We, Palestinian-led organizations in the United States, are issuing an urgent call and a warning to President Biden. Palestinians in Gaza are facing the threat of extermination or expulsion, and this administration is greenlighting it. Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip is the latest chapter in the ongoing Nakba, which began in 1948. Then, like now, Israel’s colonial regime is trying to erase Palestinian life in Palestine under the fog of war.
1.5 million Palestinians are crowded in Rafah. The majority have been displaced from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip over the course of the last 132 days. The majority were already refugees before October, forced to flee from homes across Palestine. With this assault, Israel is pursuing plans to depopulate Rafah, pushing a population it has starved into the Sinai Peninsula, in a continuation of its century-long attempt to cleanse Palestine of all Palestinians.
The world has watched this unfold, streaming horrors in real-time, scenes that will be embedded in our memories for centuries to come. Yet, even as we cry out for justice, the leaders of the so-called free world, led by Biden and Congress, continue to fuel the flames of destruction with their unrelenting support for Israel. The most bone-chilling part of this all is the public gloating and encouragement of our destruction, by Israeli and US officials alike, without consequence. We cannot, we must not, let Rafah fall under the shadow of yet another joint US-backed Israeli assault meant to drive Palestinians into the desert and into permanent exile. We Palestinians know that when we leave our homes, Israel works to ensure we cannot go back. This cannot be repeated.
Palestinians in the United States have watched our government’s complicity in what US courts and the International Court of Justice have described as a genocidal campaign. We have watched the Biden administration state “no red lines” on Israel, and instead, rush even more weapons, veto ceasefire resolutions, and block humanitarian aid, enabling every step of this genocide.
We also know that the horrors of today are the culmination of a 100-year process of dehumanization, dispossession, fragmentation, and suppression of Palestinians. With a blank check from the US, Apartheid Israel has thrived.
Through a century of Zionist colonization and 75 years of an ongoing Nakba, our Palestinian people continue, against all odds, to collectively struggle against our erasure. We are still here, whether on our lands or in our communities in exile, demanding a future of freedom, justice, and dignity between the river and the sea. The international community thought Palestinians would accept their permanent subjugation. But the history of colonized people tells a different story. The next 100 years will be our century of liberation, and it begins with protecting Rafah, protecting Gaza, and ending US complicity in apartheid and genocide.
We all recognize the unwillingness of Western world leaders to contend with the damage and destruction they cause both at home and abroad. We are living through complete obliteration: a human and climate disaster that will mark the earth for centuries to come, permanent environmental destruction through chemical and arms pollution, and an enduring trauma that will alter the DNA of humanity.
What happens in Gaza is about much more than freedom for Palestine and our return to our homes. The struggle for Gaza is a struggle of all oppressed peoples. This is why we have seen so many rise up and join our struggle.
The weapons of destruction, the tactics of dehumanization, the open complicity of the US in the face of genocide—these are the same tools that threaten us all. From immigrants and minorities, to workers and all the oppressed, the specter of white supremacy and racism looms large. We call on everyone of you who reads these words to not stay silent, not stay seated. Rise up. To those who have been on the streets with us, do not tire. Do not allow the inhumanity to become normalized. Disrupt the complacency of everyday life, and refuse to turn a blind eye to the genocide unfolding before us.
TAKE ACTION ON PRESIDENTS DAY
- Adalah Justice Project
- American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
- Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action)
- Arab Resource and Organizing Center
- Palestine Legal
- Palestinian Feminist Collective
- Palestinian Youth Movement
- US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
- US Palestinian Community Network
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