March Forward! demands freedom for Palestine

Click here to find out more about March Forward! Click here for details on the June 6 End the Siege of Gaza march and rally in Washington, D.C.

Demonstration in solidarity with the people of Gaza, Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 30, 2008

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!