Editor’s note: This commentary is by Matthew Andrews, who is a peace activist and former labor organizer living in Plainfield. He currently works for a construction contractor and is the Liberty Union Party candidate for Congress.
I am running for Congress to be a voice for the voiceless. I want to put those who are most neglected and oppressed first. Perhaps none fit this description more directly as a result of our government’s policies, than the Palestinian people. As a candidate for Congress I am compelled by a deep sense of ethical responsibility to speak on their behalf.
Millions of people around the world are protesting the current bombardment of Gaza, including many Vermonters last Saturday in Burlington. Yet even as missiles fell on Gaza, the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee approved $351 million for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. The House approved a similar amount in May. This is just a small part of the $30 billion Congress sends to Israel for military aid each year. Both the House and Senate unanimously approved non-binding resolutions in support of this latest Israeli offensive, dubbed Operation Protective Edge.
Congressman Peter Welch and his Vermont colleagues in the Senate have failed to stand up for human rights. The blood being spilled in Gaza is now on their hands too. Vermonters should demand they be held accountable.
Our government provides the military support and diplomatic cover that allows Israel to practice apartheid, maintain a siege on Gaza, and bomb civilians with impunity. The capitalist media has hindered the struggle for peace by repeating Israeli propaganda while ignoring the stories from Palestine. Thanks to grassroots movements and new media, millions are beginning to understand the true nature of the conflict and are demanding that U.S. policies change. Unfortunately, Democrats and Republicans alike, including in Vermont, have been stubbornly resistant to a peace policy. Palestinians are paying with their lives.
Gaza and the West Bank are the two major Palestinian territories separated by Israel. They are denied statehood due to the immense international influence of the U.S., and an illegal Israeli blockade that prevents the movement of people and goods. Despite elections, Israel tries to impose who can represent Palestinians by punishing Gaza for the election of Hamas and refusing to negotiate with them. Taxes in Palestine are collected by Israel, and withheld as punishment. Israel subsidizes settlements that continue to expand into Palestinian land. Farmers and fisherpeople risk being shot at by Israeli soldiers as they work. Israel expropriates fresh water sources, making it hard for Palestinians to survive. Checkpoints make getting the sick to hospitals difficult, and regular commerce impossible. Israeli soldiers raid Palestinian homes and imprison thousands of Palestinians suspected of sympathizing with the resistance.
What remains of Palestine today is effectively the world’s largest open air prison. This is the backdrop of the conflict and the type of “peace” Israel seeks to maintain.
While we cannot impose a solution from the United States, we can take crucial steps to stop blocking the path to peace. Israel currently receives $30 billion in U.S. military aid.
The latest round of violence began when three Israeli youths disappeared. Reports now show that Israel knew these youth were killed soon after their abduction. Israel withheld this information to justify a brutal assault on Palestine under the pretext that they were searching for these missing youths. There has not yet been any evidence about who committed the crime or whether there was any political motive, yet Netanyahu blamed Hamas. Israel arrested 500 activists who had no connection to the kidnappings, and froze the salaries of 40,000 government workers in Gaza. This cynical manipulation of facts was a pretext for an assault to smash the unity government between Hamas and Fatah.
Israel is using state-of-the-art military technology to destroy homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza. Last week a center for the disabled was struck, killing two. Then four children playing soccer on the beach were killed by strikes from the sea. Israel bombed the densely populated residential neighborhood of Shejaiya, killing 70 in their homes. On Monday, tank shells struck the al-Ashqar Hospital in Gaza, killing four. In total, more than 3,300 have been injured and nearly 600 have been kill so far. Most of them are civilians, including paramedics, journalists and children.
An estimated 100,000 people have fled their homes. The psychological cost of this terror on those who survive is incalculable. Meanwhile, Hamas responded with rockets that were only able to kill a single Israeli after more than a week of conflict. Israel’s death toll rose to 27 soldiers and two civilians after the ground invasion began.
Any meaningful understanding of the conflict would undermine Israel’s absurd claims to self-defense. The best self-defense for Israel would be to meet the modest demands of Hamas, to end the blockade and release the recently arrested political prisoners. The only problem with this obvious peaceful solution is that it would fail to advance the Zionist agenda of crushing the Palestinians and taking their land.
While we cannot impose a solution from the United States, we can take crucial steps to stop blocking the path to peace. Israel currently receives $30 billion in U.S. military aid. The complete opposite is necessary. The Palestinian Authority is pleading for the UN to protect Gaza. The U.S. is the only major power that stands in the way. We should be leading the international community to agree on a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel. Israel should be investigated for war crimes and subject to the same standards as the rest of the world. Furthermore, civil society should join the BDS campaign to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel until it ends the blockade against Palestine and negotiates a durable peace in good faith.
Vermont’s representatives in Washington are shamefully silent in the face of the long suffering of the Palestinian people. When Welch, Sanders, and Leahy vote to fund and support Israeli aggression, they become accomplices to the slaughter. Vermont deserves better leadership than this. By organizing and voting for the Liberty Union Party, Vermont can lead an antiwar movement for peace and freedom in Palestine. We must demonstrate in the streets and educate each other about the conflict. But we must also show those in power that we will challenge them at the ballot box if they do not listen to us as we stand with Palestine.
More information about the Liberty Union Party and its candidates can be found at www.libertyunionparty.org. Matthew Andrews can be reached at 802-858-6466 or peopleunite@verizon.net.
