Monday, December 31, 2012

International solidarity with Palestinians a vital force for justice!


This young Palestinian, armed only with a slingshot, dodges a tear gas canister from Israeli soldiers using tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, & skunk bombs. The caption said, “clashes erupted” at a protest of Palestinians “against the construction of Israeli settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians.” Such a subtle way of describing settlers from places like Sheboygan, WI, Cincinnati, OH, & Kiev, Ukraine forcibly expropriating property that has belonged to Palestinian families for generations!

This is the weekly Friday protest held by Palestinian residents of the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh where the nearby Zionist settlement of Halamish has been engaged in land grabs since 1977 & in 2009 fenced off a vital spring on land privately owned by the Palestinian family of Bashir Tamimi. His nephew, Mustafa Tamimi, was killed by one of these tear gas canisters last December when an Israeli soldier shot him directly in the face with one.

This is a young man who’s been fighting his entire life against the predations & violence of Zionist expropriations & ethnic cleansing. He cannot hope to live a normal life without the big battalions of international solidarity actively rendering support--especially when the propaganda & military machines of several countries are directed at his jugular. Not everyone can march & rally but everyone can spread the word & tell the truth about what’s really going on between Israel & the Palestinians; everyone can join the boycott movement of Israeli products; & everyone can demand the US end aid to Israel & demand their own governments cease all complicity in Israel’s apartheid toward Palestinians.  (Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA)

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