On June 1, 2018, 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while working as a volunteer paramedic with the Great March of Return in Gaza. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever how critical health care workers are to our communities. On June 1, please join AFSC and people around the world for our social media day of action to honor Razan and all Palestinian health care workers.
The last five years have witnessed unprecedented change in the struggle for justice in Palestine. These changes offer opportunities that our movement needs to act on, particularly during the 2020 election cycle.
Michael Merryman-Lotze remembers Israel’s siege on the West Bank city of Ramallah during Operation Defensive Shield: “The night of April 2 was one that I won’t forget. That was the night that the Israeli military took over the Preventative Security Office in Betunia. They surrounded the building with tanks and forced out the Palestinian police inside, arresting many. They searched the prison, releasing criminals and detaining others. They then proceeded to destroy the compound, firing tanks and missiles into the buildings throughout the night.”
A bill to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization has now been introduced in Congress. This action against the Muslim Brotherhood is about political repression in this country, not just abroad. In the US this law will be used to sweep up and act against groups in the Muslim Community. Groups like CAIR, the Muslim Student Association, and American Muslims for Palestine will be some of the first groups attacked, even if there are no provable links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Concerned about a Muslim Registry? This is the registry.
Yet another American advises that the solution to structural violence in Palestine is that Palestinian mothers must teach children nonviolence. But look at these children’s experience of occupation and apartheid.