This past week a couple of articles caught my eye. I find myself pausing while writing this because of the enormity of what’s happening in Palestine — it seems impossible to visualize it as real — and because of the courageous attempts so many people are making do whatever they can to STOP the killing.
Sometimes it takes a young person to express what’s happening clearly and concisely. This quote by singer/songwriter Kehlani is from an article in SFGate entitled “Bay Area superstar dropped from festival bill due to Israel comments” by Timothy Karoff. It can be found at this link.
“I am being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again for the millionth time that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew. I am anti-genocide,” Kehlani said in a video statement shared on social media. “I am anti the actions of the Israeli government. I am anti an extermination of an entire people. I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women. That’s what I’m anti.”
The second piece that caught my eye is well-researched and also clear and concise in countering the excuses given for the killing. The article was published in the online political publication LA Progressive, and was entitled “No, Senator Sanders, Israel Did Not Have ‘the Right to Defend Itself’” by Mike Males. Here are some excerpted paragraphs from the article.
Israel is an occupying power that killed 1,200 Palestinians in the 60 months PRIOR to October 7, 2023, and thousands before that. Occupying powers cannot claim self-defense.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who increasingly exemplifies the few political leaders willing to challenge the U.S.’s arming of Israel, recently reiterated this baffling claim at his Idaho rally: “Israel, like any other country, has the right to defend itself from terrorism but not the right to wage all-out war against the Palestinian people.”
It didn’t start on October 7
From October 7, 2018, through October 6, 2023, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed 1,230 Palestinians, 90% of them civilians, including 470 children (Palestinian Health Authority, reported in Israel-Palestine Timeline). During that period, the PHA reports 27 Israelis killed by Palestinians. These figures are considered accurate by international agencies and fact-checkers based on verifiable names and the numbers Israel assigns every Palestinian (yet more evidence of Israel’s occupying-power status).Israel had also kidnapped and imprisoned over 5,000 Palestinians prior to October 7, a number that has since doubled. The overwhelming majority have not been charged with any offense, and most are subject to torture and severe deprivation, United Nation reports document.
Washington DC could have stopped the killing by stopping the delivery of weapons. Biden could have. Trump could. A growing number of Americans, who concur with the people quoted above, would.