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As veterans who have served in
Washington’s imperialist wars, from Vietnam to Iraq, we know all too
well what colonial occupation looks like. For many of us, it was the
participation in these occupations—our role as the armed thugs made
to repress the indigenous populations—that shaped our consciousness
and turned us against this criminal government. That is why we feel
it is our duty to fight to end the occupation of Palestine, an
occupation that has created one of the most tragic humanitarian
crises in history.
While we struggle to end the wars against the people of Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan, we are compelled to struggle with just as
much energy and passion to end the war against the Palestinian
people.
Just as we are indoctrinated through
our schools and mainstream media to accept a completely distorted
view of the role of the U.S. military in the world, there is the
same concerted effort to make the plight of the Palestinian people
just as invisible as the plight of every other population that
suffers the ravages of U.S. imperialism. While there is only one
position echoed by the Pentagon, its loyal media and nearly the
entire political establishment, we declare that the issue of
Palestinian rights is not up for debate.
There are not two sides to this story.
In 1948, Zionist settlers violently expelled more than 750,000
innocent Palestinians from their homes, murdering those who resisted
and turning the rest into refugees. Over the subsequent 61 years,
the settler state has consistently expanded its borders with
soldiers, tanks and bulldozers; everyday tightening its noose on the
Palestinian people. The number of refugees has grown to over 6
million. Palestinians have endured constant violence, repression,
humiliation, poverty and denial of human rights at the hands of the
Zionist state.
Israel’s government implements a strict, racist system of apartheid
where Arab people are not afforded anywhere near the same rights as
Israeli Jews.
In 2008, 21 South African activists
visited occupied Palestine. They were veterans of the struggle
against apartheid. They unanimously concluded that the apartheid
system forced on the Palestinians is even more brutal and shocking
than what was in place in South Africa. In the words of South
African MP Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, "What I see here is worse than
what we experienced—the absolute control of people’s lives, the lack
of freedom of movement, the army presence everywhere, the total
separation and the extensive destruction we saw … racist ideology is
also reinforced by religion, which was not the case in South Africa."
Just as the shameful, racist government of apartheid South Africa
will be remembered as a scar on the face of human history, so too
will the racist government of apartheid Israel.
The recent massacre in Gaza that
destroyed so many lives also should have destroyed any illusions
that Israel is the "victim" and that Palestinians are the "terrorists."
Over 1,400 Palestinian civilians were murdered, at least 300 of them
children, and thousands more were seriously injured.
‘Long live Palestine!’
As veterans who understand the trials and debilitation of
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, we feel a deep connection with the
1.5 million people in Gaza who will live the rest of their lives
with PTSD. Israel’s targeting of schools, hospitals, homes, places
of worship, civilian bomb shelters and ambulances with the newest,
most high-tech, most destructive weaponry—supplied by the U.S.
government—are war crimes. These add to Israel’s ever-growing list
of crimes against humanity.
Resistance to these policies is why,
when March Forward! was formed, the very first action we took was
building and participating in a mass demonstration in Washington,
D.C. against the U.S.-Israeli siege of Gaza on Jan. 10.
The struggle for the liberation of
Palestine is especially important here in the United States because
Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine and the daily crimes it
commits are made possible by the billions of dollars in military aid
and equipment supplied by the U.S. government each year. The bombs
dropped on innocent people in Afghanistan are the same bombs dropped
on innocent people in Palestine. The money that funds every bullet
fired into the body of an Iraqi civilian comes from the same place
that funds every bullet fired into the body of a Palestinian: U.S.
tax dollars.
While we face massive cuts to
education, health services and social programs here in the United
States, the government diverts billions of our tax dollars to arm
Israel. That money could be used to help provide everyone in this
country with a college education and health benefits. It could be
used to fund the inadequate Veterans Affairs, which has left
millions of veterans in crisis. But instead, it is used to kill and
repress our sisters and brothers in Palestine.
March Forward! fights to eliminate
imperialism; freedom for Palestine is central to that struggle. The
Israeli settler state is a vital arm of U.S. imperialism. The U.S.-Israeli
relationship is so important to Washington because the United States
needs a loyal attack dog in the region that it longs to dominate.
Just as the steadfast resistance of
the Palestinians to colonial domination has inspired oppressed
people across the globe, we too hold up the Palestinian people with
the highest degree of respect and admiration. Their decades-long
struggle against imperialism is heroic. We stand uncritically with
the Palestinian resistance movement, however it chooses to resist.
March Forward! recognizes the right of
the Palestinian people to determine the course of their own future.
We demand that the Palestinian right to return be implemented and
open to all Palestinian refugees. Israel’s ever-expanding borders,
drawn with blood and conquest, should be replaced with a secular,
democratic state in all of historic Palestine. All people—Muslims,
Christians, Jews and others—can live peacefully in historic
Palestine. It is the Zionist occupation that is the sole cause of
the conflict. The occupation must end. The Palestinian people have
the right to self-determination.
We demand that every cent of U.S. aid
to Israel be cut off, and that all remaining funds and military
equipment should be repossessed. Many billions of dollars in
reparations are long overdue to the Palestinian people. An open
investigation is needed to indict the politicians and military
officials guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, both in
Israel and in the United States.
U.S. service members have no reason to
serve under a government that enables and allows such atrocities
against innocent people. The U.S. government squanders resources
that should be used to provide social services to veterans and all
working people, but instead are used to create immense injustice and
suffering among Palestinians.
March Forward! will stand with the
Palestinian people and fight against U.S.-Israeli terrorism until
all of Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.
Long live Palestine!
Michael Prysner is an Iraq war veteran
and founding member of March Forward! |
