Shifting Tide of Support for Palestinians—Assorted Grassroots, Celebrity, and Academic Groups Step up Pressure on U.S. and Israel
By: John Mason / Arab America Contributing Writer
Cease-fire provides Opening for Support of Palestinians and Warnings to Israel
While the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas offers no guarantees to the Palestinians, it has provided an opening for consideration of their maltreatment by the Israeli government. An example is U.S. Secretary of State Blinken’s visit to the region, where he met with leaders, including PLA head Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken, according to Business Insider, warned Israeli leaders that future evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem could exacerbate tensions and catalyze further conflict in the region. “We raised the concerns that we have on all sides with actions that in the first instance could spark tension, conflict, and war, and also ultimately undermine even further the difficult prospects for two states,” Blinken confirmed that the cease-fire is by no means an end in itself, but that it provides some room to create an improved situation.
Blinken noted in meetings with Israel’s leaders that any further threats to evict Palestinians from homes they’ve lived in for generations, much less the destruction of those homes, and further incursions of Israeli police into the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque should be assiduously avoided. These were the immediate triggers of the violence of the Israel-Hamas war, but of course do not include the underlying causes induced by the Israeli military occupation of Palestinians and the blockade on Gaza, which has destroyed its economy.
Further U.S. signs of including Palestinians in the equation are Blinken’s reopening a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to deal with their interests and the promise of additional economic and emergency assistance. It had earlier been closed by the Trump administration, which had only animus towards Palestinians.
Pro-Palestinian Rally in Washington says “No” to more Money for Israel
This past Saturday, over 1,000 demonstrators showed up on the Washington Mall at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to show their support for Palestinians following the intensive Israeli bombardment of the Gaza population and ensuing cease-fire. Including Palestinian Americans and supporters, the demonstrators rallied for an end to U.S. funding of Israel, especially any funds used for military purposes. One demonstrator, an Arab American, quoted by the VOA news service, said “We are hoping to send a clear message to the United States government that the days of supporting the Israeli state without repercussions are over.”
Some demonstrators waved Palestinian flags as the crowd made clear its opposition to funding people they describe as their opponents. This includes opposing politicians who support funding for weapons going to Israel. Another demonstrator, an Arab American woman, ventured that she thought U.S. public opinion was nudging towards favoring the Palestinian cause. She said, “We just want the world to recognize that we are human beings. We are not terrorists.” Some participants equated Israeli treatment of Palestinians as apartheid.
A younger Arab American demonstrator suggested, “People have now woken up, and we’re resisting. Whether young Jews, young Muslims, young Blacks, young whites, there is a generational shift. And people are working across ethnic groups, racial groups, to work for change and freedom and liberation for Palestinian people.
#MusiciansForPalestine Sign Letter of Support – Over 600 Artists Worldwide Sign
More than 600 musicians from around the world signed a letter expressing their unity in backing the Palestinian people. Mondoweiss news reported the contents of the letter, which started, “We call for you to join us with your name in refusing to perform at Israel’s complicit cultural institutions, and by standing firm in your support of the Palestinian people and their human right to sovereignty and freedom. We believe this is crucial to one day live in a world without segregation and apartheid.”
Gigi and Bella Hadid, Black Thought and Questlove from The Roots, Cypress Hill, NARCY, NoName, Patti Smith, and Run the Jewels signed the statement. Some of the signers represent the Palestinian diaspora. A strongly-worded statement, the letter continued, “we speak together and demand justice, dignity and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people and all who are fighting colonial dispossession and violence across the planet.”
Above-mentioned celebrities Gigi and Bella Hadid have also expressed their support through, in addition to #MusiciansForPalestine, such social media venues as Instagram. They are twins who are Palestinian through their father and are ardent supporters of their “motherland.” Bella, using her hashtag ‘Free Palestine,’ quoted by news source PageSix, “If you don’t think this is wrong, regardless of who you are and where you come from, there is a problem with how you see humanity and Palestinians. This is on you. Not them.” She further averred, “I have a lot to say about this but for now, please read and educate yourself. This is not about religion. This is not about spewing hate on one or the other. This is about Israeli colonization, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people that has been going on for YEARS!”
In a related event, in apparent response to a controversial pro-Israel, anti-Palestine ad condemning Gigi and Bella Hadid published in The New York Times, the Times subsequently published a front-page photo collage of the 67 children killed in Gaza by the Israeli bombardment. Such humanizing of the Palestinian children drew surprised praise from many Times’ readers, who are not used to much Times’ news with a pro-Palestinian ring to it. Some readers even wondered how the story of those children passed muster with the Times’ editors.
Another media space that was cracked open a bit was caused by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell’s visit to Sheikh Jarrah, where the threat of eviction of Palestinians from their homes by the Israeli government became one of the events that triggered the Israeli-Hamas war and the assault on Gaza. This is one reason Mitchell visited there, in the context of Blinken’s visit to the region. First thing after her arrival, she was barraged with questions from the protesters about what Blinken had said concerning the threat of eviction. Blinken in fact had admonished the Israeli government that it should stop destroying Palestinian homes.
What tipped the balance during Mitchell’s visit to Sheikh Jarrah was that right in front of her eyes she saw a 15-year-old boy being beaten and hauled off by police. Described as the brutal arrest of a child, the event dramatically affected the crowd, who yelled, “Leave him, he is a child, he is a child.” More importantly, it was also captured on-air and presented on NBC news. However, to be effective as a media tool in revealing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, such a practice would have to be much more widespread.
More U.S. Academics Pitch in on Helping the Palestinian Cause—”The Removal and Erasure of the Palestinian People Must End”
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has come out with a straightforward statement in support of Palestinians. Like the Harvard faculty letter presented in Arab America last week, this is even more succinct in criticizing the effects of the war itself. The initial statement begins, “The brutal hostilities, including the targeting of noncombatants and killing of innocent people as well as the destruction of critical infrastructure are unacceptable under any circumstances. This military action by the government of Israel killed more than 200 Palestinians, including more than 60 children. In addition to the death toll, the Israeli government’s assault destroyed homes, water pipelines, hospitals, and schools that serve the Palestinian people as well as offices used by international media outlets to document and report on the conditions in the region.”
The AAA statement continues by addressing the issue of the “structural and everyday violence imposed by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people.” This includes expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories, grabbing land, destroying Palestinian homes and sometimes villages, involuntary evictions, blocking freedom of travel by construction of walls and checkpoints, and “the discriminatory treatment of the Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Most of these practices are in violation of United Nations resolutions, which the U.S. continues to undermine through use of its veto power as a member of the Security Council.
It statement concludes as follows: “This means we must work to dismantle the systems of oppression that deny Palestinians basic human rights and dignity. We call on the U.S. government to take a stand against the status quo that has gone on for far too long. The removal and erasure of the Palestinian people must end.”
References:
“Blinken warns Israel that evicting Palestinians from East Jerusalem could ‘spark tension, conflict, and war’,” Business Insider, 5/27/2021, 2021
“Pro-Palestinian Rally in Washington Seeks End to US Aid to Israel,” VOA News, 5/29/2021
“Musicians, including members of The Roots and Arcade Fire, sign letter supporting Palestinians,” CNN Entertainment, 5/27/2021
“Over 600 artists worldwide sign #MusiciansForPalestine letter,” Mondoweiss, 5/27/2021
“Gigi and Bella Hadid, other celebs express support for the Palestinians,” Page Six, 5/12/2021
“The removal and erasure of Palestinian People Must End,” American Anthropological Association, 5/21/2021
John Mason, PhD., who focuses on Arab culture, society, and history, is the author of LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, New Academia Publishing, 2017. He did fieldwork in an east Libyan Saharan oasis and has taught at the University of Libya-Benghazi, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and the American University in Cairo. John served with the United Nations as an advisor in Tripoli, Libya, and consulted extensively on socioeconomic and political development for USAID, the UN, and the World Bank in 65 countries.
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