Free Palestine - Stop funding Genocide
Race, Gender, and Social Class – What about Values and Character?
I teach at a university where there is lots of talk about race, gender, and social class.
Three terms that are independent from Values and Character.
When I went to school, I learned that all men are created equal, and that the term “men” in this context includes women. It was natural to believe that “men” automatically included any human, anywhere. I learned that slavery was so horrific that it was abolished and that the holocaust was so horrific that the world united to fight Nazism.
I learned the ten commandments – thou shalt not kill, steal, or lie or covet thy neighbor’s wife or possessions. Love thy Neighbor as thyself, Do unto others, Greed is bad. Forgiveness is good.
Humans are humans. There are no superior races or genders.
Today, Palestinians are treated as sub-human by the Zionist military /government of Israel. Like the Nazis, Zionists believe they are superior to others. They say that God gave them special rights to land, and special permission for lying, stealing, and killing.
The world's top five religions - Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism - share the same core values and beliefs, including compassion, forgiveness, justice, fairness, love and respect for fellow human beings, regardless of differences in beliefs, ethnicity, or background. They believe in peaceful coexistence.
The Zionist leaders of Israel have no right to massacre Palestinians. No rights to the Palestinian land. No rights to deceive people that they are the victims in the settler colonial project they started over 100 years ago. Even back in 1948, Albert Einstein knew that the Zionists had a great deal in common with the Nazis.
“Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine. The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States…”
https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948
Also today, students are protesting the genocide in Gaza at Columbia University and across the country. The University response is to focus on protecting the Jewish students at Columbia who “don’t feel safe” because of the protests, not to stop engaging in activities that continue to support and fund the genocide. Of course it is important to feel safe. Protestors want to draw attention to people who are not safe in Palestine. Peacefully.
Protestors practicing freedom of speech, press, and assembly are quickly accused of being anti-semitic or of practicing terrorism, tactics employed to undermine advocacy for Palestinian rights. Learn more in Palestine Legal’s report on The Palestine Exception to Freedom of Speech.
https://palestinelegal.org/the-palestine-exception
Yesterday, at the International Film Festival in DC, I saw the beautiful and poignant film Bye, Bye, Tiberias, made by Palestinians who have suffered from Israeli terrorist attacks on civilians, land grabs, and other human rights violations. Enjoy the movie trailer:
.
Link to festival: https://www.filmfestdc.org/filmView.cfm?passID=13
Thanks for reading.