Temple students hold march for Palestine

Philadelphia — Temple University students held a “Disorientation rally” Sep. 4 for Palestine and against the war profiteers that the University’s Board of Trustees and administration support.Temple refuses to disclose investments and contracts the school holds with the military-industrial complex – companies such as Cisco Systems, Day & Zimmermann and the Hanwha group.

As President John Fry’s administration at Temple refuses to divest from companies that make genocide in Palestine possible, he extends his project of gentrification and displacement in North Philadelphia.

The billionaires on Temple’s Board of Trustees get richer at the same time they claim austerity forces them to fire 40 faculty members.

The protest was a welcome sign that students will not stay quiet as the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine continues, but there are important developments that have a large bearing on Palestine that weren’t mentioned.

Oppose aggression against Lebanon and Iran too

By not raising the current U.S.-Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon or the hot imperialist war against Iran, an opportunity was lost to expose U.S. aggression in West Asia that has a large effect on the Palestinian struggle for sovereignty. 

Iran has supported the struggle of Palestinians in multiple ways ever since its revolution in 1979, including militarily. No other West Asia government comes close to what Iran has done for the Palestinian struggle for freedom. A major goal of the current U.S. war there, besides gaining access to 10% of the world’s total petroleum reserves in Iran, is ending Iran’s political and military aid to Palestine.

Over half a million Palestinians live in Lebanon, refugees from as far back as the Nakba in 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries violently displaced and dispossessed hundreds of thousands from their homes and land. 

Since March, Zionist forces have occupied southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, covering nearly a tenth of Lebanese territory, killing thousands  of people, displacing over one million and purposely destroying critical infrastructure, including hospitals, water and power facilities. 

As Zionists and imperialists try to eliminate real solidarity with Palestine from Lebanon and Iran, the role of pro-Palestine activists in the U.S. should be to organize opposition to all of these military aggressions that harm the ability of Palestinians to resist and that aim to impose imperialist control of the region and its resources.

U.S. out of West Asia now!