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© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)
— Photos and speech video courtesy of Somerville city workers ceasefire coalition
Fifty-five employees, staff, and other public servants of the City of Somerville and Somerville Public Schools, have formally asked for Mayor Ballantyne and Superintendent Carmona to join them in calling for a sustained ceasefire across Palestine and Israel, the release of all hostages, and the provision of all life-saving humanitarian aid.
The staff expressed concern for human life and for members of the Somerville community impacted by the violence. In a letter to the Mayor and Superintendent, they say:
“We believe that all human life is worth protecting. In our collective voice, we are compelled to speak out to end the cycle of violence as well as the root causes that perpetuate it. We, too, raise our voice in solidarity with members of the Somerville community and Somerville staff who are impacted by the violence abroad and the hate and violence they are experiencing in our city.” The full Letter can be found here.
Additionally, the public servants are requesting Ballantyne and Carmona join them in urging Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to call for a ceasefire. In a press conference held on President’s Day, a member of the coalition criticized the Senators for ignoring their constituents and called on every community member, including the Mayor and Superintendent, to amplify the demand of the high majority of constituents, saying:
“Senator Warren and Senator Markey] are ignoring 70% of Americans and 4 out of every 5 Democrat, who are demanding and have been demanding a ceasefire since October. With the imminent attack of Rafah, the lives of over a million people are dependent on a ceasefire, including the lives of the hostages. It is our moral responsibility to help our Senators find their courage. It’s up to us, from the ground up, city staff, teachers, mayors, superintendents, cafe workers, nurses, construction workers, and all members of our communities to stand up and urge our Senators to respect the overwhelming voter demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.” Full Press Conference Statements can be read here.
Somerville has in other instances committed itself to dismantling and speaking out against social injustices, even when the City’s position brings discomfort to some in the community. The letter’s signatories call attention to this history:
“Somerville condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and proudly waves the Ukrainian flag today. The City is rightfully adamant in its support of Black Lives Matter, even as some staff and residents feel ostracized. The City also publicly acknowledged the grief, trauma, and violence of Hamas’ October 7th attack. It is with these bold and courageous precedents set by the City of Somerville that we ask you to stand with us on the side of peace.”
The staff reiterated their support for human rights as a universal principle and called on the City to continue speaking out on issues of systemic injustices, particularly when the U.S. Government funds and/or promotes those injustices. As they wrote to the Mayor and Superintendent:
“We believe that human rights and equality are universal principles that apply to all people – not some. As we fight to tear down systemic injustices in Somerville, we must especially be vocal against systemic injustices that we support and fund abroad.”
Politicians in America were quick to condemn Hamas’ attacks on Israel and quick to provide Israel with billions of dollars to support its war effort. However, those same politicians have been far less eager to act to protect Palestinian civilians. At least 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th. The coalition of public servants condemns indiscriminate attacks against any community, including the Jewish community, and they recognize the pain felt by the Palestinian community when their own cries for justice are ignored. As the staff say in their letter:
Here in Somerville, our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim children, students, residents, and staff feel ostracized when we promote the basic principles of human rights and equality for all yet remain silent about the gross human rights violations committed against the Palestinian community. Our children are confused and angry when we choose carefully crafted language to whitewash the violence they see unfolding on their phones. They are perplexed when we rightfully condemn indiscriminate violence against the Jewish community but are silent to the indiscriminate violence experienced by the Palestinian community.”
The rise in hate and violence here in Somerville has directly impacted many members of the Somerville community; some staff admit that they and others in the city have feared for their wellbeing. The staff note in their letter:
“There is a rise in hate, violence, antisemitism, and Islamophobia here in Somerville. Our Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim communities are directly impacted and fear for their safety.”
Given these circumstances and the willingness of many in Somerville to tear down systemic injustices, these public employees feel everyone must do what they can to urge Massachusetts’s Federal-level elected officials to act so as to help stop the indiscriminate violence against Palestinian civilians and to promote the release of all hostages. Many more lives hang in the balance.
Requesting Mayor Ballantyne and Superintendent Carmona join their call, the public servants’ letter to the two said:
“Please stand with us to breathe hope to the dream that the Palestinian community and the Jewish community will soon live peacefully and together in their shared homeland. We urge you to stand in solidarity with our community and staff who are hurting. We invite you to use your powerful voice to promote a better world for all.”
— Somerville city workers ceasefire coalition
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I too am horrified by the human tragedy occuring in Gaza. I too condemn those Israel’s policies that are,in large part,responsible for the terrible human suffering now taking place throughout the Gaza Strip. Though I say, “in large part,” because by reading the letter that has been released by these protesters,one would be hard pressed to find any any reference at all to the fact that a significant factor in all of the bloodshed in Gaza is the fact that Hamas started this horrific war, and since day one has been deliberately using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields while they hide out in tunnels under apartment buildings and yes, hospitals!
On a different topic, this article states that a member of the coalition said that “It is our moral responsibility to help our Senators find their courage… and call for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”
Could it just be that our senators don’t fully agree with those who are calling for a “permanent” ceasefire? Has it ever crossed the minds of those who question the “courage” of someone like Elizabeth Warren that since she was first elected she has displayed more guts than just about anybody in the entire world of politics – self righteous protesters included?
Here is an excerpt from a statement Warren released on Dec. 6:
“So I will say it again: Hamas must release the hostages and stop firing rockets at civilians in Israel. The Israeli government must stop the bombing in Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. And all of us must do everything possible to resume the cease-fire and extend it for as long as possible.”
I hope this coalition takes notice of the fact that Warren, besides strongly criticizing Israel, also strongly and directly criticized Hamas – which is more than can be said about the letter or statements issued by this coalition.
I’d like to add something to my previous comment and I’ll address this to Ben Lappen because of something he said at the press conference that was held to publicize the protest by 55 city employees. Ben, I respect your commitment to “never be silent” and to speak out when you see that terrible crimes against humanity are being committed.
As I stated in my earlier comment, I believe Israel bears a lot of the responsibility for the horrific toll its bombing has taken on the civilian population in Gaza – along with Hamas, of course, because it started the war in the first place, and has deliberately used the civilian population as human shields. I also believe that Israel bears substantial responsibility for its lack of full cooperation with efforts to bring desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
As you know, most media reports indicate that approx. 29,000 Palestinians have been killed (so far). But few reports differentiate between estimates of actual civilians who have been killed and the deaths of members of Hamas’ military forces who are actively committed to Israel’s destruction. Reliable estimates of the # of Hamas fighters who have been killed range from 9 – 10,000.
That means that approx. 20,000 civilians have been killed. This is a terrible human tragedy – full stop.
But you have said that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and that one of the reasons you feel so deeply about it is because of your family history. Two of my great uncles were in concentration camps -Buchenwald and Mauthausen – and miraculously survived. So I can certainly relate to some of what you are feeling.
But may I ask – do you honestly and truly believe that the tragic deaths of 20,000 civilians – out of Gaza’s total population of 2.3 million- constitutes “genocide”? Perhaps you should ask any of the remaining survivors of the Nazi genocide what they think.
May I suggest that you stop making such dishonest, inaccurate, and totally inappropriate comparisons and accusations? Protest all you want- but please out of respect to the millions of victims of actual genocides, be they Jews, Armenians, or Cambodians, choose your words much more carefully from here on out.
How do you call the killing of over 1% of the population in a couple months a genocide? Pretty easily. It usually takes far longer for genocidal machines to reach those death tolls. This campaign has also been deadlier for children in Gaza than all the wars conflicts combined have been in any of the last few years. People who study genocide say its genocide. People who have been on the ground in other genocides say this is worse.
Genocide is also not defined by death count but by “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
All of these elements exist in Gaza and the ICJ agrees the accusations of genocide are credible.
That percentage is also taking for granted your undercount relying on dismissing almost 10,000 deaths because “Reliable estimates” (aka the Israeli military) say they are Hamas, and not counting the thousands currently declared missing who are likely dead, and all those trapped under rubble who haven’t yet been counted.
May I suggest that you stop making such dishonest, inaccurate, and totally inappropriate dismissals of legitimate opposition to genocide because you sympathize with the perpetrators?
Armenians generally very explicitly disagree with you on this despite evoking them by the way. For one thing because Israel is also ethnically cleansing the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/24/we-wont-leave-armenians-in-jerusalem-push-back-against-armed-settlers
That solidarity also goes in both directions. Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish wrote:
“Who Remembers the Armenians?
I remember them
and I ride the nightmare bus with them
each night
and my coffee, this morning
I’m drinking it with them
You, murderer –
Who remembers you?”
You do not hold a monopoly on legitimate claims of suffering and your attempt to dictate that terminology the ICJ finds to credibly apply in this case is unacceptable is translucently see-through. Despite claiming to “condemn those Israel’s policies” it is very clear what you are actually doing here.
I stand by every word I’ve written, and would like to ask you a simple question. What is your opinion of Hamas in general, its massacre of 1,200 people on Oct 7, and its use of the civilian population of Gaza as human shields? Based on what you have written before on this website, you will, no doubt, try very hard to squirm your way around giving a straighforward answer. But I’ll let those people who might read your response judge for themselves what kind of person you really are.
So you stand by genocide denial. I am not going to be lectured in morality by a genocide denier. But to answer the question of what my opinion on Hamas in general is so others dont think I am dodging the question: Hamas is the type of organization that grows out of kicking millions of people off their land then confining them behind barbed wire fences, military checkpoints, and a massive security apparatus, blocking their travel by land and sea, holding them on just above starvation rations for decades, cutting off their water supply, periodically bombing and shooting them, arresting their children without charges, etc. etc. Hamas is a brutal response to the brutal conditions opposed on Palestinians since 1948 and the ever worsening conditions in Gaza specifically. Hamas would not exist were it not for this, and as long as Israel thinks it can genocide Palestinians into total submission or exile it will continue to. If you don’t like Hamas, and their politics are deeply contrary to my own, you should call to end the genocide, end the occupation, and end the apartheid rule.
By the way International observers deny the human shields framing and even if it were true human shields don’t die unless you shoot.
“Perhaps you should ask any of the remaining survivors of the Nazi genocide what they think.”
300 holocaust survivors and their descendants accused Israel of genocide back in 2014: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/holocaust-survivors-and-their-descendants-accuse-israel-of-genocide-9687994.html
Even more have come out this time: https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-protesting-israels-genocide-of-palestinians-among-those-arrested-in-front-of-sen-chuck-schumers-house-in-new-york/articleshow/104428854.cms
See also: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMwzYPxJETg
And despite constantly evoking the holocaust survivors to justify their own genocidal violence, Israel actually treats holocaust survivors terribly. See: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/holocaust-survivors-poverty-is-israels-dirty-little-secret/
See also: https://youtu.be/KMIIxCR2utQ?si=sLWK73UAc0yXe5kt
What you just wrote is a CLASSIC EXAMPLE of apologetics for what happened on Oct 7 and all of the other terror tactics that Hamas has used over the years,…like blowing up buses and Passover seders.
Your transparently absurd accusation that I am supporting genocide – despite my very clear and strong criticism of the way that Israel is conducting this war insults the intelligence of anyone who might read what you have written.
Have the last word if you want. Your sick and hate-filled rationalizations, explanations, and justifications for the barbaric, cold -blooded mass murder and rapes committed by Hamas on Oct 7 speaks for itself!!
All you have written is apologetics for the genocidal campaign Israel is currently waging and the decaes of ethnic cleansing and occupation that precede it.
What “clear and strong criticism of the way Israel is conducting this war? All you have done is try to downplay Israel’s responsibility for the violence they are inflicting and blame Palestinians for their own suffering while using opposition to unspecified policies to pretend you aren’t. You dedicate about a sentence to vaguely criticizing Israel for anything and paragraph after paragraph repeating Israeli propaganda blaming their violence on Hamas.
The racilized coding of your language is also apparent Israel is only “in large part” responsible for their violence (and you don’t even seem to believe that by constantly blaming their deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure on disproven human shields myths) and you deny the accurate terminology to describe it, genocide, but Palestinian violence is “Barbaric.” That word is more hate filled than anything I have said. Additionally you only refer to mass murder on 10/7 but do not employ similar language to talk about the Israeli campaign which has killed 20 times as many people, or seem to care about the repeated rapes of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli guards. And finally you deny all history and context by saying “cold -blooded.” Whose blood was cold? 2023 was already the deadliest year in recent history for Palestinians before 10/7, settler mobs were attacking Palestinians all over the place, and Israeli state violence was already escalating as well.
The only person who is sick here is you. You simply cannot see Palestinians as equally human as Israelis. In your eyes no amount of Israeli violence justifies a militant response by Palestinians, but Israel can justify genocide as a response to Palestinian violence.
I suggest you look into a mirror, history will look far more kindly on what I have said here than on your genocide apologia.
Wow…triple wow…you are the ONLY person (except for Hamas of course) …who disputes/denies that Hamas is using the civilian population as human shields!…in your own words “on disproven human shields myths”!! Are you so full of Hamas propaganda that you can’t see straight?! Do you need new glasses?..If anyone had any doubts about your credibility…you just blew it…big time…and one last thing about you parsing all my words in order to “prove” I’m a bloodthirsty apologist for the way Israel is conducting this war…I have said that I believe Israel has committed “WAR CRIMES”…but apparently, because I have not agreed that these crimes have added up to genocide (and btw nor has the International Court of Justice!)…I’m a sick, horrible person…war crimes isn’t good enough for you…fine…so go ahead and continue to issue absurd denunciations of me that only nitwits like you could swallow,…
And while you’re at it, remind us about how you “don’t agree with Hamas’ politics” (YOUR WORDS) as you so diplomatically put it…but you have left zero doubt – for anyone who is reading this…that you are a transparent apologist for everything Hamas has done and continues to do. And btw, what are Hamas’ “politics”? Essentially two things: Islamic fundamentalism and the commitment to destroy Israel. Awfully big of you not to “agree” …but why is it that at every opportunity, you bend over backwards to apologize for Hamas?
Every time you write something, you further expose yourself as to who and what you are…but please remind us once again why it’s a “myth” that Hamas is using the civilian population as human shields? Perhaps its because all those Hamas fighters just enjoy life in tunnels beneath hospitals, schools, apartment buildings and mosques……after all, they don’t have to worry about the heat or sunburn that would be a problem if they lived above ground ….and all those poor innocent freedom fighters are simply unaware that when Israel’s planes drop their bombs, civilians are the first to get hit…they simply have no idea!…Seems like you also haven’t figured that one out…but of course you have…you just tried to get away with saying the most idiotic thing I have heard any observer of this war say…some “myth”…that’s it for me…seems like you are immune to seeing and hearing yourself for the damn fool you are…good luck, pal…and hey maybe you should go over to Gaza and enjoy life in those tunnels…the bombs will mostly kill the civilians above you…but don’t worry about it because Hamas sure doesn’t!
You talk of credibility while lying through your teeth. The only one that doesn’t think the ICJ found that Israel was credibly conducting genocide are those carrying it out and their apologists. The final ruling will take years but they issued an injunction to cease genocidal acts, allow in humanitarian aid, and punish the politicians responsible for genocide. The response from Israeli leadership was literally “The Hague can’t stop us.”
You are a truly contemptible apologist for genocide.
Geez, you must have a pretty pathetic life to be so obsessed with “proving” that I am a horrible human being -even though I have said, repeatedly, that I believe Israel is committing war crimes- and btw, I’ve been an anti-war activist since the late Sixties.
I’d even feel sorry for you if you didn’t hate me so much and go so far out of your way to distort everything I’ve said.
Of course you think you are some sort of social justice warrior by acting out of solidarity with Hamas!! – even if– as you put it -you “don’t agree with their politics.” Of course that’s with the exception of their courageous act of resistance on Oct 7…which you have transparently apologized for!! …and when you absurdly (and apparently with a straight face) referred to the “disproven human shields myths”!
I have a feeling that if you tried to convince most Gazans that it’s a “myth” as they are being bombed at the same time that Hamas is hiding far underground in their tunnels, they might not see you as the great hero you seem to think you are.
Perhaps someday, you’ll snap out of your dogmatic, black and white, incredibly oversimplified view of what is, in fact, a very complicated world that is full of shades of grey, ironies, and contradictions. But, sadly, I wouldn’t bet on it!
And that really is the last thing I’ll have to say to you…go ahead call me all the vile names you can think of… and then go crawl back under the rock you came from…or perhaps more appropriately – go hide in one of those tunnels with your friends in Hamas…even if you “don’t agree with their politics”, anyone listening to you can easily see that you agree with their aims and goals. Best of luck to ya!
PS
I really hate to deprive you of your latest ammunition/distortion in calling me “a liar and/or genocide denier”… but when I wrote the following; “I have not agreed that these crimes have added up to genocide (and btw nor has the International Court of Justice!)” what I clearly meant is that the ICJ has not issued any FINAL ruling on whether it believes that Israel is guilty of genocide. Full stop. And this is both accurate and true – despite your totally predictable response/distortion.
And I stand by what I’ve said many times here. While I DO believe Israel has committed war crimes, I do NOT believe it has committed genocide….which, in the most commonly understood and meaningful definition means that there is an intent by the gov’t and its armed forces (not some crazed ministers shooting their mouths off) to kill all or most of a civilian population.
Fact: Not counting the approx # of the 8-9,000 Hamas “militants” who have been killed in Israel’s justifiable effort to disarm and dismantle Hamas- about 21-22,000 civilians in Gaza have also been killed. As I have said many times over – this is terrible human tragedy that Israel is largely responsible for – but Hamas – because it both started this war on Oct 7 and because it has obviously has been using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields, also bears some of the responsibility for the deaths of so many civilians – somethig that only Hamas – and you! deny.
Call me all the names you want. Just about anyone who can read English can see right through you. You have apologized, explained away, and all but justified all of Hamas’ tortures, rapes, and murders again and again…. it’s all here in plain English. In one way or another, I have worked for peace and a two state solution for more than 20 years. And you? You are SO obviously an apologist and supporter of Hamas and its effort to destroy Israel that even someone with a 4th grade education can see right through you.
Dear Slaw,
So far Israel has killed more than 12,000 Hamas fighters. The proportion of civilians killed by Israel (around 60%) is smaller than the proportion of civilians killed by the U.S. army in Mosul back in 2016-17, when it defeated ISIS (66-77%). What’s more, Hamas has a 400 mi long tunnel network but it refuses to allow civilians in to take shelter in it. The ICJ did not even call for ceasefire in Gaza (it did so in Ukraine).
Opposing Israeli disproportionate strikes is one thing. But calling this a genocide is beyond ridiculous (unless you believe the U.S. army too perpetrated a genocide in Mosul).
@Long-time resident of Somerville You accuse me of distorting what you say but that is all you do, including putting things in quotations that I didn’t say. What I said was “their politics are deeply contrary to my own.”
Recognizing that 10/7 didn’t happen in a vacuum and was in fact explicitly a response to the deadliest year in recent history for Palestinians and consistent encroachment on their basic rights for decades isn’t apologizing for it. Understanding the history that shapes events is crucial to actually understanding them. You would prefer to render the event outside of history, as a unique and unprecedented evil, it simply isn’t that. It was a damn shame, one that could have been avoided had Israel chosen a different path but it was all but guaranteed by Israel subjecting Palestinians to tremendous violence and injustice for decades, with no sign of stopping. I echo the words of the great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in the wake of the Nat Turner rebellion, which also killed women and children: http://fair-use.org/the-liberator/1831/09/03/the-insurrection The oppressor only guarantees a violent reaction through the maintenance of that oppression. Understanding the cause of something isn’t apologizing for it. The way to prevent further violent attacks is to end the oppression that it was a reaction to.
You have clearly never talked to people from Gaza if you think they support the human shield claims, made by the people actually killing them, to justify doing so. The way you try to tokenize groups that consistently disagree with you is incredibly telling. You do not have an actual argument (The ICJ rejected these claims by Israel) so you appeal to the legitimacy of others, while misrepresenting their opinion. You have now done this for holocaust survivors, Armenians, and Palestinians in Gaza.
The only one who see this as black and white is you. You see all Israeli violence as ultimately the fault of those evil Palestinians and do not acknowledge Palestinians, unlike Israel, actually do have a well established legal right to self defense (there is explicitly no right for an occupier to defend itself in occupied territory).
Incredible you say I am calling you names and then follow it up with the next sentence. You clearly lack any ability to. recognize irony. All I have called you is a genocide denier because you are explicitly denying a genocide. That is the accurate term for what you are doing. I do fin genocide denial contemptible, as do most people who aren’t brainwashed into supporting it.
iCJ has issue a provisional ruling that the crimes of genocide are credible, which is the strongest ruling they can make now, and ordered Israel to cease and punish those responsible. Israel has only doubled down. The only one distorting the nature of the ruling is you. I explicitly stated that the full ruling was years away after you completely misrepresented the ICJ ruling as saying the opposite of what it actually did. That the final ruling is years off only makes Israel’s response more atrocious as it will likely be years until the genocide stops unless there is further intervention.
Your definition of genocide does not correspond to the legal definition of genocide which explicitly states “in whole or in part.” BTW numerous Israeli officials have declared their intention to wipe out all of Gaza, something explicitly laid out in the ICJ case. The ICJ ordered Israel to punish those politicians and officials. Again Israel’s response was “The Hague cannot stop us” true super villain style.
You are welcome to believe claims straight out of the Israel state which has been proven to lie at literally every single stage of this genocidal invasion and for decades previously but it is completely unreasonable to expect anyone not already drinking the cool aid to do the same. Israel even demonstrably lied in front of the ICJ: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/assessment-israeli-material-icj-jan-2024
You are wrong that only Hamas and I deny the human shields framing. Both the ICJ provisional ruling and numerous humanitarian and international observers do. The specific claims of Hamas bases in hospitals for one have been completely debunked. See: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/israeli-disinformation-al-ahli-hospital
See Also: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/destruction-of-medical-infrastructure-in-gaza
You pay lip service for peace while apologizing for genocide. You have completely lost any semblance of humanity. That you don’t feel shame says more about you than I ever could.
@bbohbot Again if you want to believe unsourced claims by proven liars, go ahead, but don’t expect anyone else to do the same. Those proportions are invented and still atrocious. There is a very legitimate claim that the US invasion of Iraq which killed over 1 million Iraqis was genocidal, and the only reason no US officials have been held responsible for that is the US has a law on the books stating it would invade The Hague if they tried. This isn’t a gotcha for me.
You “win” Slaw..I’m outa here. I have already spent WAY more time on this (and on a dogmatic fool like you) than I ever wanted to…
Your world is all black and white…Hamas – not perfect, but fighting a just war of resistance against those evil Israeli Zionists who had absolutely no reason to try to disarm Hamas, right?….And my sad acknowledgement that Israel has committed war crimes isn’t anywhere near good enough for you…and that makes me an evil “genocide denier”- as you so hatefully put it.
Nuances? You probably never even heard of the word…complexities in international politics? Nah…it’s all good guys vs the bad guys and Hamas is clearly – in your demented view of the world – one of the (slightly flawed) good guys.
Btw, please tell us again why it is that despite our lying eyes Hamas isn’t using the civilian population as human shields and that it’s all a “myth”(as you have put it) to say that they are….aren’t you even the slightest bit embarrassed to say something so idiotic and transparently false?!
You seem to think that your one-sided links (that somehow always supports Hamas propaganda)…provides “slam dunk evidence” supporting your “Israel is the ultimate source of evil in the world” and poor Hamas was just forced to… (because of what Israel has done to them)… murder thousands of people – often killing parents right in front of their children, burning people alive, raping and then killing numerous women (yes I know you slime bucket…that’s all Israeli propaganda…right?) etc etc…I don’t care how many heroes in history (as in William Loyd Garrison), you want to falsely associate your propaganda and yourself with – the bottom line is you have explained away/justified/apologized for each and every crime Hamas has committed!
How can any decent human being write all these words without once, not even once, unequivocally condemning at least some of what Hamas has done? But congratulations, you have done so over and over again. Full stop..I’m outa here!
You two need to get a room.
You are off the deep end but I will point out my links/citations are to the UN definition of genocide, the ICJ ruling, The independent, business insider, the Seattle times, Unreported world (from channel 4), Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, The liberator, and Forensic architecture. All of these are credible sources. None of them are Hamas propaganda outlets as you claim. The irony of saying I see things in black and white and you are some great arbiter of nuance is illustrated in these claims.
I am happy to say I am more sympathetic to Palestinians, they are the colonized and oppressed people and Israel the colonizer and oppressor. My morality is fundamentally opposed to what Israel is doing. I have been there and seen with my own eyes.
I am not a supporter of Hamas, namely for how they came to power, and the way they treat Palestinians in opposition to them. Their violence against Israel however absolutely cannot be even remotely understood without understanding the hell Israel has imposed on Palestinians in general but on people in Gaza specifically. That doesn’t mean I like it. That doesn’t mean I even think it is righteous. But if you see Hamas as the greater evil, the one needing to be unilaterally disarmed, while Israel carries out genocide you have lost your fundamental understanding of morality. Hamas only exists because of brutal conditions imposed on Palestinians and in part because Israel funded Hamas to destroy left wing opposition. Hamas would not exist were it not for what Israel has done and continues to do. This war will not eliminate them, it only strengthens their resolve. Again, as William Llyod Garrison pointed out that the brutality of slavery all but guaranteed a violent resistance to it, so does the occupation, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide of Palestinians by Israel. We should start with the genocider who responded to being told to stop the genocide by saying “The Hague cannot stop us” and conveniently the US doesn’t arm Hamas in the first place but it does arm Israel, including during this genocidal onslaught.
All you have probably heard your whole life is one side of this conflict. I urge you to even consider placing yourself in the shoes of a Palestinian for a second. To listen to them explain their own conditions in their own words. It isn’t Black and White, although apartheid south Africa was a close ally of Israel to the end, but it is colonist and colonized and my moral compass is very clear about which side of that dichotomy I stand on.
I’ll add a very relevant link to this conversation from the London Review of Books, and very much worth reading for anyone who still has time to still be reading this: “The Shoah after Gaza” by Pankaj Mishra: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n05/pankaj-mishra/the-shoah-after-gaza
“I am happy to say I am more sympathetic to Palestinians they are the colonized and oppressed people and Israel the colonizer and oppressor.”
Dear Slaw, why didn’t you just come out and put it this way from the very beginning?! You could have saved yourself a lot of time and effort if you simply admitted from the outset that you are “more sympathetic to [the] Palestinians” (which in this war you essentially mean Hamas, as you continue to make excuses for the Oct. 7 massacre) than you are to the country that was invaded and attacked.
Congratulations – you just hung yourself with your own rope!
For those people who may be looking for a clear understanding of what people like you are actually calling for (ie the destruction of Israel – the so-called “colonizer”) …the following is from an essay that appeared in the NY Times on Sunday, March 3. It was written by David Grossman, one of Israel’s leading writers who has also been (for several decades) one of the most important voices of the the Israeli peace movement.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
“One more shameful phenomenon has come to the surface as a result of the war: Israel is the one country in the world whose elimination is most openly called for.
In demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands, on the campuses of the most respected universities, on social media and in mosques all over the world, Israel’s right to exist is often enthusiastically contested. Reasonable political criticism that takes into account the complexity of the situation can give way — when it comes to Israel — to a rhetoric of hatred that can only be cooled (if at all) by the destruction of the state of Israel. For instance, when Saddam Hussein murdered thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons, there were no calls to demolish Iraq, to wipe it off the face of the earth. Only when it comes to Israel is it acceptable to publicly demand the elimination of a state.
Protesters, influential voices and public leaders should ask themselves what it is about Israel that provokes this loathing. Why is Israel, of the planet’s 195 countries, alone in being conditional, as if its existence depended on the good will of the other nations of the world?
It is sickening to think that this murderous hatred is directed solely at a people who less than a century ago were, in fact, almost eradicated. There is also something galling about the tortuous and cynical connection between Jewish existential anxiety and the desire expressed publicly by Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and others that Israel cease to exist. It is furthermore intolerable that certain parties are attempting to force the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a colonialist framework when they willfully and stubbornly forget that Jews do not have another country, unlike the European colonialists with which they are falsely compared, and obscure the fact that Jews did not arrive in the land of Israel in conquest but seeking safety; that their powerful affinity with this land is almost 4,000 years old; that this is where they emerged as a nation, a religion, a culture and a language.”
Somerville does not need a foreign policy, period.