I became a lifelong antiwar peace activist after 9/11, starting right here on these very steps 20 years ago, as we were bombarded with lies to wage war on Iraq. Over a million humans were killed, and millions more harmed, physically, psychologically or by being displaced as refugees.
It disgusted me to my bones. I began actively organizing opposition to most every U.S. war since. I quickly came to find that virtually every US war comes wrapped in a pack of lies. The U.S.-Israeli war on Palestinians also is based on many lies.
They are lying about the causes of the conflict, suggesting that this all started on October 7th with Israel being attacked for no reason and Israel is just an innocent victim. They want us to ignore over 75 years of well documented history of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, occupation, the brutal blockade, home demolition, land theft, illegal settlements, war crimes, repeated carpet bombings of civilians, destructions of olive orchards, poisoning of livestock, abusive checkpoints and roadblocks, sniper massacres of peaceful protesters during the Great March of Return, etc, etc. Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza prison protested peacefully, and Israeli snipers mowed them down by the hundreds, including killing medics, journalists, kids and disabled people; all war crimes.
I have heard it said we should not call this a war, as it is a genocide, with numerous experts calling it a Textbook Case of Genocide, such as this top ranking U.N. official and this Jewish Israeli genocide scholar. Indeed, Palestinians have no army, navy, or air force, so, yes, this is largely a one-sided massacre of people trapped in what numerous scholars call the World’s Largest Open Air Prison or Largest Concentration Camp. Yet, I would suggest there is a difference of a war BETWEEN two relatively equivalent militaries, and a Bully War ON a militarily weaker nation. It was a U.S. Bully war on Iraq, a U.S. Bully war on Libya, on Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Korea and dozens more nations.
The conflict now is similarly a war on Palestinians, starting 75 years ago with the Nakba and the ethnic cleansing has never stopped. According to Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi its actually 100 year war on Palestine, if you go all the way back to the Balfour Declaration in 1917.
Make no mistake: This is very much a U.S. war too. The US has given over $260 billion in foreign military aid to Israel since the Nakba, with the U.S. House just passing another $14 billion to fund this genocidal bombing campaign. The US has also given massive political support by vetoing over 53 UN resolutions that condemned Israel’s many violations of international law. The US has enabled Israel to escape all accountability for scores of war crimes, which encourages Israel to continue committing them. For decades, the majority of the world has long been trying to hold Israel accountable, and to create justice for Palestinians. The United States is the world leader at preventing progress, and sustaining Palestinian oppression.
We should all wish and work for Peace and for violence to cease, and to really identify and solve the root causes of war, which are overwhelmingly injustices. Justice is the foundation for real Peace. As Dr King said, we must not seek a negative peace or the mere absence of tension, but seek a positive peace, which is the presence of Justice.
Overwhelmingly, it’s Palestinians that have experienced manifold injustices for the past 75 years and beyond. If we’re sincere about seeking peace, we must seek justice for a Free Palestine. It is really in the best interest for Israelis too.
Some people dismiss protests or small acts we do online, but everything we say has some affect on Public Opinion, which is the real ruler of all societies. That’s why dictators or corporate oligarchs spend immense resources on propaganda to shape public opinion, to manufacture consent as Noam Chomsky says. Rulers always need consent to rule, or they will be rapidly removed, one way or another.
We must withdraw our consent for our rulers that support endless war and endless injustice for Palestinians and so much of our world. A growing number of Americans are frustrated by politicians of both parties, and since they don’t represent us on issue after issue, at some point consent will break.
Most of us don’t have enough money to buy a Congressman, but every one of us has some power. We each have a voice in the field of Public Opinion, and we all have wide diversity of creative talents we can employ to displace this System of Perpetual Injustice. Every courageous post we make, every act of resistance and solidarity, every conversation we have with friends or family has some impact, however small. It all adds up.
We must raise our voices to Call for Immediate Ceasefire and Stop to the Genocide. We must call for an End to Apartheid, Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing. As Americans, we have a distinct duty to speak out for a stop to our government’s massive support of this injustice.
We are witnessing massive protests all over the world and a major national protest is occurring today in Washington D.C. Millions of voices are rising up in the streets all over the world.
We have now joined them.
Let Gaza Live & Free Palestine.
Abel Tomlinson 