We Must Remember Deir Yassin

Speech given by Autumn Lake, member of the Anti-War Committee,  at Veterans for Peace’s Deir Yassin Remembrance on April 9, 2022.

Today is a solemn day for those of us who stand with the Palestinian freedom struggle. Today marks 74 years since nearly 200 men  women, and children were massacred by Zionist forces in the village of Deir Yassin. This was not the first massacre committed by Zionist forces. It is not even the largest. This massacre is significant, not just because of the Palestinian lives lost, but because it represents a turning point in the war to occupy and colonize Palestine. This massacre is emblematic of the ongoing Catastrophe that is the occupation of Palestine by the brutal Israeli apartheid regime.

Palestinians have faced more than 70 years of occupation, displacement, political repression, and outright violence since the Deir Yassin massacre. The biggest enabler and contributor to this violence is the United States.

At a conference in Washington D.C. on September 30th, 2013, then Vice President Joe Biden stated, “If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one to make sure our interests were preserved.” He went on to say, “America’s support for Israel’s security is unshakable, period.” Our current President has made it clear that propping up and funding this regime is in the political interests of the United States.

Every single year the U.S. gives billions in military aid to Israel. Every single year, money that could be used to provide people living in the U.S. with healthcare and housing is instead used to routinely violate Palestinian rights, to enforce illegal borders, to demolish homes and seize land, and to subject Palestinians to a system that international human rights organizations recognize as apartheid.

The legacy of the Deir Yassin massacre is one of continued repression and violence against the people of Palestine, backed and funded by the most powerful country in the world. However, there is another legacy that I want to draw attention to. It is a legacy of resistance. The villagers of Deir Yassin put up a valiant resistance to the militias terrorizing their home, and Palestinians to this day mount valiant resistance both in and outside of Palestine.

Likewise, we in the Anti-War Committee and the anti-war movement more broadly, are proud to share in that legacy of resistance. We are going to keep taking the streets. We’re going to keep taking a stand against the U.S.’s continued political and economic support of a devastatingly brutal apartheid state. We’re going to keep resisting and continue to fight for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. The movement will not stop until all of Palestine is free, from the river to the sea!