Anti-War Committee Stands with Gaza!
Anti-War Committee Stands with Gaza; Denounces Klobuchar for Meeting with AIPAC!
Speech by Autumn Lake in front of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office on April 5, 2019
As the 2020 presidential election cycle begins to ramp up, Minnesota’s own Democratic Party Senator Amy Klobuchar is depicting herself as the person best qualified to oppose Trump in the upcoming presidential election. She sees herself as a sensible and pragmatic politician, capable of putting partisan politics aside to reach across the aisle to the Republicans in order to engage in real problem solving. We, in the anti-war movement, recognize that reaching across the aisle to conservatives isn’t an act of maturity and practicality. It is a demonstration of the alignment of both parties with the worst aspects of American politics – corporatism, militarism, and racism.
No component of Klobuchar’s platform exemplifies this more than her consistent and enthusiastic support for the US’s aggressive foreign policy; when it comes to foreign intervention and militarism, her voting record looks like that of any of the worst Republicans that Congress has to offer. Like the most militant of warhawk politicians, this has led Klobuchar to portray herself as a friend of Israel. Her voting record includes the penalization of the BDS – Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement and authorizing President Donald Trump to transfer precision guided munitions to the Israeli State.
Israel’s own legacy of violence and repression doesn’t seem to factor into Klobuchar’s political platform. Almost ten thousand Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli repressive apparatus since Septmber 29th, 2000. Two thousand of those killed were children. Over six thousand Palestinians are being held as political prisoners in Israel. Almost fifty thousand Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967.
As Israel has intensified its efforts to disenfranchise, displace, and kill Palestinians in recent years, Klobuchar has not waivered in her support. Last year she could not help but relish in how much attention she received from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the March 2018 conference of AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Klobuchar said publicly that she would boycott the 2019 AIPAC conference but in March she met with AIPAC representatives in her office during that week in an effort to try to get votes as a presidential candidate. We are here to say that she can’t hide from us. We know she sides with AIPAC and are here to call her on her silence about the 56 children killed by Israel and the 120 children arrested within the occupied West Bank by Israeli Defense Forces in 2018. As her consituents we know her record and we aren’t going to let her claim that she “boycotted” the AIPAC conference or that she cares about the human rights of Palestinians!
Klobuchar’s open support of AIPAC is as damning as her own voting record. AIPAC is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, and has been lobbying in favor of Israel since 1963. AIPAC utilizes racist and Islamophobic tropes to deepen people’s hatred of Palestinians, and weaponizes this to justify Israel’s legacy of violence. Many of the wildest hopes and dreams of President Trump are already implemented in Israel, including the building of border walls and the exclusion of refugees. These violations of human rights are upheld in AIPAC and pushed to Congress with the enthusiastic support of 100,000 members and 17 offices. Make no mistake, our senator is aligned with an organization that promotes violence and the extermination of an indigenous people.
As Israeli forces continue to fire upon the Palestinian masses demanding the right to their homeland, free from violence, it is as important as ever that our politicians be held accountable to the people of Minnesota and our demand that the US end it’s support of Israel. We must continue to hit the streets and pressure our representatives to join progressives like Ilhan Omar in condemning US imperialism and Israeli apartheid.
End U.S. Aid to Israel!