by Sepi Alavi, Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation
The introduction of bill H.310, saying that standing against Apartheid Israel is anti-semitic is deliberately confusing anti -Zionism with anti-semitism. Zionism is a settler colonial political ideology and movement that emerged in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century with the aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, at a time when over 90% of the population was not Jewish. It’s spectrum of political ideologies that have in common the support for the continued existence of the present-day State of Israel as a Jewish state at the expense of the native population of Palestinian. Judaism is a monotheistic religion developed among the ancient Hebrews who believe in one transcendent God who revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and to conflate a religion with a violent settler colonial project is a method meant to confuse the rejection of a political system with that of a rejection of people who practice Judaism. In other words, an attempt to instill the fear of reasonable backlash of persecuting religious expression with the responsibility of rejecting state backed violence.
For nearly two years there has been a live stream of genocide taking place in Palestine, however, thanks to widespread censorship and media bias, I fear that many people in the United States haven’t seen the devastation taking place— Khaled Nabhan hugging the lifeless body of his three-year-old granddaughter, one year later, Khaled Nabhan dead in a targeted bombing, the 63 year-old woman holding a white flag during a forced evacuation of her neighborhood that got killed by a sniper, an eleven-year-old boy carrying his little brother’s body parts in a back—and I am concerned that this black out has blinded us to our responsibly.
While the International Court of Justice has found that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is entirely unlawful, that Israel practices apartheid and racial segregation, and that all States are under a duty to help bring this to an end—the United States has maintained it’s support of the Israeli government.
Palestinian survival does not depend on the end of Jewish people, it depends on Palestinians having equal rights in their own homeland. Palestinians are in a war against a corrupt system that disregards their human rights and personhood. They don’t care if it’s other Arabs, Christians, Ba’hai, or Buddhists that are slaughtering them. They just want to be treated as humans.
In the aftermath of the October 7th, The Lancet Medical Journal has estimated that at least 100,000 Palestinians have been killed by the IOF in Gaza (another 806 in the West Bank while eyes are on Gaza), and they believe that up to 600,000 Gaza residents will die due to the inevitable spread of disease and hunger that has begun. 1,332 Israelis have been killed by Hamas in the same time period. That puts the death rate of Palestinians at over 450 x the rate of Israeli deaths. Yet, our government has not only sent Israel $23 billion with no conditions, we also vetoed five UN Security Council resolutions demanding a ceasefire. This genocide is being perpetrated by Israel and by the United States. These two countries are blatantly dismissing the findings and rulings of the ICJ, the ICC, the UN, and this is VERY concerning.
The rise of anti-Middle Eastern sentiment and Islamiphobia (though let’s remember that the first Christians in the world were in fact Palestinian) is incredibly disturbing to me. The mere fact of needing to say, “Hey, let’s not fund the killing of civilians even if they are from the Middle East” is certainly chilling as someone who is herself Middle Eastern. Since October 7th there have been 18 hate crimes against Palestinians, and muslims here in the United States, three of them right here in Vermont. Since I was born an Iranian girl in United States, I have been at risk, amplified first by Sept.11th 2001, and now by the genocide in Palestine. If three teenagers can be shot for speaking Arabic and wearing keffiyeh in Burlington, how safe should I feel?
If the legislators of Vermont feel compelled to codify a bill requiring the Secretary of Education to develop a comprehensive antisemitism awareness education curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade—which I take no issue with—then it must also codify a bill requiring the development of antimuslim awareness education curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade. They must also hear all jewish voices, not just pro-Zionist ones. Our state government can not stifle the voices and needs of their constituents in fighting against state sponsored violence, both at home and abroad.