Teach-in defends Palestinian people’s right to go home

Activists from many different communities gathered at the First Unitarian Church in New York City on Dec. 7 for a teach-in on Palestine sponsored by the Sharon Shapiro Peace Seminary. Shapiro, who died two years ago, was raised as a supporter of Israel but came to understand and support the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom. The event was co-chaired by her life partner, Dr. Ahmed Halima and Sara Flounders of the International Action Center. Halima spoke of how much support for Palestine had grown in the U.S. since he emigrated from Egypt 30 years ago. He praised those present who had struggled for decades to make this happen.

Speakers from many different backgrounds and movements gave their perspectives on the struggle in Palestine. Gail Miller and Jan and Aisha Rehman from Women of a Certain Age gave eyewitness accounts of the day-to-day brutality of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. The Rev. Joseph Ben David, 85, a former Israeli citizen who escaped Nazi persecution in his native Czechoslovakia, described his disillusion with the racism of the Zionist movement.

Michael Kramer, a U.S.-born veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces who served in the 1973 war, told of the vast scope of U.S. aid to Israel and supported the right of the Palestinian people to their own state in all of historic Palestine.

Labor activist Brenda Stokely, former president of District Council 1707 and a leader of the Million Worker March Movement, condemned union officials who spend their members dues on Israel bonds, which subsidize war and occupation. She pointed out that workers here and the people of Palestine have a common enemy, the racist U.S. corporate ruling class.

Lakota activist Tiokasin Ghost Horse compared the racist genocide committed against the Native people of the Western Hemisphere and the Native people of Palestine. He described the horrible poisoning of Native communities in Dakota and Montana by mining and chemical companies.

Artist Samia Halaby, whose home in Jaffa was stolen by Zionist settlers in 1948, spoke of Israel’s role in the service of U.S. corporate imperialism. “Israel will collapse as soon as its capitalist masters no longer need it or are able to pay for it” she said. “Their leaders and their principles will be part of the trash heap of history. That Palestinians continue to defend themselves by all means available to them is a cause for optimism. The struggle for New Orleans, for Palestine, for the liberation of the indigenous people of the Americas and the struggle of the New York transit workers are all one and the same because the enemy is one and the same. A strike by one is a strike for all.”

IAC co-director Sara Flounders described how oil interests have directed U.S. intervention in the Middle East from the 1948 creation of Israel to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Sharin Schiorazzo, the widow of Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel Muhti, spoke about the role of the U.S. corporate news media in “justifying” the persecution of the Palestinian people.

Author Lenni Brenner told of the history of collaboration between the Zionist movement and the Third Reich at the expense of the Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.

The final speakers of the day were youth from Al Awda—the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. Issa Mikel told of the growing world campaign against investment in Israel, similar to the divestment campaign against apartheid in South Africa.

Lubna Hamed exposed one of the hidden horrors of Israeli occupation, the mass imprisonment of Palestinian children. “At any one time at least 500 children are in Israeli prisons,” she said.

Ahmed Daib, who was born in a refugee camp in Syria, spoke of the Palestinian people’s right to return to their homes.

Rana Kassed, a leader of New York Al-Awda, said, “We will not be silenced or told what to say or believe! We are not just voices and opinions, we are a movement, and we Palestinians are not going anywhere!”