History didn't begin on October 7th, 2023.
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Today, October 7th 2024, marks oneyear since the Hamas attack on Israel that
many consider to havesparked Israel’s US-backed genocidal campaign against Gaza
that is nowexploding into a regional war. But history did not begin on
October7th, 2023.
To understand the currentsituation, we must look back at least as far as 1948
to the Nakba, thebrutal mass expulsion of indigenous Palestinians from their
homes byZionist paramilitaries and the newly formed state of Israel. While
theworld has been watching in horror for the past year as this genocidalrampage
has cut short hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, thatone year was
preceded by generations of violence, occupation,displacement, dispossession,
apartheid, and ethniccleansing.
While we abhor violence, we mustunderstand that settler colonialism,
occupation, genocide, and allforms of oppression have always provoked
resistance. If we merelycondemned violence “on all sides” without first
acknowledging theunderlying conditions of oppression and doing everything we
can torectify those conditions, we would not only fail to address the
rootcauses of the problem, but would risk becoming complicit in injusticeby
drawing a false equivalency between oppressor and oppressed. AsDesmond Tutu
observed, “if you are neutral in situations of injustice,you have chosen the
side of the oppressor.”
One of history’s greatestnonviolent changemakers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
identified the“great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom” as “the
whitemoderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice” and “whoprefers a
negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positivepeace which is the
presence of justice”. For too long, the USgovernment has supported Israel’s
version of “order” and “peace” thatdemands the systematic subjugation of
Palestinians to violentinjustice. But whenever people are denied their human
rights,resistance is inevitable. Even President Kennedy recognized this withhis
statement that “those who make peaceful revolution impossible willmake violent
revolution inevitable.”
Dr. King also recognized thehypocrisy and uselessness of condemning the
violence of the oppressedwithout first addressing the violence of oppression:
“I knew that Icould never again raise my voice against the violence of the
oppressedin the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the
greatestpurveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.” The
USgovernment is fully complicit in the violence that Israel hasinflicted on the
Palestinians and others, after supplying Israel withover one hundred fifty
billion dollars in military aid and shieldingIsrael from accountability to the
international community for its longhistory of defying international law. For
Americans to condemnPalestinian resistance while our own government actively
oppresses thePalestinian people would be neither just nor conducive topeace.
The events of October 7th, 2023have been weaponized to justify the genocide of
Palestinians. Yet ithas become clear that official accounts of October 7th have
not onlybeen divorced from the historical context, but factually distorted
toserve the agenda of the Zionist Israeli government. As one
example,Australia’s ABC News reported in September that Israeli forces
apparentlyapplied the “Hannibal Directive” on October 7th, killing an
untoldnumber of their own citizens in attempts to prevent them from beingtaken
hostage. The official discourse on hostages has also beenextremely one-sided,
rarely if ever mentioning that thousands ofPalestinians are held prisoner by
Israel without charge. From the“Hannibal Directive” killings to Netanyahu’s
disregard for thefamilies of Israeli hostages to Israel’s expansion of the war
farbeyond Gaza, it’s clear that the Israeli government has not acted outof
concern for hostages, but has only used those concerns asjustification to
launch a preconceived agenda of conquest andgenocide.
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Israel accused of killing its own civilians under the 'Hannibal Directiv...
The controversial "Hannibal Directive", which Israel says isn't named for the
famous Carthaginian general who to...
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In just the last few weeks, thesituation has gotten even worse. In a massive
escalation of itsgenocidal war on Gaza, Israel has invaded Lebanon. Shortly
thereafter,Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Tel Aviv in response
toIsrael’s attacks on Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Iran itself,raising
fears of an ever-expanding war in the Middle East that couldeven spark World
War III, nuclear war, or both.
If he wanted to, President Bidencould stop this war with one phone call to the
Israeli prime ministeras Ronald Reagan did in 1982. Israel’s war machine is
completelydependent on US taxpayer-supplied weapons, money, military
anddiplomatic support. But instead the Biden-Harris administration iscomplicit
in Netanyahu’s plans to expand this horrific war. A recentPolitico article
titled “US officials quietly backed Israel’s pushagainst Hezbollah” revealed
that top Biden advisors actuallyencouraged Israel to invade Lebanon - despite
the Democrats’ claimsthat Kamala Harris is “working tirelessly for a ceasefire”.
We do not consent to be draggedinto World War III by Netanyahu to support his
genocidal land grab inPalestine, Lebanon, and beyond. By allowing Netanyahu to
essentiallydictate US foreign policy, Biden and Harris have abdicated
theresponsibility of their office.
As President, the first thing Iwill do is make the phone call to stop this
madness at once and fixthe crisis at its source - by ceasing all support to
Israel until itends its genocide in Gaza and agrees to negotiate a settlement
forPalestine and the region consistent with international law and therulings of
the International Court of Justice. The US, as the primarybacker of Netanyahu’s
military campaigns, holds the power to end hisassault on Gaza and bring him to
account. This is not a matter ofdiplomacy but of the US electorate exercising
its responsibility byvoting for leaders with the political will to act. As
voters in themost powerful nation on Earth, we bear a unique obligation to hold
ourgovernment and its allies accountable.
By holding Israel accountable, theUS can rejoin the international community,
from which we have becomeincreasingly isolated due to our government’s
unconditional supportfor Israel’s defiance of international law. When the
United Nationsconsidered membership for Palestine this year, 143 nations voted
infavor and only 9 against, including the US and Israel. But the US
hasconsistently used its veto power to shield Israel from
accountability,undermining any credibility our nation has to speak on issues
ofinternational law and human rights.
As a Jew who grew up just after theHolocaust, with relatives who fled pogroms
and a grandfather namedIsrael, I take “never again” seriously. And that means
never again foranyone. In just the last year, I have met thousands of people
from allwalks of life, including Muslims, Jews, Christians,
Palestinians,Israelis, Arabs, and many others from many ethnic, religious
andspiritual backgrounds. And I can say with certainty from my
personalexperience that peace and friendship are possible. We can put an endto
war, genocide, and generations of oppression, and start a new pathto a world of
peace, justice, and human rights for all.
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In solidarity andgratitude,
Jill Stein
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