Dear Occupy Wall Street,
You're getting a taste of what it is to be Palestinian. You're starting to know what it is like to not have a job, know why, and know the names and addresses of the people responsible for depriving you of dignity and justice. So now, like Palestinian and Arab youth, you're taking to the streets and making demands, you're calling for real change.
But us Americans, unlike Palestinians, are free. In fact, we have been too free. Our freedom came at the cost of others. Free markets were only free because we were taking everyone else's freedom.
It's OK, I know most of us didn't mean to be occupiers. We were shocked and mourning 9/11, so all of our blind eyes, all of our xenophobic, nationalistic, religiosity makes sense. But honestly, and I tell you this as your friend, it would have been better for us to listen to our international counselors before blowing our money on more bombs to the Middle East -- again.
I know we tried to make it right in 2008, that we wanted to clear it up with the world. But unfortunately, electing a black man couldn't save us from our sins. It was already too late, far too late. And now, our knight in shining armor became a sinner too, in the White House Obama just couldn't stay black.
So here we are on a sinking ship, on a warming planet, and we may have missed the tipping point. It may be generations before we return to our foreclosed homes or get back our stolen jobs. Because America, we're both occupied and occupiers. We have a lot of work to do.
But this is good work and many occupied peoples (the Palestinians included) are excited for us. For if we will succeed in occupying Wall Street, we will not only free ourselves, but free Palestines everywhere. That commitment is what truly makes us a part of the global 99 percent, "We the People," if you will. So here are some words of wisdom from the Palestinians, who have been working to end occupations for hundreds of years:
Nothing lasts forever -- the wall will fall.
Of course this wall won't fall without clear demands. We may know why we are occupying Wall Street, but we also have to know what we have to do to end Wall Street's worldwide occupation. And so I'm writing to you, Occupy Wall Street, from Palestine, and asking that when you're sitting in your people's assemblies, when you're putting your names on the stack, virtual and real, please make this one demand clear:
End American military aid to Israel.
This military aid is not being used for what you think it is. It is not being used to protect Israeli citizens from terrorists or hostile neighbors. It is being used to systematically steal water and land from the indigenous people. It is being used to destroy homes and displace communities, purchase weapons that are used against civilians (Palestinian, Israelis and internationals) and to imprison children and non-violent leaders without fair trials... the list goes on.
But all of these human rights issues aside, this money is being stolen from you! Since the end of the second World War, billions of American tax payer dollars have been given to Israel, the Middle Eastern superpower whose citizens enjoy some of the highest living standards in the world. In 2008, a ten year commitment to giving Israel $3 billion a year began, and by 2018 we will have spent $30 billion on military aid to Israel in the past decade. But why?
Well, Wall Street knows. 75 percent of the American military aid to Israel is conditional and must be used to buy military arms from U.S. companies. These companies make millions of dollars annually off of this policy. To protect their economic interests, they invest thousands into insuring that representatives who support their economic interests are elected and pass all of their favorite bills.
This is not a Jewish issue. This is an American issue. You are not an anti-Semite if you don't want your taxpayer dollars to be spent on weapons. You are however, an anti-Semite if you treat the Jewish people differently than you would treat any other people -- if you privilege them, pity them or punish them.
So this is the moment to occupy the streets, mailboxes and telephone lines of our representatives. To make clear demands and tell our representatives, "Stop being more pro-Israel than pro-American. Give us back our $30 billion!"
With Love from Palestine,
Alison Ramer
Follow Alison Avigayil Ramer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/alisonavigayil
Robert Barrett, PhD: Occupy Wall Street Is Not the Arab Spring
I don't even know where to begin...anxious to talk to you about this when I see you. To say that American military aid to Israel goes exclusively to oppress Palestinians and not to protect Israelis in the only democratic, stable nation in a region defined mainly by fundamentalist theocracy, instability and self-inflicted, internecine genocide is disingenuous at best and not worthy of your intelligence and experience. I'm also very uncomfortable with the intimations of Jewish control of Wall Street, which is a millennia-old canard which is noxiously rearing its ugly head again. I greatly admire your passion and your willingness to challenge Israel on its abuses and excesses, which is justifiable and emerges from our tradition's values. But please be wary of overgeneralization and hyperbole in your assessment.
As for your claim that US aid doesn't go "exclusively to oppress Palestinians", yes it does.
Cash is fungible. Any cash given to israel in one area of the economy allows israel to spend freed-up cash in other areas of the economy.
That includes the occupation, the settlements and israeli militarization of the West Bank. This is in defiance of international law and the policies of consecutive US policies since israel was founded.
israelis need it to protect their standard of living.
and wouldn't need THE largest amount of worldwide aid per capita.
not only do US tax dollars go to them, but 27% of all UNWRA $$ is from US tax dollars
as welll……
so figure it out….$900M this year alone PLUS 27% of UNWRA aid…..ALL from US tax$$
izral doesn't need to 'protect their standard of living' as much as they need to 'protect' themselves from the savvagges that want them gone…from the face of the earth.
and then she states "Give us back our $30 billion!".
Seems like they do. That $3 billion a year props up American Jobs and industry.
Haha!
O israel the mighty benefactor. Thank you for letting us give you 3 Billion dollars of our money! Please contact us again if theres anything else we can give you.
We really don't give them the money. We spend it on them in our own country. Israel should be thankful, but it helps the US economy just the same as any other govt. stimulus spending program does.
Such a focus on word "Occupy". :-)
A park for the world, owned by nobody and everybody. I'm really sick of religious groups that have competing claims on the same land as if that mattered.
Yes, and US citizens, including many here in Connecticut, make most of those weapons, and make a good living doing so. And the fact that more weapons can be made and sold, lowers the cost of some of those weapons that we make for ourselves.
Weapons are one of the few things we still make well in this Country.
I wonder why is that unemployment rate in Gaza twice as high as in the WB? Why greenhouses that used to provide living for 3000 Arab families in the Gaza when Jewish settlers were in Gaza were ruined and ransacked. Had Israel compelled Arab mob to destroy the greenhouses presented to the Arabs by good-wishers? GDP of the PNA in the WB grew respectable 11% in 2009 because of increased employment in Israel and Jewish settlements. It could have been even higher if not for Second Intifada that forced many Israeli businesses to bring foreign workers into Israel to replace workers from Gaza and/or the WB.
Stop American military cooperation with Israel? Israel is third in the world in exporting military equipment and technologies. Some of them are very sensitive for US and Israel's export abilities often limited by American concerns. Without the aid from US Israel would not be restrained in expanding cooperation with China and PLA. But I sense that the Author doesn't concern herself with such details when she is standing on a soap box. Have she tried to do the same in Ashkelon or Sderot?
The writer would have you believe that there has been no palestinian terrorism, that the palestinians want to welcome Israel with all their hearts and offers of flowers, that Israel terrorizes "children" and randomly imprisons whoever they might find on the streets.
When the truth is that the palestinians are best known for their terrorism ( including the murders of many Americans), their political agenda spelled out in their charters of genocide and the destruction of a sovereign nation.
Additionally the writer seems to not know that Christians are mercilessly persecuted by the palestinian muslim population, that Jews are considered sub human, and that being gay on the west bank is a death penalty offense.
Yes--I often wonder where these pundits come from, and what world they live on.
NEVER AGAIN! Will A Jew be spat in the face without recrimination.
NEVER AGAIN! Will the epithet Dirty Jew be ignored
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jewish 70 year old grandmother be forced on her knees to scrub the sidewalk
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jewish mother and father be humiliated in front of their children -forced to lick the boots of a 15 year old thug
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew’s property, all their possessions, house and lands be meticulously chronicled then signed away for a pittance.
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew be forced to convert
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew be subservient to another nation or religion
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew stand aside while you dehumanise and boycott him
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew allow your slaughter, your pogroms, your Holocaust.
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew ignore your outpourings of hatred and filthy lies
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew accept your double standards – Jews are your equal
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew be forced to wear your badge-except in honour
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew not be able to worship at her holy sites
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew be your scapegoat-always ‘the traitor’
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew forgo the right to live in her homeland-The State of Israel.
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew be expelled without reciprocation
NEVER AGAIN! Will a Jew accept anything less than you accept for yourself
if fits their agenda….by allowing others to say what they can't.
It is quite a stretch to try to line up the goals by saying the money that goes to Israel is bad because it comes back to america, just to the wrong people. If you are opposed to MIC, fine, but let's not pretend that 3 billion a year is anything more that a drop in the bucket.
If you are opposed to aid to Israel, you should be able to make the case on it's merits. Since presumably the author cannot, she resorts to mental gymnastics.
Although I really had to laugh about the aid issue, because the argument made most frequently here is that the US get absolutely nothing for the money. But the author does note that "75 percent of the American military aid to Israel is conditional and must be used to buy military arms from U.S. companies. These companies make millions of dollars annually off of this policy." but considers it a negative. LOL c'est la vie
See the period at the end of this paragraph? Its the worlds smallest violin.