On October 7, 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and took over 200 people hostage. While the loss of lives is heartbreaking, we must recognize that this violence did not occur in a vacuum. At the root cause of this violence is oppression, genocide and apartheid.

Since 1948, the Israeli government has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians out of their own land and has destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns. Since then, Palestinians are forced to reside in Israeli enclaves, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the several refugee communities. 

In each area, they are subject to different legal and administrative regimes.

In Israel, Palestinians are denied their right to equal nationality and status while Palestinians in occupied Palestinian territory face severe restrictions on freedom of movement. 

For 16 years, two million people in the Gaza Strip have been living under Israel’s military siege and blockade. They live in severe and dire conditions, such as shortages of housing, drinking water, electricity, medical care and food.

In response to the dehumanization that they have experienced, Palestinians in Gaza participated in nonviolent weekly mass protests from 2018 to 2019 called the Great March of Return, along the fence between Gaza and Israel. By the end of 2019, 214 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli forces with live ammunition.

It is clear that the goal of the Israeli government is to eradicate Palestine and Palestinians. Since the attack on Israel by Hamas, over 34,000 people have been killed by the Israeli government, and about 76,000 have been wounded. This was never about Hamas, this was about one thing: genocide.

On October 17, 2023, the Israeli government bombed a hospital in Gaza which killed 500 Palestinians. 

Zionism, a movement for the development and protection of a Jewish national state in Palestine, is violent and embedded in white supremacy. There is a clear oppressor and oppressed. This is not war nor a conflict.

Many Salisbury University students have been left feeling devastated over what is happening in Palestine.

A Muslim student on campus who wished not to be named believes that the oppression of Palestinians has forever been unjust and unfair. 

“The western media is pushing the lie that the people in Gaza have been doing the oppressing,” he said. “Joe Biden went on the news and lied about forty babies being beheaded by Hamas”.

“When Palestinians fight back due to seventy-five years of oppression, then everyone has a problem! America has been standing with Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, but they will not stand with Palestinians.”

Israel is not committing these heinous crimes alone; the United States is backing up these atrocities.

The United States has been sending Israel billions of dollars for years, and Israel’s biggest cumulative recipient is the U.S. The U.S. has provided Israel with 158 billion dollars in total and has pledged to provide thirty-eight billion dollars in military aid under the third ten year Memorandum of Understanding between Israel and the United States. 

Our taxpayer dollars are being used to fund genocide and war crimes.

A Palestinian student on campus who wished not to be named has been angry and devastated with the state of the current violence. 

“There has been illegal and racist occupation against the Palestinians since 1948 and Hamas did not even exist until 1987. Israel has been able to get away with war crimes, genocide, and apartheid against Palestinians for seven decades now,” they said. 

“I am extremely angry that our government can support the genocide against innocent civilians who have been under the illegal occupation from a racist government.” 

The student disagrees with the notion that Israel’s government is a democracy, and sees worrisome similarities between Israel and the United States. 

“I am not sure how the US government can think that Israel is a democratic country, especially since the Palestinians are deprived of very basic human rights every single day,” they said. “The United States and Israel are very similar since they were both created through the stealing of land, especially in extremely violent ways”.

Another Muslim student on campus who wished not to be named feels heartbroken for the people of Palestine and the plight they have suffered.

“The world needs to wake up; this issue has been going on for more than seventy five years,” she said. “When Palestinians try to return the favor, which was child’s play compared to what the Israeli government has done, people around the world are suddenly historians and politicians”.

She is ashamed that the tax dollars of US citizens has been used to facilitate the genocide, which has resulted in the deaths of innocent children and civilians. 

“The Israeli occupation literally broke all the principles of war, and our president still supports them because they benefit him,” she said. “The US pretends to be all about freedom, but it seems to me that it applies to only a certain group of people.”

Pro-Palestine protests and demonstrations, from Palestinian individuals and their Jewish allies, have broken out all over the world. 

Jewish Voice for Peace, the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world, has been organizing a grassroots intergeneration and multiracial movement of U.S. Jews in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle.

In response to Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7th, Jewish Voice for Peace stated that the current extent of the conflict and the past seventy five years of bloodshed is directly linked to U.S. complicity in Israel’s pernicious military operations. The organization condemned the U.S. for continuously aiding the apartheid regime of Israel. 

Everyone should be speaking on the atrocities that Israel is committing. Standing with Israel is standing with genocide. It is not anti-Semitic to stand up against an oppressive and apartheid state. Zionism is not Judaism.

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By JOSHUA WEEKS

Writer

Featured image courtesy of The Bury Post