More than two hundred members of two Jewish groups and two Palestinian groups demonstrated outside of State Senator Alex Padilla’s office in downtown San Diego Monday morning, November 6. In signs, chants, speeches, and letters they called upon Padilla to introduce a resolution in the California Senate calling for a ceasefire.
Jewish Voice for Peace San Diego and the San Diego Coalition for Palestine were two of the main groups who gathered outside of Padilla’s office with signs that read “Ceasefire now: no more money for Israel’s crimes,” “Senator Padilla: Stop Funding Genocide of Palestinians” and “Jews for a Free Palestine.”
Meanwhile, drivers honked their horns and demonstrators loudly chanted. Four organizers of the event, two Jewish and two Palestinian, attempted to deliver the letters to Senator Padilla’s office but were were denied entry to the Senator’s office and left letters from hundreds of constituents outside his door.
Oren Robinson, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace San Diego said, “The U.S. government is enabling the Israeli government’s atrocities by sending billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and pledging blanket support and international cover for any actions taken by the Israeli government. We are here to demand our elected representatives stop supporting genocide of Palestinians.”
Yasmeen, a member of the San Diego for Palestine coalition, stated, “Senator Padilla, we need you to be on the right side of history. We need you to stop funding the Israeli government’s crimes against the people of Palestine and call for a ceasefire and an end to the siege on Gaza.”
Lily Ostrer, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace San Diego, stated “Our Jewish values compel us to speak out against Israel’s atrocities against Palestine and the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. We demand that the US government stop funding the genocide of the Palestinian people and call for a cease-fire immediately. We know that a humanitarian pause is not the solution. The only path toward peace and justice is a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”
“My vision of the future is a peaceful world, one which we can coexist without violent conflict,” said Ostrer.
The demonstrators vowed to continue calling and showing up to Senator Padilla’s office until he calls for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s war crimes against the people of Palestine.
“The people have spoken, the people do not want another war,” said Jazz Massoud, a Palestinian demonstrator. They’re frustrated with the violence they’ve seen in the war between Israel and Hamas, some of which has impacted their own relatives. “My cousin was shot the other day,” Massoud said. “He’s thankfully alive at this point but the violence getting stronger and stronger.” Massoud said he’s worried about his family in the West Bank. “Each day I wake up and check my phone to make sure none of them have passed,” he said.
Sen. Padilla provided the following statement in response to 10News‘ inquiry:
“While Israel fights for long-term security and to free those taken hostage in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack, I echo the Administration’s calls to ensure every effort to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, and continue to support additional essential humanitarian aid. What remains clear is that Hamas must be eliminated to achieve peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Meanwhile:
https://6abc.com/university-of-pennsylvania-fbi-antisemitic-threats-emails-israel-hamas-war/14019350/
And also:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/opinion/antisemitism-jews-campus.html
And a quick Google search “Anti semitism college campuses. This needs to be mentioned just as often as the atrocities Israel is committing.
By the same token, far right wing leaning Jews (and far right wing leaning non Jews) here in America who openly call for all the Palestinians to be wiped off the face of the planet need to be called out as well. I sadly have had to break off some long time friendships over this.
Very sorry to hear about the breakup of longtime friendships over this. One thing I have learned after studying and traveling in that part of the world is that the Palestinians draw outsiders into their eternal disputes (the Israel’s do their own fighting) and, when all is said and done, you end up with them angry and upset at you no matter your good intentions or how you try and help, and maybe do help—it is never enough. There is NO gratitude for anything.
/s/ Chris Kennedy
Didn’t Israel just ask the United States for $10 billion in emergency military aid. Since WWII, the US has provided more foreign aid to Israel than to any other country. Seems like the US has been drawn into Israel’s disputes/challenges on more than one occasion.
True. The difference is that the Israelis do their own fighting and dying to solve their problems and have never asked us to place our own forces on the ground. They also build most of their very impressive military equipment domestically to be as independant as they can, and have publically expressed gratitude for our assistance in front of Congress and otherwise. Basically, they view themselves as responsible for solving their own problems and do so. The sad thing is that whenever the Gazans or West Bank Palestinians I have seen interviewed over the years are asked why don’t they get rid of Hamas (who have brought the current misery several times previously) by making daily life miserable for them (as locals can do) or rise up in these street marches and replace the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (widely viewed as corrupt and ineffective), there is this sort of a collective shrug that others are required to help them or others are responsible for their problems and they are powerless. It’s really sad. Perhaps some of the solidarity marchers should be asked about this. Thanks for your reply!
/s/ Chris
Chris, very one-sided view here. You do recall that just a couple months ago, Israelis were trying to get rid of their government, the most far-right one and authoritarian in 75 years. Many reservists vowed to not show up if called in protest of the government.
Perhaps I am, but, actually, I think your first point about the reservists marching to change the government in some respects supports what I was saying. Also, I really scoured T.E. Lawrence’s book “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” about his time in the region in the First World War before my own trip to Israel and Jordan in the late 1990s to scout out places along the Hejaz Railway (the railway in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia”) and elsewhere he wrote about, and think he referred to the same thing I was referring to above—from memory, I think he called it “Arab fatalism”(??). It’s still a fascinating part of the world, and, when it calms, I urge people to visit. LOTS of things pop out at you that you never hear or read about elsewhere. I’ve enjoyed these communications.
/s/ Chris Kennedy
wow, when we have been funding them with weapons and money for decades?! You may call them “independent” and appreciative, but I will also call them accountable for chronically pushing the envelope of further occupation of Palestine area, and refusing to globally acknowledge the right of Palestinians to have their own country.
They “never asked us to place our boots on the ground?!” Um, sure, b/c we support them in every other way! Israel has benefited from the Hamas occupation, anyone who thinks otherwise does not have eyes open. The time has come for the world to acknowledge Palestinian plight, and to stop the Israeli bullying. Yes, they have a right to a democratic state. But they do NOT have the right to do so at the expense of secular Palestinian populations.
At the inception of the modern state of Israel, around 1948, wasn’t there a bit of “outsiders” drawn into the eternal disputes?
There definately were a lot of outsiders involved in the machinations which resulted in the establishment of the State of Israel, going at least as far back as the nineteenth century in England with various Jewish organizations. The 1948 War against the new State was declared almost contemporaneously with the founding and the Israelis beat it back. Incidentally, you can still see pieces of wrecked equipment from that war preserved in place as an outdoor museum of sorts!
/s/ Chris Kennedy
The Nakba incursion. Very enlightening for me reading about it. And it solidifies my view on the support of Palestinians for their own state. Israel will never agree. While they are entitled to their own state, they are NOT entitled to the chronic repression of Palestinians to also have their own state. The geography needs to be redrawn, tho lord knows what configuration that might take. But what IS clear, is that Israel will do everything in their power to make sure that doesn’t happen, and THAT is not acceptable.
Tho I’m not sure exactly what those terms were, my understanding is there have been offers from Israel in the past for the Palestinians to have their own state but they (the Palestinians) didn’t agree to the terms, what ever they were.
On Thursday, November 9th at 12:00PM, medical students, residents, staff, faculty, residents, and other healthcare workers are organizing a solidarity walkout at UC San Diego School of Medicine, in the T. Denny Sanford Medical Education and Telemedicine Building (MET) Courtyard (https://maps.app.goo.gl/ijsnBQ1N29BaMxKe7). We invite all concerned individuals, students, and faculty to join us for this crucial gathering.
Meanwhile in London:
https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/goodbye-to-all-that
Anybody want to guess just how long Nuttyahoo and his band of Fascist cut-throats/the radical neoliberal rightwingers/supporters been planning this?
Remember that the US neo-liberal rightwingers under Cheney who was part of the PNAC that wrote it back in the ’90s had the PATRIOT ACT on a shelf just waiting for the moment to install it. Fascist/neoliberals think a lot alike, but somebody in the Israeli government leaked this:
New Document Leak on Plan to Expel Gaza Population
A leaked document from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence to an Israeli news site on Monday lays out a plan to transfer more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai desert, reports Joe Lauria.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/30/new-document-leak-on-plan-to-expel-gaza-population/
So shove 2 million people, half of which are children, into a stinking desolate freezing at night/burning in the day desert. With no homes, food, water, etc etc. How’s that going to work out?
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retired botanist: Hundreds of billions at this point if one includes what black bag money we don’t know about. Maybe a trillion since 1948?
But don’t forget the USS Liberty that Israel strafed & bombed by air and attacked Israeli warships in 1967 with 34 dead 171 wounded. FOR HOURS.
Yeah, they were spying on the 6-day war, were under NSA direction as a ‘signal’ ship, but it’s not as if the Israeli pilots could have mistaken a US Flag ship for an Egyptian freighter. What a crock of shit that was. Still is.
The gag orders on all survivors are still in effect by the way, and they are dying off now anyway so no witnesses will be left soon. But our government STILL doesn’t want the truth out:
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/06/fifty-years-later-nsa-keeps-details-of-israels-uss-liberty-attack-secret/
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And then there is this deceitful sneaky crap going on:
White House Requests Loophole To Obscure Arms Sales To Israel
The measure effectively gives Israel a check to purchase $3.5 billion in arms in complete secrecy.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/white-house-request-waiver-arms-sales-gaza-israel
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sealintheSelkirks
A concise description of current reality:
What Does It Mean To Call Israel an Apartheid State?
A step-by-step look at how apartheid was pioneered in South Africa and replicated by Israel.
https://portside.org/2023-11-01/what-does-it-mean-call-israel-apartheid-state
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U.S. Diplomats Slam Israel Policy in Leaked Memo
The document offers a window into internal fury at the State Department over President Joe Biden’s Middle East policies.
https://portside.org/2023-11-06/us-diplomats-slam-israel-policy-leaked-memo
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sealintheSelkirks
And yet, there are more than 200 hostages, including Americans, being held by Hamas. Free the hostages.
To be perfectly blunt about it, there are at least 2,100,000 hostages being ‘held’ by Israel, the largest portion of them being civilians with over HALF being children, that are under attack by modern weapons of war in the largest outdoor prison camp in the world. Did you not read the previously posted two links?
I’m really, REALLY sick of hearing the ‘whataboutism’ commentary being spewed by MAGA GOPers and many Democrats that leads to this kind of horsecrap:
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/01/brian-mast-palestinian-civilians-gaza-aid-aipac/
This is starting to feel like what the US did after a pack of Saudi Arabians, whose leader bin Laden was trained-armed-funded by the US Army & CIA, and then funded by wealthy Saudis oil sheiks to crash jet airliners into the World Trade Center buildings.
An Israeli version with the same intent. As Nick Turse’s book on what the US did in Viet Nam said: ‘Kill Anything That Moves.’ The same program outlined in that book is what the IDF is using.
So the US politicians attacked THE WRONG PEOPLE and blew up how many countries in the ensuing years after 911; murdered how many people in Western Asia in 22 years in how many countries using that same ‘strategy?’ Uncountable at this point I’m assuming…and the US is STILL doing it.
As are the Israeli politicians doing right now.
The US leaders are continuing and/or condoning the slaughter of innocents across the world STILL because…they can’t seem to learn anything new. A Roman Empire mentality unfortunately persists, and I count myself so lucky to have NOT gone to Viet Nam as so many of my slightly older peers were shanghaied into. I do like reading about the IDF soldiers who are refusing to participate though, like those in the US that escaped to Canada or deserted after being conscripted, they are probably being punished for their ethical stance.
Big sigh. We are not a nice species. We are not the ‘shining city on the hill’ and neither is Israel. Nor is HAMAS. There’s a lot of really bad people in our species that have way too much power over those that would find a better way.
sealintheSelkirks