Showing posts with label Jim Crow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim Crow. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Friday, August 23, 2024
A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent? By Ta-Nehisi Coates in Vanity Fair
"Last summer I spent ten days traveling the lands under Israeli rule. What I saw was hauntingly familiar. For as sure as my ancestors were born into a country where none of them was the equal of any white man, Israel is a state where no Palestinian is ever the equal of any Jewish person. In Israel itself, I met with Palestinians who were nominally empowered, with the right to vote. But whereas their Jewish countrymen could pass on their citizenship to their non-Israeli spouses, these Palestinians could not pass on citizenship to their spouses born a few miles away, in the West Bank or Gaza. Moreover, discrimination against them was perfectly legal. Frequently they were the subject of outright racism, as when Netanyahu warned his country during the 2016 election that “the right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.”
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are packed onto an archipelago of land. There they have enjoyed local elections through the Palestinian Authority. But that authority is still subordinate to Israeli rule,
which Palestinians can neither vote for or against. Meanwhile, their
neighbors, Israeli settlers, enjoy the full benefits of Israeli
citizenship. And then there is Gaza, which had alarmed
human rights advocates and public-health officials well before last
October. For 17 years, the people of Gaza have been trapped by a
blockade that extends across air, sea, and land. Gaza is commonly
referred to as the largest open-air prison in the world, and it is here
that so many American bombs have been dropped.
Israel and its defenders often claim that it is the “only democracy in the Middle East.” But what I saw was an ethnocracy, where half the people are first-class citizens, and the other half are something less. And this is a system sponsored and endorsed by the United States of America. The endorsement is not contradictory. For most of its history, America too was an ethnocracy in democratic clothing. The ostensible triumph over that old system, which we call Jim Crow, is one of the most uplifting stories America tells itself, one that has been repeatedly invoked at the DNC. How odd I find it that a people, presently brutalized by a similar system, whose relatives are being erased by that system’s wanton violence, are also being erased from the stage."
A Palestinian American’s Place Under the Democrats’ Big Tent?
Though
the Uncommitted movement is lobbying to get a Palestinian American on
the main stage, the Harris campaign has not yet approved one. Will there
be a change before Thursday—and does the Democratic Party want that?
[AS
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READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP
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conversations) THAT EMPOWER
DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE &
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Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Dear (elected officials): Israel, Palestine, Democracy... and the Rule of Fair and Just Laws & Policies- for a true and lasting peace
 |
| Protest for Palestine 2024 |
America has its Trail of Tears and Jim Crow laws IN THE PAST. The Nazi Holocaust with all its horrors is IN THE PAST... but armed Israeli bigotry, violence and injustice is going on right now.
Arab children are being terrorized and starved in Gaza by Israel,
because racist Israel wants Palestinians either dead or radicalized and
silenced.
Israel claims to be a democracy but Israel is obsessed with
demographics and with demonizing
Palestinians. That is clearly not a democratic value, nor is building a
land grabbing Apartheid Wall on illegally occupied territory- or
bombing refugee camps.
John Stewart has a recent show on the Israel/Palestine conflict "The Futile Crescent" where he makes jokes about American hypocrisy, and the
cruel craziness of Christian Zionism, but Stewart drops the ball totally
when it comes to seeing the full picture from 1948, when Zionists first
chose to impoverish and displace the native non-Jewish Population of
the Holy Land.
One state or two or three to end the Israel/Palestine conflict, a
lasting peace can only start with a fully secular understanding of
democracy... and the rule of fair and just laws.
After WWII the vital importance of respecting every refugee's inalienable right to return to original homes and lands was a known factor in building a better, more just world. Please start there- with full respect for basic human rights, including but not limited to UN Resolution 194 regarding the Palestinian refugees' right to return to original homes and lands.
We should be fully funding UNWRA.
We should not be funding racist Israel and its ongoing violations of
international law and the native non-Jewish Palestinians basic human
rights.
NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNWRA ‘at breaking point’ after $450m budget shortfall
The world should thank South Africa for standing against genocide in Gaza
The Guardian: Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians, United Nations rights expert say
US Air Force member died setting himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy Washington DC #FreePalestine Aaron Bushnell 1999-2024
Gary Burge, Wheaton College professor, explaining why he is no longer a Christian Zionist.
Famous #Gaza artist Fathi Ghaben passed away this morning while awaiting Israeli permission to travel abroad for medical treatment, despite numerous appeals.
The New Yorker: My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza by Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha
Jews don watermelon kippahs in Gaza solidarity #Palestine
Where you stand matters
Every nation that has divested funding from UNWRA is complicit in the starvation of human beings... and the torture of children
Our beloved "friend" Israel has been actively oppressing, demonizing, impoverishing, and displacing the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine and has been since 1948.
"I cannot understand how raw, naked evidence can be overridden by American intellectuals just because the “security” of Israel demands it" Edward Said
Violence is the feel good answer in movies & on TV- not in real life
Religion should be a personal choice, not a state funded project.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."
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