Solidarity with Palestine on Land Day
Speech given by Rhea Smykalski on March 30, 2018 for the Anti-War Committee’s #LandDay protest
As we all know, today is Land Day. In 1976, over 40 years ago, Palestinians organized a protest in response to the Israeli government confiscating more land to expand Jewish settlements. That day, the Israel Defense Force killed 6 young Palestinians. Today we commemorate their memory and continue to protest the Israeli government’s seizure of Palestinian land. On this historic day we protest with Palestinians across the world for the right to return and for freedom for their homeland.
This year the world’s attention has turned to Palestine as Ahed Tamimi’s case gained notoriety. Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, triggered massive protests. Ahed’s 14 year old cousin was hit point-blank in the face by a rubber bullet and had to be put into a medically induced coma, and while she confronted Israeli soldiers during these protests, she kicked and slapped a soldier. Ahed was detained at a raid in her home, and her mother and cousin were also detained soon after. She was indicted on 12 charges including assault, and spent her 17th birthday in military custody. Just recently she took a plea bargain to plead guilty to several of the charges and will serve eight months in jail. Her mother will serve jail time alongside her, merely for fighting back against the apartheid they have endured their entire lives.
Unfortunately, Ahed is not the first child prisoner of the Israeli government. In fact, children are routinely imprisoned and arrested merely on suspicion, without arrest warrants, and in the middle of the night in order to terrorize them and their families. Israel is the only country in the world that prosecutes children in military courts. It is estimated that over 12,000 Palestinian children have been arrested and prosecuted in since 2000. The treatment of children by Israel runs counter to international human-rights law and international humanitarian law, but that hasn’t stopped Israel from blindfolding and restraining children with shackles and handcuffs, placing them in solitary confinement, beating them, and refusing them food and water. Children as young as 10 have been imprisoned, but just this week, a three year old child was briefly detained for allegedly throwing stones. When a toddler is treated as a threat, something is grossly wrong with the system. Fortunately, he was returned to his parents.
And the U.S. is funding all of this. The U.S gives Israel 3.8 billion dollars every year. It is our responsibility to demand that the U.S. stops funding this occupation. Those tax dollars should be spent on U.S. problems like providing safe water in Flint Michigan, and providing electricity and AID to Puerto Rico, but are instead being used to brutalize Palestinians in their own homes.
Israel would like the world to believe that this conflict is a religious war, but make no mistake, it’s all about land. And as long as the occupation stands, as long as children are being kidnapped from their beds in the middle of the night, and school girls are shot in the streets, there can be no peace in Palestine. Without justice, peace is an empty promise with one side heavily armed and systematically oppressive while the other side is fighting simply to exist. We in the U.S. must do everything we can to put an end to this by supporting our Palestinian sisters and brothers through boycotts and solidarity actions like this one, and by demanding an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA – PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.