The following statement was authored by the group Jews for Palestinian Right of Return. Sign their petition addressed to New York politicians on a trip to Israel here.
(Please also sign Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel)
On August 10, 2014, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, announced an upcoming “unity visit” with Israeli leaders “in light of the continued threat of attacks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations” [1]
But the justification for the visit is in fact a lie; Israel’s latest massacres in Gaza — whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled — are NOT an act of self defense.
Rather, Israel’s current war on Gaza is the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist racism, colonialism, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing.
Scattered rockets, fired from Gaza — into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place — are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
Co-Leader Klein, grandson of Holocaust survivors, calls Israel “a beacon for the values and rights inherent in a Democracy.”
But over 250 Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors know better: they just signed a statement “condemning Israel’s massacre on Gaza and calling for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people.” [2]
Speaker Silver added, “I am delighted to join Governor Cuomo and Senators Skelos and Klein in our mission to Israel to show New York’s solidarity with the people of the Jewish State.”
Solidarity with this state, however, is solidarity with injustice. As Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah says, “Israel was created as a ‘Jewish state’ by expelling Palestinians and preventing their return. It can only survive in this form by maintaining current and committing future violations of the rights of Palestinians.”[3]
Governor Cuomo, et al: your “unity” with apartheid Israel doesn’t speak for us.
We stand with the people of Gaza and with the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
1. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/081014-leaders-israel-trip
2. http://ijsn.net/gaza/survivors_and_descendents-letter/
3. https://mondoweiss.net/2014/04/process-abunimahs-palestine.html
It is so shameless, even embarrassing, that our politicians have to keep kissing Bibi’s ring, knowing there is blood on his hands. Bloomberg hurried over to Israel to show the love and support, and boost their tourism business. Steve Israel, the governor of New York, who made sure his first overseas trip was to pay homage and devotion, to the 51st state of the US, and Elizabeth Warren also scheduled to go.
Have they no shame or decency, most of all any self respect?
“It is so shameless, even embarrassing, that our politicians have to keep kissing Bibi’s ring, knowing there is blood on his hands.”
I think they must like it. They have willingly converted to addicts, I guess. They don’t really HAVE to do it– they could stand up for justice and I just betcha that lots of Americans would approve with vigor and $. btw, not entirely sure that all of these trips don’t interfere with WH FP.
Remember ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX8aFpnWxPA
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seems like the 1947 U.N. partition is more just/even
Israel has been doing the Palenstine people
wrong from day one
.
http://www.juancole.com/images-ext/2010/03/map-story-of-palestinian-nationhood.jpg
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G-d Bless
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