People of Faith CT

(This speech was given outside the federal courthouse in New Haven at the Emergency Protest Against the Israeli Invasion of Gaza, called by ANSWER CT, 1/4/09.)

I stand before you as a Christian and I think it is important that I say that given the awful silence of Christians in this country in the face of the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and most recently the invasion of Gaza.

The Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, stated that the greatest form of jihad is for a person to speak truth to a tyrant. In the United States today, this jihad is our calling and our moral obligation.

Truth is the first casualty of War.

I want to expose some of the falsehoods that are being propagated by the government of Israel that have made their way into the media in this country.

Falsehood #1:

The Israeli government attempts to justify its bombing and invasion of Gaza by saying:
"Israel has the right to defend itself."

Barack Obama stated on a visit to Israel:
"If people attacked my home I would do whatever was necessary to stop them."

With all due respect, PM Olmert and Pres. Obama, I bet there are one or two Palestinian people who feel the same way you do about their families and their homeland, that they have a right to resist occupation and to defend themselves from the Israeli army invasion!

In fact, the Palestinian people have been defending themselves:
from invasion and occupation by the British Empire,
from occupation by the state of Israel,
from Israel's Apartheid Wall,
and from Israel's siege and blockade of Gaza
from Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza
and now from Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Falsehood #2:
"Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians."

Jeremy Hammond, writing in the Palestine Chronicle rebuts this assertion:
"The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that civilian population of their protected status, and therefore any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a War Crime."

Falsehood #3
"Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted."

Let's apply this twisted logic to other injustices:

Would Christopher Columbus' massacre of Taino people in present day Puerto Rico be legitimate because he first warned the Taino people to flee?

Would slavery in the United States be legitimate because slavemasters first warned fugitive slaves they would be captured and lynched?

Would the holocaust in Nazi Germany be legitimate because the Nazis first warned Jews, queers and gypsies to leave the country?

No, Israel is responsible for civilian deaths. This fact cannot be whitewashed by phone calls, text messages or flyer drops from war planes!

Falsehood #4

President Obama also stated, "The Security of Israel is Sacrosanct."

With all due respect, Pres. Obama, Human Lives are Sacrosanct, be they Israeli, Palestinian, Iraqi or Afgani.

Furthermore, true security for Israelis cannot based upon oppression, injustice or domination of the Palestinian people.

True security for Israelis must be based in part on:
dismantling Israel's immoral and illegal occupation of Palestine;
respecting the right of return of Palestinian refugees;
and making reparations to the Palestinian people.

My friends as we continue to speak truth to power, let us continue to chant for all of America to hear:
"Occupation is the Crime, from Iraq to Palestine!"
"No justice, No peace, US out of the Middle East."