*There are major efforts to suppress and silence Palestinian voices at all levels in the US. But there is also significant pushback.* by Rami G Khouri, Al Jazeera, July 1 https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/7/1/watching-the-watchdogs-palestinians-resist-unprecedented
In the past nine months, national and local authorities in the United States have tried to suppress and criminalise Palestinian activism and expressions of identity. This crackdown has affected various sectors, including politics, business, civil society, higher education, culture and others. Security forces have quelled peaceful protests, officials have made sweeping accusations of anti-Semitism against protesters, and various public figures have ridiculously labelled wearing the Palestinian chequered keffiyeh scarf and using the word intifada (Arabic for uprising) code for “wiping out Israel”. Israel and its national and local American allies wish to erase Palestinians from history, because as Palestinians challenge the US-Israeli racist onslaught, they also force a public discussion of the historical background and actions of the settler-colonial philosophy of Israel and the Zionist movement that created it. Israel and Zionism cannot withstand such scrutiny. . . . Abdallah Fayyad, who moved recently from the Boston Globe Editorial Board to Vox, where he is a policy correspondent, suggests that the many different tools used to silence Palestinians in the US and elsewhere should be called “anti-Palestinian racism”. . . . He sees anti-Palestinian institutionalised racism in cases which include “governments monitoring Palestinians, and pro-Palestinian organisations, and institutions like universities cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests in recent months, including banning student commencement speakers”. . . . Stunningly, the US role in this echoes what the world witnessed a century ago – when the imperial power of the day, Britain, sided with the Zionist movement and helped it dominate all of Palestine, making its Palestinian Arab majority disappear. . . . The US walks in Britain’s footsteps today. As the West’s leading imperial power, it ignores Palestinian rights, supports Israel’s genocidal policies, shields it in international diplomatic fora, and colludes with it to criminalise and silence Palestinian voices. But just as British imperial support for Zionism faced resistance last century, so does US support today experience unprecedented pushback by Palestinians and their American and global allies. This includes public protests and non-violent disruptions, media and academic articles by respected scholars, national and international legal challenges, and solidarity alliances with marginalised Americans, including Black people, Hispanics, progressive Jews, Native Americans, students, and others. This broad mobilisation in the US against anti-Palestinian racism and suppression is now recognised as one of several drivers of the global Palestine solidarity movement. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30972): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30972 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/107015276/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
