Western nations will do nothing to halt Israel’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. They will do nothing to alleviate the hunger and disease that is decimating Palestinians in Gaza. Our nations have been, and remain, full partners in the genocide. They will remain partners until the genocide reaches its grim conclusion.
Unless we stop them.
At least 242 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the “ceasefire” was announced. The first major ceasefire breach led to Israeli airstrikes that killed more than 100 Palestinians, including 46 children, and wounded 150 others. Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure daily bombings that obliterate homes. Israel has destroyed more than 1,500 buildings since the ceasefire began, often decimating entire neighborhoods with demolition charges. Shelling and gunfire continue to kill and wound civilians, while drones continue to hover overhead, broadcasting ominous threats or firing on civilians. Essential food items, humanitarian aid and medical supplies remain scarce because of the ongoing siege. And the Israeli army controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, shooting anyone, including families, who come too close to its invisible border, known as the yellow line. Their offense? Returning to the ruins of their homes.
Israel has systematically made Gaza uninhabitable, transforming it into the vast graveyard of all concentration camps.
Few in Israel object. 82 percent of Israeli Jews support the idea of expelling the entire population of Gaza and nearly a half support killing them. 80 percent of Israelis say they are “not so troubled” or “not troubled at all” by reports of famine and suffering among the population in Gaza.
Make no mistake. Israel is a genocidal state and a genocidal society.
This is why on November 28 and 29, I will be in Genoa and Rome, along with Francesca Albanese, Yanis Varoufakis and Greta Thunberg, to support the nationwide strike called by Italian unions — to halt all arms shipments to Israel and protest the calls by the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to increase defense spending.
We must not let our political leaders normalize genocide and war. We must not abandon the rule of law. We must not, by our silence or passivity, be complicit. We must stop the shipments of bombs and weapons to Israel. We must boycott companies that do business in Israel along with every sporting event with Israeli teams, every concert held by Israeli musicians and every exchange with Israel academics and students. We must force our universities and institutions to divest from Israel. We must sever diplomatic ties. We must show up when Israeli leaders hold press conferences or state visits. We must be present at every port when Israeli tour ships dock. We must end the genocide.
It is up to us, those who take to the streets, those who organize strikes. There is no other mechanism to save us. None.
We cannot fail. If we do, Gaza is only the start. The world is breaking down under the onslaught of the climate crisis, which is triggering mass migrations, failed states and catastrophic wildfires, hurricanes, storms, flooding and droughts. As global stability unravels, the terrifying machine of indiscriminate industrial violence and mass murder, so familiar to Palestinians, will become ubiquitous.
The militarized drones, helicopter gunships, walls and barriers, checkpoints, coils of concertina wire, watch towers, detention centers, deportations, brutality and torture, denial of entry visas, apartheid existence that comes with being undocumented, loss of individual rights and electronic surveillance, are as familiar to the desperate migrants along the Mexican border or attempting to enter Europe as they are to the Palestinians. Soon, unchecked, these tools of state repression will be used against us.
Israel embodies the ethnonationalist state the far-right in the U.S. and Europe dreams of creating for themselves, one that rejects political and cultural pluralism, as well as legal, diplomatic and ethical norms. Israel is admired by these proto-fascists precisely because it is racist and lawless, because it uses indiscriminate lethal force to “cleanse” its society of those branded as human contaminants.
By refusing to cooperate, by shutting the machinery of commerce and the state down, by resisting evil, we assert our dignity and our freedom. We chip away at the edifice of despotic power. We sustain the flames of hope and justice. We keep alive the capacity to be human.
So, join millions of us on the streets of Italy and on your own streets. The fight for Palestine is the fight for all of us.
