The silence is deafening on Palestinian suffering

Missiles overhead, loss of innocent lives, forced displacement order.

Military raids, villages on fire, children screaming in horror. Ethnic cleansing, violent massacres, and military checkpoints at every corner. Russian invasion of Ukraine? No. This is the last 75 years in Palestine under Israeli occupation and oppression.

The Nakba, meaning “Catastrophe” as Palestinians call it, is commemorated on May 15. This past May marked 75 years since Palestinians were initially forced out of their homes, witnessed their family members massacred, and watched helplessly as Israeli militias assumed control of their homeland of centuries. This is where the suffering all began.

What led to this tragic event?

Theodor Hertzl initially proposed the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1896 as a response to widespread antisemitism. Hertzl’s proposal was catapulted forward in 1917 when the British adopted the “Balfour Declaration,” a promise to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, thereby transforming Palestine from an Arab, predominantly Muslim country – one which largely embodied the essence of coexistence and inclusion for all faiths – into what is intended to be an exclusively Jewish homeland.

The Nakba refers to the catastrophe of 1948, where Zionist forces destroyed 500 Palestinian villages and displaced over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in order to establish a Jewish state. The Nakba continued as the world watched and in June 1967 Israel took political control, permanently occupying the rest of Palestine as well as taking the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. In this escalation, another 400,000-plus Palestinians, Syrians, and Egyptians were sent fleeing as refugees again.

It was after this event that the U.S. would become the primary political, economic, and military support for Israel, which today amounts to $3.8 billion of American tax money annually in military aid. As part of this support, the U.S. has used its special veto power as one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council to veto 53 resolutions that hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and human rights against Palestinians.
Last November, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to recognize the 75th anniversary of the Nakba in Palestine.

Fast forward to today and the situation continues to worsen on the ground with the latest surveillance technologies and the harshest restrictions on movement implemented against Palestinians all in an effort to maintain Israeli control and exacerbate harsh living conditions for Palestinians, particularly in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

With the most right-wing, extremist government ever elected currently holding office, it is no surprise that there has been a rise in Israeli settler pogroms, Israeli military violence, and invasions of Palestinian villages.

Israeli government officials and Journalists of mainstream news outlets are making comments such as the following:

“Palestine must be obliterated.” So wrote the Times of Israel Blogger Jeffery Camras in a recently published (and subsequently removed) article on the popular Israeli media outlet.

“I think the Palestinian village of Huwara needs to be wiped out.” So said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank. “I think the State of Israel should do it,” he reiterated.

The consensus among the world’s leading human rights organizations – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN’s own special rapporteur, as well as Israeli human rights organization B’tselem – is that Israel is practicing apartheid and that it must end its siege on Gaza and military occupation of the West Bank.

Regrettably, little has changed in the years that followed the Nakba. The current Israeli government emphasizes its sole right to the entire land as it follows through with the ideals of Zionism in establishing a Jewish homeland.

Sadly, this translates into continued demolition of villages, indiscriminate killing of Palestinians, and illegal annexation and occupation of territory slowly encroaching upon what little land the Palestinian people have left. From the socioeconomic disparities Palestinians face every day, to the little-to-no political representation, it has only worsened since the Nakba.

The situation is getting worse by the day, and the role the U.S. government and citizens play continues to be an influential one. Public education on this global justice issue is crucial towards realizing the prayers, hopes, and dreams of millions of people to create justice, freedom, and ultimately peace in Palestine/Israel and in the spirit of the golden rule of loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

We invite you to engage distinguished panelists in an educational panel and community discussion on Sept. 12 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the New Science Center Auditorium on the Johnson C. Smith University campus to explore the current reality of Palestine/Israel and how we arrived at this point.

Panelists:
Ayah Ziyadeh
Dr. Ilise Cohen
Obaidah Mohammad
Dr. Zachary Foster

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