Standing up for Palestine in a blinded US

Americans and other nationalities in the US have taken to the streets in support of the Palestinian people. Photo: Reuters

"Don't get desensitised" was the recent advice of one speaker on my social media feed, as he spoke about the value of maintaining the momentum of the street and social media protests against Israel's ever-growing atrocities against Palestinians since 07 October. 

My reaction, though, is quite the opposite. My mind shuts down when it comes to thinking about the genocide in Palestine. Until, of course, Israel breaks its own record of a previous abomination by one more abhorrent act. 

That results in a flurry of thoughts, sometimes accompanied by a visceral reaction, including nausea. Since Hamas's terrorist attacks on 7 October, Israel has massacred tens of thousands and dehumanised millions of Palestinian civilians in ways my generation has never seen before - in clear view of the whole world and against the backdrop of an apartheid inflicted on Palestine.

In plain truth, my reaction stems less from Israel's barbarity than it does from the fact that my newly adopted country, the United States and most of her Western allies, prime enforcers of the current, albeit diminishing - unipolar world order and supposedly run by fellow humans, are not only enabling the genocide but actively blocking means to end it. 

It comes from the realisation that even as a US national, my voice and those of others like me matter much less to the political masters of this country than the voices of those who look like them, and that despite being a newly-minted American myself, I can singularly exert almost no influence on my government, all while my tax dollars are used to fund bombs for Israel's genocidal military. 

There is one thing I deeply value about the United States, however. Up until now, American society has largely protected the right of its citizens to raise their voices against its rulers. This right is being gradually surrendered in many countries around the world. Hence, where most minorities, such as myself, lack wealth and influence, we make up for it in terms of numbers by allying with each other. 

Since Israel's war on Palestinians started over seven weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of Americans and other nationalities in the US have taken over the streets of cities across the country every week, from Los Angeles to New York, protesting in support of the Palestinian people and against the will of the US government.

In Washington D.C., possibly the largest anti-war protest since the Iraq War, was attended by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. A Jewish activist group occupied the Grand Central Station in New York and the US legislature on Capitol Hill, with hundreds getting arrested. 

In my home town of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area cities, we have organised rallies, marches, walk-outs, shut-downs, blockades, teach-ins, food drives, sit-ins, writing to and calling local legislators, and town halls with congressmen, as have fellow organisers in other US cities. 

Very recently, an estimated fifty thousand of us gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall before taking to the streets. Flowers were laid out in a part of the plaza around an array of photos of Israel's victims. Earlier, in a different demonstration, we blocked part of one of the main highways connecting San Francisco to the surrounding cities until the police would not let us march any more. 

Two weeks back, we gathered after work to make our voices heard to President Joe Biden during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, which he was attending along with over fifteen other heads of state and government. 

Behind the scenes, Instagram posts and stories, as well as Whatsapp groups, have kept turning the wheels of these campaigns; a very recent one resulting in a town hall with Congressman Ro Khanna, where five hundred of us warned him over Zoom of organising votes against him in the next election should he continue to resist calling for a ceasefire.

Corporations like Meta have not been immune to our demonstrations either, whose Menlo Park headquarters we have protested in front of for regularly blocking pro-Palestinian posts on Facebook and Instagram. 

Two types of global order have been in play, up until now: economic and security. A third one, a digital order, has recently emerged, and it's directed mainly by firms like Meta. The San Francisco Bay Area is perhaps its global HQ. To make our voices heard here is crucial.

Arabs. East Asians. South Americans. African Americans. South Asians. White Americans. Jews. Muslims. Christians. Atheists. The young. The elderly. Even babies. What causes such diverse peoples to chant the same slogans in droves for a land most of them have surely never been to, for people they will probably never see?

There are at least two layers of responses to this. The first is simple: Israel, in its signature style, is violating the fundamentals of humanity. The second one is complex but also quite potent. It is a realisation that for years, the US, through its near blind support for Israel, enabled by a racist, colonialist, war-mongering worldview and powerful pro-Israeli lobby election financing, has itself been an obstacle to the establishment of a free Palestinian state. 

Racism and the loyalties of the American political elite to corporations and interest groups are too well known to Americans who suffer from its effects, be it the high cost of education and healthcare or gun violence.

So far, the results have been noticeably transformational for American society, which has traditionally strongly backed the apartheid state. Recent polls by Reuters and Ipsos show that close to 70% of the US public, including half of Republicans, support a ceasefire in Gaza. 

In another report by Axios, while over 80% of Baby Boomers support Israel, that is true for only a minority of Millennials and Gen Z. Less than a year out from the presidential elections, Joe Biden seems to be losing crucial votes in swing states. 

But all this comes at a huge cost. Websites like the Canary Mission and others have been active for some years now, busy doxxing protest organisers and attendees, causing them to be suspended from academic institutes or fired from their workplace, or in some cases, suspended from their elected positions in boards and city councils. It is the same reason that many of us cover our faces when we make our voices heard. It is for the same reason that I hide my identity as I write this.

All this speaks to the might of the forces that we, the masses on the streets, are up against, and much more work needs to be done. The tragedy of Palestine did not start with military aggression. It started with an information war that has been playing out for over a century. The US, being Israel's prime supporter, makes it crucial that the information war be won here.

The author is a Bangladeshi-American currently residing and working in San Francisco and actively protesting the Gaza Genocide.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.