Since I started grad school, I took a break from my activism. Being completely honest, a part of the reason for this was fear of the potential consequences I would face career wise. Recently, I have come to the understanding that if being at Harvard and MIT means I have to hide or shy away from what I believe in, then this is not a place where I want to be. I am one of the fortunate Palestinians who is not constantly subjected to the evils of occupation and apartheid, and it is my duty to them to always be working to spread awareness and bring change to my homeland You, my Facebook friends, are probably well aware of the influx of my posts on Palestine, specifically what is happening in Gaza. This is not an apology. Many of my friends at Harvard and elsewhere have cautioned me against being so outspoken as I could be labelled an anti-Semite for criticizing Israel. This could also have consequences for my future grad school prospects and career opportunities. This boggles my mind. I speak out unapologetically against occupation, killing babies and wiping out entire families. Is there anything Jewish about any of these things? To my Jewish friends, I apologize for this conflation of your religion and identity with such awful crimes by some. I cant help but think of all my Jewish friends who are at the forefront of the Palestine solidarity movement around the world and refuse to allow Israel to speak on their behalf. It is tragic that Zionism and Judaism have become synonyms in the minds of so many. The only antisemitic part of any of this is presenting world Jewry as only monolith with Israel as its ambassador. Jews around the world have a wide variety of opinions on Israel ranging from blind support to strict anti-Zionism. This is why the distinction between Judaism and Zionism is an important one. The irony is, what is referred to as a conflict in Israel-Palestine has little to do with Judaism. We do not resist our oppressors because they are Jewish. We resist them because they oppress us. Simple as that. If Martians occupied Palestine, we would resist just as much. The common denominator is our oppression. The accusations of anti-Semitism only serve to distract from the root causes of our suffering and oppression which are occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. When I talk about the massacre taking place in Gaza, I am often criticized for not discussing suffering on both sides. This, like the accusations of antisemitism, is also a distraction. A conflict is something that happens between two equal and opposite parties. Not between the occupier and occupied. A conflict is not something where 100% of the casualties are on one side. That is a massacre. I have no interest in discussing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip as the cause of conflict. By definition, an occupied people cannot provoke conflict with their occupier. The occupation is a constant and ever-present provocation. Any discussion I have on this topic will be geared towards ending the suffering. This means maintaining a proper perspective. If you want to talk about Hamas rockets, its important to mention the siege of Gaza, the ethnic expulsion of its people from the surrounding areas by Israel and the occupation they live under. These rockets dont fly out of vacuum. They emerge from an area of Israeli engineered suffering and oppression. Anything else is just a skewed and perverted lens meant to rationalize oppression and only serves to further facilitate the oppression we have been witnessing for the past 70 years. Moral of the story: if my advocacy for freedom and justice for my people hurts your feelings, then your feelings are wrong.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 02:35:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015