Democratic Double Standard
Updated 2023-11-21
2023-11-07 Democrats Cannot “Have Double Standards”: An Interview With State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid As the Israeli military continues an unprecedented assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, with the death toll of Palestinians reaching more than 10,000 at the time this article is being published, local and national elected officials have been weighing in — with the overwhelming majority boasting unequivocal support for the Israeli government and endorsing the billions that President Joe Biden wants to hand over to fuel Israel’s war machine. (The White House even pushed for a measure that effectively gives Israel a check to purchase $3.5 billion in arms in complete secrecy.)
There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, making the call for a cease-fire come from just over 5%. Even stalwart progressive champions like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are not calling for a cease-fire (Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin on Nov. 2 became the first senator to call for a cease-fire).
And while the assault on Gaza has much of the world’s attention, settlers in the West Bank are increasingly committing acts of violence against Palestinians and working to drive Palestinians from their homes. In one case, near Nablus, an Israeli settler shot and killed a Palestinian man who was harvesting olives. In an article for In These Times, Ryah Aqel also described the wanton violence of extremist settlers in the South Hebron Hills.
Since the beginning of their assault on Gaza, the Israeli government has also captured and imprisoned some 2,000 Palestinians from the West Bank — many of them being held in administrative detention which allows the Israeli government to jail them without charges or trial. This is on top of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners already being held (there are now more than 10,000 imprisoned Palestinians).
These cases and what Rashid’s family faced this summer are an example of what advocates for Palestine mean when they say, “History didn’t start on October 7.” It should not surprise us that Israel is acting in a way that is violating basic human decency, violating international law, committing war crimes in Gaza. The Israeli government is completely and utterly unhinged and has been for a long time, which is why we’re seeing the devastation that we’re seeing in Gaza. The idea that any civilized country would order the evacuation of 1.1 million people over a 24-hour period with nowhere to go, and then bomb them as they’re going to those places and bomb the streets and order evacuations of hospitals as those hospitals are treating people and then attack a hospital, killing 500 Palestinians — this is not normal. This is consistent with the genocidal language that ministers in the Israeli government have been using for quite some time.
I’ve said this, but I want to reiterate it, which is that it is absolutely imperative that elected officials — and particularly those in the Democratic Party who are trying to build a coalition of constituencies to support Democrats — not have double standards when it comes to human rights and democracy. Something as simple as a cease-fire should have been called for long ago. Accountability for Israel, for Netanyahu and his far-right government is something that people have to really reckon with. And I’m talking about Democratic elected officials all the way up to the President, and particularly those in Washington, D.C. If we want to have peace and safety for Palestinians and for Israelis, and if we want to address the so many other important issues around the environment, around reproductive health, around education and student debt, we need a movement of people with us and we cannot completely throw Palestinian, Arab and progressive voices for human rights to the side and expect that there won’t be a reaction. https://inthesetimes.com/article/abdelnasser-rashid-palestine-gaza-israel-chicago-democrats-turmusaya
.
Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
.
progressiveissuesblog 