Dear Editor,
We are still being accused of antisemitism.
Those of us protesting genocide and the breakdown of international law are still being accused of antisemitism.
We are not antisemitic.
We are angry.
We are angry that Zionists in North America are giving cover for genocide, for the decimation of international law and for fascism.
There are Jewish people all over the world standing up against both the genocide being conducted by Israel in Palestine and their funders the fascists in the United States and Europe; 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos in the U.K. is demanding a stop to the genocide in Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, amongst the thousands of Israelis protesting against Netanyahu is a large anti-genocide bloc chanting, “Security will not be achieved by bombing hospitals” while holding a large sign reading “Stop the Massacre."
Closer to home, there are Jewish luminaries like Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, Seth Klein and Gabor Maté and groups like Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) speaking up against the genocide.
Meanwhile, the Zionists hurl the accusation of antisemitism at anyone wearing a kufiyah or protesting against the murder of large numbers of Palestinians by the state of Israel.
The Zionists deny what the Israeli government, Israeli TV personalities and individual Israeli citizens admit openly: They want to eliminate all Palestinians.
The case that South Africa brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice included a database of more than 500 genocidal comments made by these groups. One example is banners hung on an Israeli overpass by Israeli citizens reading, “Victory looks like 0 people in Gaza," and "Genocide Gaza."
This is also clearly shown in the Trump plan, which is supported by Netanyahu and the Israeli government and which calls for complete ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza strip.
Those of us protesting for more than a year are absolutely horrified about the images and stories we have seen coming out from Gaza.
Israel has bombed almost all buildings in Gaza.
Israel has illegally used white phosphorus over densely populated areas in Gaza.
Israeli drones have played recordings of the voices of women and children in distress, luring Palestinians from their tents and homes and then shooting them.
Israeli drones have flown over areas that have just been bombed and shot Palestinians who have survived the bombings.
Starving people have been lured out to food distribution areas only to be shot by Israeli snipers.
Palestinian doctors and nurses were forced by the Israeli army to abandon their baby patients in the NICU and the rotting bodies of these babies were found — still in their incubators — weeks later when Palestinians were finally allowed back into the hospital.
We have seen Palestinian babies who don’t have a mark on their little bodies dead from having their lungs collapsed by the extreme change in air pressure after an Israeli bomb.
We have seen bodies of Palestinians hanging off the sides of buildings and pictures of holes in the ground where new Israeli weapons have collapsed buildings and vaporized any bodies that had been within.
Just recently, Israel murdered 15 paramedics and buried them in a mass grave.
But the Zionists call us antisemitic for protesting the fact that Canada has not implemented a two-way arms embargo against Israel as required by law.
Those are only the stories coming out of Gaza.
In the West Bank, there has been an increase in pogroms by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages.
Illegal Israeli settlers have stolen farm animals from Palestinian villages.
They regularly harass and beat Palestinians.
These Israeli settlers have the protection of the Israeli army.
The stories of these attacks often come from Jewish Israeli citizens who courageously move into Palestinian villages to protect the locals Palestinians from the Israeli settlers, but the Zionists call anyone protesting these pogroms antisemitic.
Weapons and techniques used in Gaza and the West Bank by Israelis are now being sold to other countries as “battle tested."
Technology for spying and tracing people invented or tested by Israel is now used against people all over the world.
In the U.S., some of those speaking out against the genocide are being disappeared. The U.S. government is using calls of antisemitism, like the ones the Zionists are making, as justification for these clearly illegal acts.
This is the fascism to which the Zionists are giving cover.
So again, I will say people are not protesting because they are antisemitic. They are angry that the Zionists are giving cover for genocide, the decimation of international law and fascism.
--Ramona Chu, Coquitlam
