles or lords whose status came from their receiving lands in perpetuity from the Crown in exchange for their military service. Vassals were tenants of the nobles on land known as a fiefdom. Land was given to vassals in exchange for their support of the lord, and if enough land was accumulated by a vassal, they could become lords themselves. At the bottom of the feudal system were serfs/peasants who lived in mostly wretched conditions as unfree laborers on the lord’s land, giving him homage, labor, and a share of the produce. The institution of feudalism was relatively less barbaric than many other systems of exploitation.

    Settler Colonialism and Slavery

    One of the most dehumanizing systems to ever exist was that of chattel slavery. Trans-Atlantic settler colonialism of Europeans began with Christopher Columbus in the late 1400s. The centuries-long Trans-Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans ushered in a system of global exploitation whose vile residue of anti-Black and structural racism exist up to this day. Columbus was afforded the backing and financial resources of the Spanish Crown, particularly Queen Isabella, to explore a new mercantile route to China and India. Muslim domination of the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic seaboard of the African continent presented a major obstacle to the maritime aspirations of European seafaring countries like Spain and Portugal. Queen Isabella shared Columbus’ anti-Muslim sentiment and dedication to Christianity, making his proposal to sail westward to find an alternate route to the spice-rich orient more appealing to the Spanish Crown. Other European nations like Italy and Portugal flatly denied sponsorship of his ambitious proposal. Columbus, like Isabella, harbored crusading ambitions to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim control. Although never participating in a Crusade to Jerusalem, Columbus fought with Spanish soldiers during the bloody 1492 Christian reconquest of Granada, Spain, the last Muslim stronghold there. Spanish and Portuguese settler colonizers in the Americas were especially averse to the presence of Muslims in the New World due to their religious hatred of Islam after the near 700-year control of Al-Andalus by Muslims.

    Racial Segregation and Apartheid

    In addition to the oppressive systems of feudalism and slavery is the abhorrent system of apartheid. In 1913, three years after South Africa gained its independence from Britain, racial segregation and White supremacy were institutionalized with the passage of 1913 Land Act. The Land Act forced Black Africans to live in resource-deprived, woefully overcrowded reserves. The Afrikaner National Party won the national election in 1948 on the campaign pledge of Apartheid, Apartness. The new government’s immediate goal was to not only separate non-Whites from Whites, but to also separate non-Whites along tribal lines to decrease any potential unifying political power. In a series of Land Acts passed over the years, 80 percent of South Africa’s land was reserved for the minority White population. Non-Whites were forced to carry passbooks confirming their authorization to be in each area. This practice had historical precedent in chattel slavery in the United States. Apartheid legislated that marriage and sexual relations between Whites and non-Whites was illegal. The Population Registration Act of 1950 classified all South Africans by race — Bantu (Black Africans), Coloured (mixed race), and White. A fourth category of Asian (Indian and Pakistani) was later added. Movement, jobs, housing, and other privileges were assigned based on these categories. Black Africans were at the bottom of the apartheid structure and were most brutally sanctioned, punished, and killed.

    The two nations that never wavered in their support of the almost 50-year apartheid regime were the United States and Israel. South Africa was a pariah to most of the nations of the world due to the sheer brutality of the regime and its unapologetic racist practices.

    Yet, despite South Africa being backed by the United States, the global movement against apartheid eventually triumphed against seemingly insurmountable odds. Massive global demonstrations against apartheid undoubtedly played a significant role in its eventual demise in South Africa. But, more importantly, the world community sustained an effective boycott of South African companies and their products that proved too high a cost. Even the United States government eventually recognized that apartheid was destined for the trash bins of history much like chattel slavery, feudalism, and the pharaonic system in ancient Egypt.

    Apartheid: Israeli Retrogression

    Israel adopted its own version of homelands (Bantustans) by appropriating occupied land for Jewish immigrants from primarily Europe and America. Israel, like apartheid South Africa, receives unqualified support from the United States in its racist, inhumane treatment of non-Jewish citizens. It is a racist state that remains unrepentant for its actions against its Palestinian citizens and those who live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel acts with impunity due primarily to United States economic and military support and its pressure on other nations to abstain from taking action against Israel.

    In mid-May, Israel ended its most brutal 11-day aerial assault on the population of the Gaza Strip after unprecedented worldwide demonstrations and denunciations by citizens and governments. In the United States, the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration ever held in Washington, DC in modern times was held at the Lincoln Memorial on May 29. The Sanction Israel Rally, whose sponsors included American Muslims for Palestine, USCMO, and ICNA CSJ, attracted over 35,000 demonstrators. The Israeli attacks had targeted an already limited number of hospitals and medical facilities, roads leading to standing hospitals like the one in Gaza City, residential buildings, and local infrastructure like a water desalination plant. There is no standing army in Gaza, no jets or armed personnel vehicles, or any other means for the populace to be able to defend themselves against the most heavily armed and deadly military in that part of the world. According to the UN, at least 58,000 Gazans were internally displaced, further exacerbating existing overcrowding and food shortages. The health needs of the people of Gaza were made worse as the World Health Organization estimates that at least 200,000 of the two million Gazans are in dire need of medical attention. Only two percent of Gazans have received Covid-19 vaccinations in a country that boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. The Zionist government of disgraced leader Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a near-complete blockade on Gaza in 2007 after the defeat of the Palestinian Authority and the election of Hamas as the representative government of Gaza. Essentially creating an open-air prison, the blockade is ongoing and Gazans cannot enter or leave Gaza without Israeli permission. This lockdown is nothing short of collective punishment which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. The blockade has been in effect for 14 years and Israel disallows basic food staples, baby formula and diapers, building essentials like concrete, and other items necessary for survival.

    Prior to the military assault, Palestinian residents in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem were facing evictions to make way for a Jewish settlement. Based on a District Court ruling, at least 13 families were ordered to vacate their homes. In addition, under the pretext of controlling Palestinian protestors at Masjid al Aqsa, Israeli police and military attacked unarmed demonstrators and otherwise created havoc on worshippers at the sacred site.

    The current BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement attempts to end international support for Israel’s maltreatment and oppression of Palestinians and force the government to comply with international law. The BDS movement is not an anti-Jewish effort nor is it an attempt to dismantle the state of Israel. It is an effort to halt genocidal actions against Palestinian people just as the anti-apartheid movement was never intended to drive all Whites out of South Africa or destroy that nation. We must avail ourselves of all legal, effective methods to stop the genocidal assaults on the Palestinian people by the state of Israel. BDS is a growing global movement that offers a realistic path to end the abominations committed against the Palestinian people since 1948.

  • Nakba 2021: The Cost of Indifference

    Nakba 2021: The Cost of Indifference

    On May 25, 2020 much of the world was riveted watching the slow agonizing death of George Floyd as he was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Darnella Frazier, a 17-year-old girl, courageously captured on her cell phone video camera Chauvin pressing his knee to the neck of George Floyd for 9 minutes and 29 seconds until Floyd’s handcuffed body was lifeless. After years of public outcry over police officers across the country killing unarmed African Americans with impunity, the Floyd murder was a tipping point. For the first time in modern United States history, massive demonstrations were continuously held in multiple cities in all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska. Protests were also held in countries around the world. Unlike past demonstrations in the U.S. against police brutality, these demonstrations included an unprecedented number of Whites and Latinos.

    Bills have been introduced in federal, state, and local legislatures, often for the first time, calling for the repeal of qualified immunity, the legal principle that grants immunity to police officers and other designated government officials from civil suits unless they have violated a person’s “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.” Critics of the doctrine argue that it opens the door to the use of excessive force by police officers. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is under consideration. The bill increases accountability for law enforcement misconduct, restricts the use of certain policing practices, enhances transparency and data collection, and establishes best practices and training requirements. City Councils and County Commissions across the country have held hearings with some agreeing to compensate African Americans for centuries of unpaid labor by their ancestors.

    A Militarized Police Force

    Now, in a land half the globe away, troubled by egregious policing practices against an oppressed marginalized population, Israeli police violated the sanctity of the third most sacred site in Islam, Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. On May 7, during Islam’s holiest month of Ramadan, within the last 10most revered days of the month, Israeli police invaded the sanctuary of Al-Aqsa Mosque. They used excessive force to dislodge a few protestors who had non-violently demonstrated their opposition to Israeli plans to evict Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The plan for evictions spurred violent hordes of Israeli extremists storming through the neighborhood and forcibly removing and assaulting residents.

    The police entered Al-Aqsa firing stun guns, tear gas grenades, and rubber bullets. “Rubber bullets” are more accurately described as relatively large metal pellets thinly encased in rubber. It was reported that at least six people were permanently blinded during the assaults. In the resulting melee, 330 Muslim worshippers were injured, and centuries-old windows and wooden doors were damaged or destroyed. Recent increased tensions in the area surrounding the mosque have been fueled by Israeli police allowing radical Israeli settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa compound while loudly chanting slogans and taunts, interrupting Muslim worshippers in prayer and contemplation. “Violations of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) prohibitions on allowing non-Muslim access to worship inside the historic mosques have been increasingly violated over the years with the cooperation of Israeli police.

    The militarization of policing in the U.S. exhibits practices similar to those used in Israel. This is not coincidental. Top law enforcement officials in police departments across the United States have gone to Israel for training in the use of surveillance and aggressive techniques and methods for crowd control. After numerous public demonstrations and successful political mobilizations, the city of Durham, in North Carolina, prohibited its police departments from training in Israel. Alameda County in California has done the same, and departments in Vermont and Massachusetts withdrew from a planned training trip to Israel in 2018.Over the past two decades, police departments across the U.S. have secured military-grade weapons including armed personnel carriers, tanks, predator drones, and other military equipment. Begun in 1997 by the Clinton administration to ostensibly fight the “war on drugs,” a Defense Department program called 1033 provides excess or outdated military equipment to local police departments at no cost to them other than shipping. While Israel routinely unleashes deadly force on Palestinians, one incident stands out in the U.S. On May 13, 1985,Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode authorized the dropping of a bomb from a State Police helicopter on a house occupied by members of MOVE, a Black separatist group. The fire was then allowed to burn completely out of control, destroying 61 homes in the middle-class African American neighborhood. Five children and six adults died in the fire. The bombing was widely condemned, and the MOVE survivors were later awarded a $1.5 million settlement in 1996.

    The Ongoing Catastrophe

    Seventy-three years ago, Palestinians experienced what they refer to as a “Nakba” (catastrophe, disaster). The specific reference is to the ethnic cleansing by Zionist paramilitary gangs including Irgun, Haganah, and the Stern Gang. Their terrorist activities resulted in destruction of 400-600 Palestinian villages and over 300,000 men, women, and children expelled or fleeing the terror campaign and ending up in refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, as well as the West Bank and Gaza. Christian Palestinians, while discriminated against by the policies of the Israeli government, are not forced to live in resource-starved camps like their Muslim counterparts, under the watchful and intimidating eyes of the Israeli military.

    At the end of the 1947-49 Palestine War, the United Nations adopted Resolution 194 that resolved that Palestinian refugees had the right to return to their properties and live at peace with their neighbors at the earliest possible time, and those choosing not to return should be given compensation for their properties. The government of Israel has defied this UN Resolution and many others for over 70 years while giving Palestinian homes and property to American and European Jewish settlers. After the 2006election of Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group, as the governing authority for Gaza, Israel imposed a land, air, and sea blockade over the area, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Two million Gazans have been unable to secure adequate life-sustaining goods and supplies including food, baby formula, medicine, concrete for rebuilding structures destroyed by Israeli bombs or bulldozers, and other essential items. Gaza is often referred to as the world’s largest outdoor prison due to the restrictions imposed on its citizens. Water is unnecessarily and indiscriminately shut off by the Israeli government. The food supply allowed into Gaza is based on Israel’s calculations of Palestinians’ caloric needs and the objective is revealed by a statement made by Dov Weisglass, the spokesman for former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. In 2006, Weisglass stated, “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

    The State of Palestine is recognized by 138 nations but, sadly, the world is witnessing Nakba 2021 for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It is not the first time that the Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza, but it is the most destructive and deadly. Civilian housing is being targeted and destroyed by sophisticated missiles, most of which were supplied by the United States. In the short span of less than two weeks, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 60 children and more than 35 women, three of whom were pregnant. Roads leading to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City have been targeted by missiles, making it virtually impossible to get to the hospital for treatment. Palestinian doctors and other health professionals are being targeted for murder. Critical infrastructure, housing, and markets have been destroyed, complicating an already subsistence existence. Since the start of vaccinations for the Covid-19 global pandemic, Israel has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Yet, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have had only one percent of their population receiving the vaccine protection.

    Setting Right What is Wrong

    With notable exceptions, most Muslim-majority nations have entered pacts and alliances with Israel that seem to preclude their assisting the Palestinians or even condemning Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. Ironically, some of these same nations appear to have little compunction in acting treacherously or even warring against other Muslims. Conversely, the Black Freedom Struggle in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s recognized the intersectionality of the liberation struggles of all peoples against oppression, including Palestinians. For this reason, Imam Jamil Al-Amin(formerly H. Rap Brown), Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), Muhammad Ahmad (formerly Max Stanford), Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Dhoruba bin Wahad, and other leaders of the Black Panther Party, SNCC, and other organizations embraced the struggle of the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation. Leaders of some African nations during this same period identified with, and wholeheartedly supported, the struggles of the Palestinian people. Leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, and many others supported the Palestinian cause.

    The images of young Palestinians standing firm during their violent arrests by Israeli police for protesting the occupation — those images are vital. They demonstrate a willingness to confront with stones the heavily armed Goliaths, encouraging reminders that believers must have patience and put our trust in Allah, the Most High. Prophet Muhammad has reminded us that Allah is on the side of the oppressed and that there is no barrier between the supplications of the oppressed and Allah. Pray for Palestine and work to liberate it from the knee on its neck. The Israeli bombing on May 15 of the building that housed the AP, Al-Jazeera, and other media outlets will not stop the world from watching and witnessing. The injustices are being recorded; the setting right of what is wrong is inevitable.