by Ernie McCray
Lallia Allali,
a friend of mine,
was removed as the chairperson
of a committee
that advises San Diego City Schools
on programs and services for English Learners –
for posting a graphic on social media
that portrayed Israel as the killer of babies,
and I must say
that’s not a vision
I would ever use
as an expression of my views
regarding the war
that’s raging
between
Palestinians and Jews.
However, at the same time,
I am not Lallia,
an Arab woman
whose emotions
are wracked with pain,
living with the horrors
her people are going through
but when I look through her eyes
and try to understand
I see a woman
who is
terribly grief stricken,
very much pissed.
War does that to folks.
And who are we as a humanity
if we can’t comprehend this?
You can’t cancel a human being
for screaming!
Lallia should be held in our embrace,
and told
“I’m so terribly sorry you feel the way you do”
and asked
“What do you think we should do?”
I mean she is known as one who overflows with progressive ideas.
And we should ask ourselves:
“Who, in our community, has advocated
for all students to be well educated
more than Lallia Allali herself?”
And, in all of the reports around town
regarding her dismissal,
there is no mention
of what brought on her anger at the beginning:
her concern
that the school system,
while the armed conflict in Gaza
rages on,
has been offering more
support to Jewish students
than Muslim students
when both groups
need a lot of tending to
and, of course, if this is true.
it needs to be corrected,
and, if it’s not true,
then answers are needed
as to why there are some
who think it’s true.
Any way you look at it, though,
with or without, Lallia,
this committee that’s setup
to address
the learning and emotional needs
of English Learners
in our schools
has a lot to do
and if they do that in ways
that lead to all students
being and feeling respected,
they will be following the lead of a woman
who has dedicated her life to that
and I say that
because I’ve looked through her eyes
on many occasions
concerning creating schools
that are responsive
to the needs of all students.
I wish amends could be made
for her being cast aside
so, she can continue her immense upside
as an advocate
for children.
No one does it better.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know all the circumstances of her firing and the wording she used in her sm posts, but taking into account today’s political climate and divisive nature of the war going on between Israel and Hamas, one really needs to think before hitting send. If she referred to Israel as a “murder of babies”, that can be taken as antisemitism. The fact that Israel’s actions have in fact resulted in innocent people being killed doesn’t change that. Hama’s actions resulted in innocent people being killed, even if it’s a much much smaller #. Since the attack and the resulting retaliation on the part of Israel, anti-Semitism has EXPLODED, and with that so has hypersensitivity towards anti-Semitism and yes it has resulted in false accusations but here we are. Islamophobia has exploded too of course, but one doesn’t excuse the other.
Anyway it goes back to the fact that one needs think before they post. My organization has let go of a couple contractors in the last month for sm posts related to current events. Emotional trauma is not always a saving grace.
The facts are that Israel is murdering babies on the daily. That’s not anti-Semitic, that is the truth. It’s disgusting the way the US media is justifying the murder of innocent civilians supposedly based on defense. What the IDF is doing is not self defense. What are Muslims to do when it seems they have no other options to be heard? The media surely isn’t giving them a voice.
Criticizing Israel’s over reactive retaliatory actions is not antisemitism in and of itself, but if you read my post you’d understand that antisemitism has significantly grown to dangerous levels around the world. That is also a fact. Yes that has resulted in some hypersensitivities to antisemitism (meaning heart felt yet in reality inaccurate claims), but that’s understandable.
Ultimately I more blame Hamas for the death of innocent Palestinians more than I do the IDF, even taking into account the blood thirsty actions of some of it’s Soldiers. Take that however you will.
Ole Ben is a far right autocratic kook, but I still support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself and I hope they succeed in wiping Hamas and it’s supporters off the face of the planet.
Uno mas thing LIz,
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-antisemitic-incidents-up-about-400-since-israel-hamas-war-began-report-says-2023-10-25/
I agree Elizabeth, and centering our personal, American feelings is in direct antagonism with empathy and understanding. How many babies does Israel have to kill in order for us to say that they kill babies? Thats absurd. Doctors Without Borders is claiming at least 100 children are being murdered by IDF bombardment every day. Keep spitting facts and don’t let them murky the waters.
“The offending image, spotted last weekend, shows a Jewish Star of David beheading five babies, with the caption: “The devil is killing.””
Actually, screw this women. She’s trash and Israel’s atrocities does not change that.
Criticizing and condeming Israel’s genocide in Gaza is not anti-semitism.
In and of itself you are right but antisemitism has exploded in the past couple months and that should not be ignored. Also there’s the fact that Hamas started this.
Chris, I think we all want the same thing here. Please know that when you say “Hamas Started It” not only is that lacking in nuance, context and history, but also its so reductive. If we are trying to have a conversation about the Middle East and Palestine and the Israeli Occupation of 76 years, you’re going have to understand that no one group of people that are alive today, “started it”
Chris, it’s too similar to McCarthyism and the 1950s witch hunts for communists all over again. Which was the same time period that US money suddenly had ‘In God We Trust’ plastered all over it (as if any of human-invented ‘gods’ give a damn about money!). It’s a label used to marginalize peoples’ voices that some in government don’t want to hear by lumping .
What happened to the Palestinians in their own land by the Imperialists both before and after WWII (and since) was/is a horror show of massive colonialism death & destruction. The Palestinians had a far better reason to fight against the British Empire than the English colonists on this continent who were going against their god-given king over ‘unfair’ taxes! Keep our slaves but rebel against taxes vs steal all our land and throw us out while killing us? Really? Not much of a fair comparison there, is it?
Saying that those who are anti-Zionist/anti-invader/anti-illegal so-called ‘settlements’ by walking in and declaring they own your house now by pointing guns at you is somehow causing Anti-Semitism in the US is so bogus a claim it’s hard to know where to start disputing it.
How about this. That comparison is what the MAGA is using; if you are against Trump you hate America. Well, are you against America or are you going to vote for that fat pig of a Fascist frat boy in November to prove your loyalty?
See how that feels?
Like what the US did to Korea, then Viet Nam, and then in Iraq 50 years later, the IDF is bombing schools, hospitals, water supplies, sewer treatment plants, homes, infrastructure, flattening everything and now is talking about mass exile of the entire population to a desert in Egypt. And the US is funding that which, given the history of the US around the world, is par for the course I guess. It’s what the ‘leaders of the “free world” seem to like doing…along with the Christo-Fascist evangelical segment of the US population who is also funding this with donations so that jesus will come back because the Jews have a nation-state which is a real loony concept since that isn’t even in their bible… Remember, Jesus was a Palestinian Arab Semite who was only trying to make his religion better…
As for HAMAS ‘starting this,’ who invaded who in 1947? Wasn’t it the European Jews from WWII that nobody wanted to take back into their countries that were shipped there?
sealintheSelkirks
“Saying that those who are anti-Zionist/anti-invader/anti-illegal so-called ‘settlements’ by walking in and declaring they own your house now by pointing guns at you is somehow causing Anti-Semitism in the US is so bogus a claim it’s hard to know where to start disputing it.”
Since the Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation, antisemitism has exploded. That’s not a bogus claim and I don’t believe you really believe that, unless we are talking about two different things. Look at what’s been happening on college campuses. Actual physical threats have become all too common. Claudine Gay deserves all the terrible things happening to her.
Israel has done some horrific war crimes. No one disputes that but they still have a right to exist and to defend themselves.
But whether or not you or anyone else believes Israel’s right to exist, antisemitism is very real:
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-antisemitism-europe-massacre-war-protests-1d26266dfd9b2b8dd4c795f420abab47
https://www.reuters.com/world/how-surge-antisemitism-is-affecting-countries-around-world-2023-10-31/
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/11/03/whats-behind-the-sharp-rise-in-u-s-antisemitism
I could go on with more links.
Yes, Chris, Israel does have a right to exist and there has been a dramatic rise in antisemitism — but also a rise in Islamophobia and the loss of over 20,000 live in Gaza. However, as has been exposed now, Claudine Gay was the victim of a far-right effort by MAGAists to chip away at our institutions. I’m not linking to anything as this has been in the press for several days now.
Thank you for acknowledging those things Frank.
Claudine gay was indeed was a victim of far right MAGAists but the doesn’t lessen her complacency on antisemitic attacks on her campus, it’s still be best she not be in that position any longer IMO.
I’ve lost a few friends in all this so it kind of hits home.
Sorry about that, mi amigo. We’ve got to be careful and sensitive and keep our eyes on our main problem: trump.
As reported by Jeffery St. Clair in the article:
Dershowitz for the Defense?
The Scourging of Gaza: Diary of a Genocidal War (CP+ subscribers only)
“Here’s what we know about the state of Gaza on day 91 of the war: 30,676 killed (including those 7,000 presumed dead under the rubble); 12,040 children killed; 6,103 women killed; 58,960 wounded; 105 journalists killed; 241 health care workers killed; 283 health care workers wounded; 1.93 million displaced; 67,941 homes completely destroyed; 179,750 homes damaged; 169 press offices damaged or destroyed; 318 damaged or destroyed schools; 1612 damaged or destroyed industrial facilities; 201 damaged or destroyed mosques; 3 damaged or destroyed churches; 169 damaged or destroyed health care facilities (23 hospitals, 57 clinics, 89 ambulances); 198 archeological and heritage sites damaged or destroyed; 41 civil defense workers killed; 127 civil defense workers injured.”
And South Africa, whom everyone should agree has a VERY good idea what Apartheid and Genocide looks like, has filed suit in the International Court of Justice against Israel. The International Court of Justice has scheduled a public hearing on January 11th-12th for South Africa’s case filed against Israel over genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s response?
+ In response to South Africa’s filing, Israeli officials accused South Africa of being “complicit with Hamas’ campaign of Genocide against our people” and vowed: “We assure South Africa’s leaders, history will judge you”.
+ I’ve read South Africa’s brief twice now and it presents a compelling and persuasive compilation of public statements by Israeli officials and documentary evidence of airstrikes on civilian targets, the destruction of public infrastructure, targeted assassinations, forced displacement, denial of medical care and manufactured famine. Then there are stunning items like this “motivational speech” to Israeli troops calling for the total erasure of Palestinians from Gaza:
NOTE: the text won’t copy and I’m not sure I would paste it here. It’s that ugly. But do the search yourself:
95 yr old IDF Army reservist and ‘veteran’ of the 1948 Nakba’s Deir Yassin Massacre Ezra Yachin what he said troops on 11OCT 2023. He must be remembering some of the speeches he heard growing up as a kid in Germany in the 1930s…but you be the judge of that.
___
In other news, the US bombed Baghdad, Syria, and Yemen this week…
sealintheSelkirks
Another historical view written by a secular Jew raised in a fiercely anti-Zionist family.
About the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1948 UN Partition Plan, the never-ending Nakba, and “Zionism, a religious, political and cultural movement that began in the late 19th century to claim Palestine as the God-given homeland of the Jewish people.
Contrary to official mythology, however, the Zionist fervour was not shared by the majority of Jews.”
The Spectacular Failure of the Zionist Project
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/08/the-spectacular-failure-of-the-zionist-project/
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I see a scary similarity in the US rightwing MAGA movement in this piece…and even the Israeli threat directed at South Africa is eerily familiar to Wbush’s “You’re either with us or the terrorists.” Biden may call himself a Zionist but Trump is far more in line with the Ideology…
Tomorrow is the start of the International Court of Justice hearing.
sealintheSelkirks
From the mouth of a Zionist general’s son and former IDF Special Forces guy:
The IDF’s war crimes are a perfect reflection of Israeli society
Miko Peled, author and former member of IDF Special Forces, explains how Israel indoctrinates its citizens in anti-Palestinian racism from the cradle to the grave.
https://therealnews.com/the-idfs-war-crimes-are-a-perfect-reflection-of-israeli-society
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The ‘Bad Apples’ excuse combined with ‘mythic narrative’ is effective propaganda. We see it used here in the US, too, to explain away the madness the US military and militarized police forces continually get caught doing in cell phone footage. Same for the ‘mythic’ South that refuses to admit to the first paragraph in South Carolina’s succession papers, and the waving of the Stars & Bars flag by the supposed ‘patriotic MAGA’ that meant nothing less than I Love Slavery. The lack of deeper thinking in our somewhat freer society it very, very troubling.
Then there is the reality of what the Euro colonizers did to the first people on this continent which surely has many parallels to the IDF plan…
Anybody else keeping up with the South African charges against Israel and their pages and pages of extremely damaging irrefutable evidence? Or is the cognitive dissonance too hard to handle from the mythic perspective?
sealintheSelkirks