What is an Israel festival? What is to be celebrated at one of these events? Several of you might already think you have the answers to these questions. Others might have come to have them answered. But for Palestinians, the answers to these questions are no cause for celebration. Israel's apartheid system, ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation is the cause of an ache we have carried in our hearts and on our backs for the last 66 years. Where you see a day of festivities, we see 66 years of human catastrophe, our Nakba. We see the catastrophe that is the homes our families were forced to run screaming from and the slaughter of those who did not make it out. We see the catastrophe that is the olive trees our ancestors used to harvest and the fields they used to tend before they were destroyed by illegal settlers or hidden behind apartheid walls. We see the catastrophe that is the thousands of standing home demolition orders on Palestinian residence to make room for more illegal settlements and the violent settler attacks on Palestinian civilians. We see the catastrophe that is the military law inflicted on Palestinians that denies their most basic human rights. We see the catastrophe that is the humiliation endured by Palestinians of all ages who are at the mercy of teenage soldiers as they pass through cage-like checkpoints. We see the catastrophe that is the hundreds of Palestinian children kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night by fully-armed IDF soldiers and placed in indefinite detention where they are abused and humiliated. We see the catastrophe that is the teargasing and shooting of Palestinians at weekly non violent protests in their own villages, in their own homes. We see the catastrophe that is the systematic discrimination against Palestinian residents in Israel proper, forced to a life as second class citizens. We see the catastrophe that is the blockade of the Gaza Strip preventing even the most basic humanitarian supplies from reaching its 1.7 million residents. We see the catastrophe of the improvised refugee camps where many of us are forced to live, denied our internationally guaranteed right to return.
We see the Palestinian catastrophe because we live it, and we have lived it for the past 66 years. The reality of our Palestinian existence cannot be absent from your celebration which is built upon our catastrophe. Your Israel street festival is not a simple celebration of Israel. It is a celebration of the fruits of our continued suffering and the shameful normalization of our oppression.
Sincerely,
-Your displaced Palestinian neighbor
Students for Justice in Palestine American University
Students for Justice in Palestine Georgetown University
Students for Justice in Palestine George Washington University
Student for Justice in Palestine University of Maryland
Students Against Israeli Apartheid George Mason University
We see the Palestinian catastrophe because we live it, and we have lived it for the past 66 years. The reality of our Palestinian existence cannot be absent from your celebration which is built upon our catastrophe. Your Israel street festival is not a simple celebration of Israel. It is a celebration of the fruits of our continued suffering and the shameful normalization of our oppression.
Sincerely,
-Your displaced Palestinian neighbor
Students for Justice in Palestine American University
Students for Justice in Palestine Georgetown University
Students for Justice in Palestine George Washington University
Student for Justice in Palestine University of Maryland
Students Against Israeli Apartheid George Mason University
