Palestine is Real
The reality of Palestinians is one where robbery is rewarded, & genocide and apartheid are upheld on lies of democracy and self-preservation. On a small sliver of land we are witnessing a brutal repetition of history, proudly brandished and backed by the same villains that created the blueprint of colonialism. The erasure of Palestine & the long, brutal devastation of its people is a living tragedy among us, as well as a reminder of the countless historical injustices inflicted on Indigeous peoples around the world.
The Zionist agenda began long before the mess of World Wars that politically led to the formation of Israel. The state is manufactured by the West to serve militaristic interests and protect white interests - economically, politically, and religiously. To ignore the truth of this issue is to become more and more complicit to the injustices of the Palestinians and the longer history of what this issue represents. Yet, it’s easy to understand why—despite the clear atrocities inflicted on Palestinians—the conflict is still largely misunderstood. This is mainly due to the propaganda, lies, and marketing efforts enlisted to manufacture consent of the masses. Such as, spending $7.1 million alone on Youtube ads targeted towards Western countries since the events of October, or lying about the beheadel of 40 babies, & indiscriminately killing Israelis and blaming their deaths on Hamas. For the most part these lies have been effective on the public, but even when these sloppy acts are uncovered or challenged, they mock our helplessness against their iron fist, and to throw salt on the wound, call us anti-Semitic.
This poster lauding the Fatah movement and Afro-Palestinian unity was made in Arabic, French and English by the French photographer Guy Le Querrec and is part of a series promoting the Pan-African Cultural festival. (Guy Le Querrec)
What is a “Birth-Right”?
Personally, I do not believe in Israel’s right to exist. As bold as that may sound, there are many people in the Jewish community who would agree with me. Jewish people could peacefully live in Palestine well before the formation of Israel, hold on to their identities, worship from sacred sites that were protected and preserved, and were in fact welcomingly accepted by Palestinians as they escaped persucution - but since the day of occupation the same cannot be said for an Arab Muslim or Christian living in Israel. For Arab Jews, also referred to as Mizrahi (Eastern or Oriental Jews) who emigrated to Palestine under this “birth-right”, their clear second-class status and discrimination demonstrates the racial bias inherent in Zionism. Accounts report spraying non-white Jewish immigrants with DDT radiation that caused ringworm among other terminal illnesses, forced them into transitory housing & subsequently slums, and overall created vast inequity in education, housing, power, and resources.(See right image below.) White Jewish people from around the world have the “right to return” to a place they have never even seen before and yet, Palestinians who still hold the keys to homes they were expelled from, can’t even rent it on Airbnb. Here we have a broader religious community of about 15 million people, who although are not all Zionists, have a claim to the land by jurisdiction of the Israeli state and could treat it as a real-estate project at their choosing; and an ethnic group of 14 million Palestinians, facing 100 years of growing persecution with half of them living as refugees in other countries.
The “birth-right” for Zionists is predicated on their forced expulsion from the region during Bibilical times, around 2600 years ago. Though Palestinian history may seem difficult to trace given the multiple empires that they survived through, the earliest mentioned Palestinian people were in fact contemporaries of their Israelite neighbors, who are nearly impossible to trace in comparison. The term Palestine dates back to 12th century BC, where it was used by the Greeks to denote the region along the Mediterranean Coast. Despite the fluidity of boundaries the term Palestinian came to define all who occupied the region from Gaza to east of the Jordan River regardless of their religious affiliation. Following the first World War, Britain seized all territories that once fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Eventually, each of these areas became independent states with the clear exception of Palestine. The British had other plans for Palestine and its people - plans made clear in 1917 with their historical Mandate, which included both “the rendering of administrative assistance and advice” over the territory and the Balfour Declaration, which expressed support for the European Zionist movement by means of “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. During WWII this agenda was halted as Western allies relied on the support of Middle Eastern territories like Egypt to fight on their lands and assist them in their political goals. As soon as the war had finished their agenda returned in full force, especially with the events of the Holocaust, which were tragically used as rhetoric to endorse another ethnic cleansing.
Balfour Declaration, Letter to Lord Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family.
Jews in the Middle East Fact Sheet, Jewish Voice for Peace. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JVP-Jews-of-the-middle-east-fact-sheet.pdf
The Neverending Nakba
In traditional colonial fashion, the land was to be stolen for the preservation and political power of European peoples at the expense and lives of Indigenous peoples. As tensions began to arise, the British handed off the issue to the jurisdiction of the UN, which offered a two-state solution, giving the region a Jewish majority while “granting Palestinians a state”. Palestinians and the Arab world rejected this proposition, deeming it unfair as they were forcibly expelled from their land and territories with Jewish militias invading their villages. Despite the injustice of this proposition, the state of Israel continues to take more than even what had been offered to them by the UN, immediately seizing more than 80% of the territory. For Palestinians, this moment of terror is marked by the first Nakba in 1948, Arabic for “catastrophe”, when more than half of the Palestinian population was permanently displaced during the Arab-Israeli War. And yet, nakba never ended.
Part of the Zionist mission includes the propogandic sweep of misinformation, the silencing of the Palestinian peoples, and the rehistoricization of the landscape, all of which continue to this day. The names of hundreds of Palestinian cities were changed and Hebraized in 1948, which Palestinians consider to be part of their Nakba. Israel has become a Biblical Disneyland, which has garnered support from Christian communities like Evangelicals, who support Zionism with the belief that it will summon the return of Jesus and Armageddon will be among us. Through this archaelogical mission, Palestinian sites are continuously razed, looted, and frequently planted with artifacts that are tied to the Bible. There are plenty of accounts of forged, looted, and smuggled antiquities traded by Israeli settlers over the course of their occupation. With the understanding that profits are being made off of archaelogical trades taken from Palestinian land, it adds to the economic injustice and erasure of Palestinian people who lose title to these historic findings while the Israeli state legitimizes its international existence with them.
Many scholars advocate for peace by means of a two-state solution, but I for one believe that is entirely impossible given the ferocity with which the land was colonized. To live peacefully in what is referred to as “the world’s largest open air prison” in a land that generations of your blood have existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years, is not peace—it is submission to death. Just as Indigenous peoples in the United States were historically murdered & moved by the masses into federally reserved lands, the Palestinians suffer the same fate. Just as the West has cut up territories across the world with little consideration for the existing peoples and tribes, the effort to erase Palestine has taken place over 100 years in order to replace it with a Western image of a once universal Holy Land.
Militarization of a Manufactured Nation
Israel’s greatest ally is the United States, who in many ways served as the historical blueprint for the former. Over the past several decades the U.S. has partnered with Israel for the development of military technology and testing on Palestinian civilians, helping maintain something referred to as a Qualitative Military Edge (QME), through the use of advanced weaponry like F-35 fighter jets and missle defenses like the infamous Iron Dome. Joe Biden most recently sent an unprecedent US aid package to Israel in the amount of $14.3 billion, but this number is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount sent over the years. Totaling up to an outrageous $317.9 billion, Israel is the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II. Given the fact that America’s war economy and pivotal stance during World War II is what enabled its gross international authority, it is no surprise that the U.S. is digging its teeth deeply into its militaristic agendas whie simultaneously upholding the state it created after these wars. Meanwhile, the needs of the American people are continuosly unmet and deteriorating. Student loan forgiveness was denied, housing rates continue to rise astronomically, the minimum wage has yet to be addressed, the healthcare system is a disaster, and the list goes on and on.
BIBI STAR Palestine is Real Tee shot in Gaza Pyramid Complex in Cairo, Egypt 2022.
Unlike the U.S., Israel mandates every citizen or person of resident serve in the Israeli Defense Force, also commonly known as the IDF, men for 3 years and women for 2. But, how can it be self-defense when you are a soldier on stolen land that you have pillaged and destroyed? The name itself is another propagandic ploy that asserts Israel’s right to self-determination. In fact, the D in Defense that Israel’s soldiers are titled after is intended for their role in defending the territory from surrounding Muslim countries. This ties together the larger military campaigns the U.S. and its allies have engaged in the Middle East and the rampant Islamaphobia that is used to justify them. The debates of Hamas’ terrorism is weaponized much like the events of 9/11 were used to kill nearly half a million civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about 5 million others indirectly (and that’s just what was being reported), despite the lack of Iraqi or Afghan involvement in the act.
In addition, Palestinians are tried in Israeli military courts under military law, whereby IDF soldiers serve as judges, many detainees are often held without trial, and conviction rates approach 100 percent. As of right now, an estimated 7,000 Palestinians are in prison, including many minors and activists. with nearly 2,900 of those detainees held without trial. Just recently, 240 Palestinians detained or imprisoned by Israel were released, most of them were women and children. Majority of those freed had never been convicted of a crime, or tried in court. Israel’s practice of administrative detention allows Palestinian detainees to be held for months or years without charge or trial. These tragic convictions rip innocent Palestinians from their families and subject them to torture by the state. Those who suffer an offense frequently are charged with actions they commite against settler raids on their towns and engagement with protests.
As America continues to tighten its grip on international affairs, in yet another agression against human rights, the Palestine issue begs the question of when and how it will be stopped. I believe the problem must be addressed in the acknowledgment of the brutal history of the Palestinian people and a firm stand against their injustice and imperialism at large. U.S. institutions, from the CIA to universities across the country, have launched many campaigns against public allyship & solidarity with Palestinians and that is for good reason. Standing together in the face of shared struggle highlights the power of the masses who have a common enemy, and could trigger the onset of a necessary and long overdue revolution for our rights.
With our protest tee, Palestine Is Real, we hope to shed light on the conflict and trigger conversations that lead to the exposure of these injustices. It is time to stand up against the lies of Israel and its vicious allies. In this pursuit, the truth will set us free.
“In 1967, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) ran a newsletter entitled Third World Roundup: The Palestinian Problem: Test Your Knowledge, in which it listed 32 factual claims about the history of colonialism in Palestine and the impact of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Ethel Minor, who had worked with Malcolm X before his assassination in 1965, wrote the column for the SNCC and it became an influential piece that not only offered a counter perspective to the mainstream media narrative on Israel-Palestine, but served as a basis of shared struggle that linked Black activism in the US with Palestine.” (SNCC archive & Salaam Awad, Middle East Eye)
THE PALESTINE PROBLEM: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE (1967)
THAT Zionism, which is a worldwide nationalistic Jewish movement, organized, planned and created the "State of Israel" by sending Jewish immigrants from Europe into Palestine (the heart of the Arab world) to take over land and homes belonging to the Arabs?
THAT in this operation, they received maximum help, support and encouragement from Great Britain, the United States, and other white western colonial governments?
THAT organized Jewish Zionism dates back to 1897, when the first Zionist Congress was held in Basle? The program adopted at the Congress was "To create for the Jewish People a home in Palestine secured by public law." Thus began the Palestine Problem, which led to the present Arab-Israeli conflict.
THAT Britain took control of Palestine at the end of World War 1, and working hand-in-hand with European Zionist Jews, such as Lord Rothschild, set forth the Balfour Declaration? Thus, in 1917, Palestine became a world problem.
THAT the Balfour Declaration stated that the British Government was in favor of establishing a National Home for the Jewish People in Palestine, but, at the same time contradicted itself and said that nothing should be done to damage the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine (Arabs)
THAT the British Mandate Government of Palestine along with the Zionists immediately began to encourage European Jews to immigrate to Palestinein spite of the fact that in 1917, more than 90 per-cent of the population of Palestine were Arabsand there were no more than 56,000 Jews in Palestine?
THAT more than half of the 56,000 Jews living in Palestine at that time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine only a few years before to escape persecution in Europe and had been welcomed by the native Palestinian Arab people with open arms, living in peace side-by-side with the Arabs? That, in 1917, less than 5 per cent of the population of Palestine were native Palestine Jews?
THAT the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97½ per cent of the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent immigrants together owned only 2½ per cent of the land?
THAT during 30 years of British occupation and rule, the Zionists were able to purchase only 3½ per cent of the land of Palestine, in spite of encouragement by the British government? And that much of this land was transferred to Zionist bodies by the British government directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
THAT, therefore, when Britain passed the Palestinian Problem to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than 6 per-cent of the total land area of Palestine? At that time there were 1.3 million Arabs and 650,000 recent Jewish immigrants living in Palestine.
THAT in spite of these facts, the General Assembly of the United Nations, in 1947, recommended that a “Jewish State” be established in Palestine?... And that, furthermore, the U.N. granted the proposed “State” about 54 per-cent of the total area of Palestine, which included the coastal fertile and irrigable lands, leaving the Arabs dry mountainous areas, with little or no irritation possibilities.”
THAT the Zionists (Israeli) armies immediately occupied (and still occupy) more than 80 per-cent of the total land area of Palestine?
THAT this conquest of Arab land took place, for the most part, before May 15, 1948 before the formal end of British rule, before the Arab armies entered to protect Palestinian Arabs, and before the Arab Israeli War?
THAT the Arab States had to send their poorly trained and ill-equipped armies against the superior western trained and supported Israeli forces, in a vain effort to protect Arab lives, property and Arab rights to the land of Palestine? That this was the formal beginning of the Arab-Israeli War?
THAT the Zionists conquered the Arab homes and land through terror, force, and massacres? That they wiped out over 30 Arab villages before and after they took control of the area they now call “Israel”
THAT the Zionist terror gangs (Haganah, Irgun, and Stern gangs) deliberately slaughtered and mutilated women, children and men, thereby causing the unarmed Arabs to panic, flee and leave their homes in the hands of the Zionist-Israeli forces.
THAT three are still over one million Palestinian Arab refugees living in the Arab countries that surround Israel, that they are still homeless, penniless, and live off of United Nations charity?
THAT under the Charter of the United Nations the U.N. General Assembly had no legal right to recommend the 1947 Partition Plan which created the “Jewish State?”
THAT all attempts by the Arab States and other Asian countries to have the U.N. Assembly test the legality of this plan before the International Court of Justice were rejected or ignored by the Assembly?
THAT the original 1947 Partition Plan was approved, at the first vote, only by white European, American and Astralasian [sic] states, that every African and Asian state voted against it? And that, in the second vote, urgent United States pressures (which a member of the Truman cabinet called “bordering onto scandal”) had succeeded in forcing only one Asian country (the Philippines) and one African country (Liberia) both controlled by “Uncle Sam,” to abandon their opposition. IN OTHER WORDS, ISRAEL WAS PLANTED AT THE CROSSROADS OF ASIA AND AFRICA WITHOUT THE FREE APPROVAL OF ANY MIDDLE-EASTERN, ASIAN OR AFRICAN COUNTRY!
THAT Israel has remained a total stranger in the Afro-Asian world, that Israel has never been allowed to attend any conference of the African, Asian, or Afro-Asian states
THAT, ever since the Armistice Agreements were signed in 1949, Israel has continued to cross the Demarcation Lines, invade the neighboring Arab states, and make commando raiders against the Arab people? And that the U.N has condemned Israel for these attacks on at least eleven occasions.
THAT no Arab State has ever been condemned by the U.N. for military attacks against Israel.
THAT in the U.N. Resolution, December 11, 1948, Israel was granted admission to the U.N. only if she agreed to repatriate Arab refugees compensation for property losses; but Israel has refused to do this, in spite of the fact that every year, the U.N. has called on Israel to honor the original resolution.
THAT Israel segregates those few Arabs who remained in their homeland, that more than 90 per-cent of these Arabs live in “Security Zones,” under Martial Law, are not allowed to travel freely within Israel, and are the victims of discrimination in education, jobs etc.
THAT dark skinned Jews from the Middle-East and North Africa are also second-class citizens in Israel, that the color line puts them in inferior position to the white, European Jews?
THAT the United States has constantly supported Israel and Zionism by sending military and financial aid to this illegal state ever since it was forced upon the Arabs in 1948?
THAT the U.S. Government has worked along with Zionist groups to support Israel so that America may have a toe-hold in that strategic Middle-East location, thereby helping white America to control and exploit the rich oil deposits of the Arab nations?
THAT not only have American Zionists and their cousins in Europe poured billions of dollars into Israel since it’s [sic] founding, but they have also promoted a propaganda campaign to cover up their true aims, plans, objectives? That they have prevented the world from knowing the truth of the Palestine Arab refugees who were and still are victims of Zionist, British, and U.S. Aggression against them?
THAT several American and European Jews, who are not Zionists and cannot support the horrors committed by Zionists in the name of Judaism, have spoken out and condemned the Zionist distortions of the Jewish religion; but their opinions are never printed in the zionist controlled press or other communications media?
THAT the famous European Jews, the Rothschilds, who have long controlled the wealth of many European nations, were involved in the original conspiracy with the British to create the “State of Israel” and are still among Israel’s chief supporters? THAT THE ROTHSCHILDS ALSO CONTROL MUCH OF AFRICA’S MINERAL WEALTH?
THAT under the disguise of “foreign aid,” the Israeli Histadrut (Labor Organization) has gone into African countries, tried to exploit and control their economies, and sabotaged African liberation movements, along with any other African movements or projects opposed by the United States and other white western powers?
