Mobilizations of university students in almost the entire country in repudiation of Washington’s complicity with Tel Aviv

▲ March for the Palestinian cause yesterday in Manhattan, New York.Photo Ap

Jim Cason and David Brooks

Correspondents

La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, October 8, 2024, p. 21

Washington and New York. Politicians from both national parties marked the anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel with almost no recognition of the toll of death and suffering in Palestinian communities and others in the Middle East due to Tel Aviv’s war actions. nor the political consequences within the United States due to Washington’s complicity in the Israeli offensive in the region, condemned above all by young people, Arab Americans and anti-war Jews, which could determine the immediate political future of this country.

The US government, with the broad consensus of the country’s political leadership, has provided $17.9 billion in military assistance to Israel since the start of the war, according to the Costs of War project. At their memorial events yesterday, President Joe Biden, Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and Republican candidate Donald Trump spoke about the brutality of Hamas, but none condemned in specific and direct terms Israel’s brutal war that has left almost 42 thousand Palestinians dead and that is now expanding in the region. For almost all of official Washington, Hamas is solely responsible for the deaths and suffering in the region.

Security measures around the White House were expanded with new fences and emergency vehicles protecting the Executive Headquarters, and additional measures were announced in cities such as New York and others, as well as in universities in various parts of the country, in anticipation of preparations. for commemoration events both for the Israeli victims of the attack a year ago, and for protests in repudiation of the genocide against Palestinians.

Movement against war policies and complicities

The political ground on this issue is shifting in the United States. While some memorial events were held for Israeli victims, there were hundreds of protests against Israel’s war in the country, especially by students at universities, part of an unprecedented movement against Israel’s war policies and American complicity that broke out on last year.

In New York there were rallies and marches of protest against Israel’s war and American complicity on Wall Street, Washington Square and Harlem, led by students from several universities. At Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s student protests and where the rector was fired for her handling of these expressions, there was a large security operation to prevent groups from entering the campus, while young people demonstrated inside, while others participated in pro-Israel events. For the past few days, students there have been reading aloud the names of Palestinians killed during the war.

Students for Justice in Palestine reported demonstrations at universities in Virginia, Texas, Colorado, California, Maryland and North Carolina, among other states. In Washington, the Jewish group If Not Now organized an event to remember lost Palestinian and Jewish lives.

More than 700,000 people in the country, including tens of thousands in key states that will determine the outcome of the election in a month, voted uncommitted in the Democratic Party primaries as an act of repudiation of the position of unconditional support for Israel, first by then-candidate Biden and now by Harris. On the other hand, it is also significant that Israel’s war in Gaza and now in the region has sparked protests by American Jews and has united a fragmented Arab American community. Furthermore, it has led to coalitions of war opponents that include, and are sometimes led by, Jews and Muslims.

“Polls over the past year have consistently found that Gen Z and millennials “They tend to sympathize at higher rates than older people with the Palestinians and want the United States to stop supporting Israel’s war effort,” Axios reported last week. With young people lobbying their politicians, and eventually coming to power themselves, American politics could begin to change in profound ways. around that region.

Vice President Harris held a meeting with leaders of the Arab American community in Michigan – the largest in the country – last Friday, but the leaders of the movement were not invited uncommitted.

But with the United States providing 2,000-pound bombs that Israel uses to destroy entire blocks of civilian areas in cities and towns, these actions were considered hollow. What we need right now is for (Harris) to specifically declare that as president she will respect international and US humanitarian laws and will suspend the shipment of military weapons used by Israel to commit war crimes.declared Abbas Alawieh, leader of the No Compromise movement. Added in X: We reiterate our request: that you meet with Palestinian American and Lebanese American families, whose loved ones have been killed by American bombs.

The possibility that Harris loses in Michigan, one of the five to seven key states that will determine the outcome of the presidential election, is not ruled out due to voter anger over her position on the war in the Middle East and those who could decide not to. vote (most are historically Democrats) or cast a protest vote for fringe third-party candidates. But for now, candidates and leaders of both parties maintain their unconditional support for Israel. President Biden, who has said he is a irish zionist (and Ireland officially recognized the State of Palestine and is the European country most critical of Israel), has sent more military assistance to Israel than any other American president and was the first head of the White House to visit Israel during a war. .

The political leadership also remains overwhelmingly supportive of Israel. Only 37 Democratic federal representatives dared to vote against sending more military assistance in April, with 173 of their colleagues in favor. Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the most high-profile political dissidents, has introduced a bill to curb US arms sales to Israel, but it is not expected to succeed. Within the Republican Party, positions are increasingly strong in support of Israel, with Trump and other leaders increasingly promoting military assistance to Tel Aviv.