The Wild Reed: Why What’s Happening in Palestine – and Our Response to It

Friday, May 30, 2025

Why What’s Happening in Palestine – and Our Response to It – Is So Important

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president the first time, I joined with around 200 other people in Minneapolis to speak out against what many of us saw as his increasingly fascist agenda – an agenda that is the antithesis of human, environmental, and democratic rights.

In writing about my participation in this protest, I stated that:

I never want to sleepwalk through life only to be suddenly and rudely awakened by events, especially those portentous of tyranny.

I want to always strive to be informed and proactive about the important political and social issues of the day. I want to be able to say, for instance, Hey, I recognized when things started going awry in a particularly disturbing way, and lifted my voice against it.

This reason for why I spoke out – and continue to speak out – against the rise of fascism in the U.S., is the same reason why I speak out today against the holocaust in Gaza that’s being perpetrated by the far-right government of Israel; why I speak out for the human rights of the people of Palestine. And by Palestine I mean that country in West Asia, recognized by 147 of the United Nation’s 193 member states, that encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Collectively, these locales are known as the occupied Palestinian territories, and are situated within the broader geographic and historical Palestine region.

This speaking out – both for the Palestinians and against the genocide being perpetrated against them – takes a number of forms. For followers of this blog, the most obvious of these is my sharing of both my writings and the writings of others on this issue. I also share the gist of what I present here at The Wild Reed when the topic of Palestine and/or Israel comes up in conversation with family, friends, colleagues, and strangers. I also participate as often as I can in the weekly vigil at Summit and Snelling Avenues in St. Paul, MN. It’s a vigil that has been taking place in support of justice and peace in Palestine for well over a decade.

A few weeks ago a longtime friend challenged me on my activism on this issue, asking: “What and who decides what is the right conflict to raise outrage to?”

Here was my response:

A major reason so many Americans are giving so much attention to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as opposed to other conflicts around the world, is because the U.S. government is giving so much attention to this particular conflict, as opposed to others. Put simply, a majority of Americans do not appreciate the extent and type of attention their government is giving Israel, especially as it relates to its genocidal project in Gaza and the fact that their tax dollars are funding it.

And this attention is different than that given to other countries or conflicts. For starters, Congress funds no other country to the extent that it funds Israel. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel is the “largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid, including military aid.” Post Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, we’re talking about multiple packages of military aid to the tune of billions of dollars. Both corporate-backed major parties support this funding.

Conversely, Congress is not militarily supporting either side in the conflict in Sudan or any other conflict. The U.S. government does not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, so I’m not sure what you mean when you say we’re “complicit in propping up the Taliban.” And, yes, we provide weapons to both Ukraine and Saudi Arabia; yet in the case of Ukraine, we’re supporting a country that is the victim of aggression, not the instigator. Compare that to the Gaza genocide where we’re funding Israel, the instigator of said genocide. In the case of Saudi Arabia, as horrible as what that country is doing, including in Yemen, the extent of devastation and death is not comparable to what is happening on a daily basis in both Gaza and the West Bank. For example, the following quote from a recent Common Dreams article can only apply to what’s happening in Gaza and nowhere else in the world at this time in history: “Genocide, ecocide, mass infanticide, rape, sexual assault, torture, sniping children, bombing hospitals, schools and refugee camps, executing aid workers. Israel has committed every atrocity imaginable these past 18 months. We are funding an endless nightmare and it should haunt us forever.”

I mention all of this so as to explain why during the 2024 election cycle (and beyond) the Gaza genocide received the measure of attention it did from the American public, including students on multiple campuses across the country who staged the largest demonstrations and encampments since the Vietnam War. Throughout the 2024 election season, the majority of Americans – across the political spectrum – supported both a ceasefire and an arms embargo on Israel. Yet Kamala Harris and the Democratic establishment consistently failed to include this in her platform.

Here’s the thing that perplexes me: Many self-described liberals are quick to denounce and express anger toward voters who, in good conscience, could not vote for what they saw as a pro-genocide candidate, i.e., Kamala Harris. These voters are blamed for the Democrats’ failure to secure an electoral victory. At the same time, those who target voters in this way never denounce or express anger toward Democratic candidates who refused to adapt the party platform so as to readily earn the votes they needed to secure an electoral victory. It seems clear to many of us that the Democratic establishment chose to prioritize the funding and supporting of Israel’s genocide over winning an easy and crucial election. And yet still there are some who insist on blaming and shaming voters. Personally, I’ve never found this a helpful strategy for changing people’s minds. What I am open to, however, is holding candidates and parties accountable for their political decisions and stances, especially when these decisions and stances ignore the clear will of their constituents, which is exactly what happened last year in relation to the issue of Gaza.

I dare say that most of us who are taking a stand on what’s happening in Palestine are challenged at times by family and friends, just as I was.

I recently came across Kenn Orphan’s rationale for why he focuses on Palestine and the genocide that Israel is inflicting on Gaza. It’s a rationale he was compelled to articulate after being challenged by a friend. I’ll close this post by sharing how Orphan responded to this challenge.

____________________

A friend of mine asked me recently why Palestine is so important to me. “Why is it my main focus?” he asked. And I took the question as honest, because it was from a real friend. My answer may be surprisingly simple.

Palestine is the litmus test for every single value the West supposedly holds dear. And we are failing miserably.

Palestine doesn’t matter more than Ukraine or Myanmar or Kashmir or Congo. But it matters in a different way, because Western nations are the primary engine of this genocide. And it is only the West that can stop this.

If you care about Western values of liberty, justice and universal human rights, Palestine is the issue.

About due process, Palestine is the issue.

About free speech, Palestine is the issue.

About international law being respected, Palestine is the issue.

About the right of all human beings to have access to food, clean water and medical care, Palestine is the issue.

About children being safe from bombs falling on them as they sleep, Palestine is the issue.

About the crime of targeting hospitals, infrastructure and shelters, Palestine is the issue.

About not demolishing people’s homes, destroying their livelihoods and forcibly moving them into concentration camps, Palestine is the issue.

About not starving people as collective punishment, Palestine is the issue.

About protecting our biosphere, Palestine is the issue.

Our very fate lies in how we, as a civilisation, meet this moment. Palestine matters because we have stated over and over and over again that all human beings matter. And if the West really believes this, it has done a horrendous job of demonstrating that so far.

– Kenn Orphan
“Palestine Is the Litmus Test
for Every Value the West Holds Dear”
May 28, 2025

The Wild Reed

Friday, May 30, 2025

Why What’s Happening in Palestine – and Our Response to It – Is So Important

No comments:

About Me

Translate

Blog Archive

Most Popular Posts

From the Archives . . .

Search This Blog

Labels

Essential Reading from Around the Web

.

Film

The Sufi Path

Readers write . . .

Followers