Peoples Dispatch speaks to Munir Marwan, a longtime Palestine solidarity organizer and PYM member about PYM’s latest demands, which include an end to occupation, the release of all Palestinian political prisoners, and ending Western complicity in Zionism
The entire Palestine solidarity movement in North America has united behind the demand of a ceasefire in Gaza. For the first time in years, organizations of the working class such as labor unions have been united against the status quo of Western foreign policy and taken an unprecedented stance against Israeli violence.
At the same time, important sectors in the movement have been trying to push the demands even further. The Palestinian Youth Movement, a major international formation of Palestinian youth with significant presence across North America, has been working to push the movement beyond dreaming of an end to current aggression, and into demanding full liberation from Israeli occupation.
To talk about PYM’s latest demands, which include an end to occupation, the release of all Palestinian political prisoners, and ending Western complicity in Zionism, Peoples Dispatch speaks to Munir Marwan, a longtime Palestine solidarity organizer and PYM member.
After over two months of genocide, support for the US’s usual policy of unconditional aid to the Zionist state is dwindling
Image from demonstration outside of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s house on Christmas morning, protesting US policy in Israel
Since October 7, Biden has added to Israel’s massive US-made military arsenal and sent more weapons to Israel as it carries out its genocide in the Gaza Strip, even bypassing Congressional review to do so. After nearly three months of war, however, support for the US’s usual policy of unconditional aid to the Zionist state is dwindling.
Some of the most bloody attacks against Palestinian civilians have been made possible with US-made bombs, such as the attack that leveled an apartment block in the Jabalya refugee camp, killing over 100 people.
Many of the atrocities perpetrated by Israel with US-made weaponry and funded by US money have been broadcast internationally across communications channels for even the people of the US to see. As a result, massprotests have erupted in the streets for months, often disrupting major commercial centers and events throughout the busy holiday season.
A recent poll shows that popular support for US aid to Israel has dropped since November. According to a poll from Quinnipiac University released on December 20, less than half (45%) of registered voters support sending “military aid to Israel for their efforts in the war.” This is a significant drop from the results of Quinnipiac’s previous poll from a month ago, in which 54% of voters expressed their support for military aid to Israel. A comparison of the two polls reveals that support for aid to Israel has dropped among voters in both the Republican and Democratic parties. In the November poll, 71% of Republicans and 45% Democratic voters said they were in favor of further military aid to Israel. Those numbers dropped in December, with 65% of Republicans and only 36% of Democrats supporting more US aid to Israel.
The dwindling support for US support to the Zionist state follows the trends of other polls in the growing popularity of the Palestinian cause, such as an early December Date for Progress poll which found that 61% of voters support calls for a permanent ceasefire—including nearly half, 49%, of Republicans.
Pressure for the Biden administration to shift its policies on Israel has also been coming from within Congress itself—not even necessarily from the most progressive elements of the legislature. Six members of security-oriented committees of the House of Representatives, including the Intelligence, Armed Services or Foreign Affairs committees, none of whom are known progressives, penned a letter to Biden on December 18, calling on the President to “use all of our nation’s leverage to shift the Israeli military’s strategy.”
“The mounting civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis are unacceptable and not in line with American interests,” the letter reads. The representatives also reference the history of “America’s war on terror” as a warning for the future, stating, “We know from personal and often painful experience that you can’t destroy a terror ideology with military force alone. And it can, in fact, make it worse.”
Several prominent humanitarian organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders USA, Oxfam America, and Amnesty International, have also penned a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, urging him to halt military aid to Israel. The organizations urge the Pentagon to “withhold U.S. assistance, in accordance with U.S. law and policy, that would facilitate violations of international humanitarian law.”
Biden himself has not responded to any of the outside pressures against his Israel policy, and has only dug his heels in. As his administration toldCNN earlier this month, the US has no plans to place conditions on Israel aid as it carries out genocide in Gaza.
South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza.
Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it.
Any case at the ICJ is likely to take years to resolve, but South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue “provisional measures” calling for a ceasefire. In March 2022, the ICJ ordered Russia to halt its offensive in Ukraine, an order which was supposed to be legally binding, but Moscow ignored it anyway. Any such ruling however is likely to significantly sway international public opinion.
“The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” the South African application to open proceedings said.
“Provisional measures are necessary in this case to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, which continue to be violated with impunity.”
Article IX of the Genocide Convention allows any state party to the convention to bring a case against another to the ICJ, even if it doesn’t have any direct link to the conflict in question. Last year, the court ruled that the Gambia could bring a genocide claim against Myanmar. The court also ruled in a case between Croatia and Serbia that depriving a people of food, shelter, medical care and other means of subsistence constitutes genocidal acts.
Search and rescue efforts for those trapped under rubble continue after Israel bombed the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on December 25, 2023. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“So long as Netanyahu faces no consequences, even more innocent civilians will face death and starvation,” said one U.S. lawmaker.
The Israeli military on Tuesday expanded its ground assault to refugee camps in central Gaza, forcing displaced people to flee in terror from an area that was once considered a relative safe zone as the rest of the strip came under near-constant bombardment.
Over the weekend, U.S.-armed Israeli forces pummeled central Gaza with airstrikes, reducing the Maghazi refugee camp to ruins and killing more than 100 people in one of the deadliest bombings since the devastating military campaign began in early October. Many more people are believed to be trapped under the rubble in Maghazi.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Israeli military has “ordered residents to evacuate a belt of territory the width of central Gaza, urging them to move to nearby Deir al-Balah.” According to the United Nations, more than 61,000 people were sheltering in the area Israel is now targeting.
“Residents of central Gaza described shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi, and Bureij camps,” AP reported. “The built-up towns hold Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war, along with their descendants.”
One mother of four told Middle East Eye that she “started crying hysterically” when she heard the news that Israel had deemed areas of central Gaza battle zones and issued evacuation orders.
“Where would I go with these children?” she asked. “We do not have any relatives in Deir al-Balah.”
Seif Magango, a spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office, said in a statement Tuesday that he is “gravely concerned about the continued bombardment of Middle Gaza by Israeli forces.”
“It is particularly concerning that this latest intense bombardment comes after Israeli forces ordered residents from the south of Wadi Gaza to move to Middle Gaza and Tal al-Sultan in Rafah,” Magango continued. “Israeli forces must take all measures available to protect civilians. Warnings and evacuation orders do not absolve them of the full range of their international humanitarian law obligations.”
Israel’s expansion of its ground assault came days after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approved a binding resolution calling for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza and urgent steps to “create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
An initial draft of the resolution called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but the U.S.—which has veto power at the UNSC—watered the measure down. The U.S. ultimately abstained from the final vote, allowing it to pass.
This is what the US chose. More civilian suffering & death. The impunity must end @IntlCrimCourt@USUN
“Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities”https://t.co/xZWnk6bkT4
Passage of the U.N. resolution has done nothing to deter the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from intensifying their attacks on areas packed with civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times in less than three months.
More than 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been forced to flee their homes due to Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasion, which began following a deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. Around 60% of Gaza’s housing infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged by Israeli forces, leaving displaced people with nothing to return to—if they’re able to return at all.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly suggested Monday that he’s looking for countries to “absorb” displaced Gazans, intensifying fears that a goal of the ongoing assault on Gaza is the permanent removal of the Palestinian population.
The U.S., meanwhile, has not wavered in its unconditional military support for Israel, even as the country’s government has defied its meager calls for the protection of Gaza civilians. The Biden administration has reportedly delivered more than 10,000 tons of military equipment to Israel since October, including 2,000-pound bombs that Israel has dropped on densely populated areas.
In a social media post on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) argued that the Biden administration’s “begging Netanyahu to safeguard civilians while sending him weapons and abstaining on even the most modest U.N. resolution has failed.”
“So long as Netanyahu faces no consequences,” Doggett added, “even more innocent civilians will face death and starvation.”
Airplanes are seen on a tarmac. (Photo: Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash)
Organizers demonstrated to call attention to the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians and the denial of their right to return home.
More than two dozen human rights campaigners were arrested on Wednesday for blocking Interstate 678, the Van Wyck Expressway, in New York—the road that leads to John F. Kennedy International Airport—in one of the latest highway protests demanding justice for Palestinians.
The protesters blocked the road at about 11:30 am and continued the action for about 20 minutes, The Messenger reported, displaying banners that read, “Right to Return, Right to Remain” and “Divest From Genocide.”
Independent journalist Talia Jane reported that the protesters aimed to call attention to the Israeli government’s denial of the Palestinian people’s right to return to their homes, which they were forced to flee in 1948 when the state of Israel was created.
Happening now: Activists have blockaded entry to JFK International Airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year to bring attention to the humanitarian right to return home, which has been withheld from Palestinians for decades. pic.twitter.com/p0Hhqv7V4E
The protest was held on the 81st day of Israel’s U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza, which has killed at least 21,110 people and injured more than 55,000, as well as displacing more than 80% of the blockaded enclave’s population.
The campaigners linked arms and blocked the expressway days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly said the government’s objective is the so-called “voluntary” migration of Gaza’s 2.3 million people—another mass displacement of Palestinians nearly 75 years after they were driven from what is now Israel.
Some travelers headed for JFK on the busy holiday travel day exited their vehicles and walked to the airport with their luggage.
At least one told the demonstrators, “Good luck,” as she climbed over a highway barricade to get to the airport.
26 activists blockading the expressway to JFK Airport have been arrested and loaded into a bus. Travelers exited their taxis and walked to the airport, most silent but one saying “Good luck” and “I support you guys.” pic.twitter.com/968WTmOupX
The Port Authority of New York told The Messenger that 26 people were arrested “for disorderly conduct and impeding vehicular traffic” and that officials dispatched two buses to offer rides to travelers.
The outlet reported that protesters carrying signs that read, “Land Back” also assembled outside Los Angeles International Airport, blocking travelers from entering.
— People's City Council – Los Angeles (@PplsCityCouncil) December 27, 2023
National Jewish-led Palestinian rights groups Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow have blocked bridges and highways and organized mass protests in other travel hubs since Israel began its total blockade and air and ground assault in Gaza, which has threatened the population with starvation and disease as well as bombings.
Neither group had claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s protests at press time.
