Letter on Tlaib and Omar Exclusion by Israel

To: Senator Ben Cardin; Senator Chris Van Hollen; Representative Ben Cardin

As a registered voter within the State of Maryland, I am deeply disturbed by Israel's selective exclusion of two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, from its borders.

Israel is widely touted as being "Our Democratic Friend in the Middle East," but I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how such selective, and clearly racist exclusion of our esteemed Congresswomen can be reconciled with such a title.

It's high time that we re-examine the U.S. relationship with a state which clearly has a two-tiered system of justice, one for Muslims and Arabs, and one for its ostensible Jewish partisans. And, we might examine what benefits, really, the U.S. gets from the massive dole we give each year to Israel.

The exclusion of these two women of color, representatives of our democracy, is a clear indicator of Israel's modus operandi, and one can only imagine the civil liberties and other violations which Palestinians living under its control endure, if these two Congresswomen---far more empowered than that population--are accorded such treatment.

As a registered voter who regards Israel as a racist colonial-settler state, I deplore U.S. aid to that entity..

Sincerely,
Nadrat Siddique

Ilhan Omar: A Leader of Men

So, Ilhan Omar, the beautiful young Somali-American Muslim woman, a former refugee and now D-MN in Congress, has changed the entire dialogue on "Israel." She has forced the discussion of U.S. aid to Israel. And, if one accepts the premise that "Israel's" inflation-laden economy is heavily dependent on the $6 billion dollars plus allocated it by the U.S., the entire exististence of the colonial settler state could be in question. This young woman has, standing in the Belly of the Beast, raised the critical question of whether criticism of "Israel" constitutes anti-semitism. She also propounded potential dual loyalty of American Zionists to Israel and the U.S. as an issue. This is something generations of big-bellied, bearded, Qur'an spouting, five-times-a-day-praying, Sunnah Path invoking, "no-politics-in-the-mosque, sister" declaring, rich-food gorging, Muslim men could not achieve in decades. To the tune of death threats, and at great risk to herself and her family, the 37-year old mother of three children said what needed to be said. So, free advice to the Muslim men: Stop hating, and support her, whether or not you agree with her on every single side issue. Even the dismantling of Apartheid had to start somewhere.

Israeli Propaganda Finds a New Home in UMBC Commons

So UMBC, where I go to school, now features Israeli propaganda in the main corridor of its Commons (student union).

It takes the form of a display described by the organizers as follows:

"Inside Terrorism: The X-Ray Project is an art installation that exhibits x-rays of terror victims together with their medical accounts and personal stories; the x-rays come from two major Israeli hospitals. The exhibition personalizes and universalizes the issue of terrorism and urges the understanding that terrorism is not a legitimate tool, that it must be strongly condemned."

Funded by the David Project for Jewish Leadership and sponsored by Hillel, the project appears to exploit students' fascination with technology as well as their susceptibility to the corporate media version of events in Occupied Palestine.

A complete description of the project is here.

The David Project claims its mission is "to promote a fair and honest understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict."

However, the 5,050 Palestinian men, women and children killed by Israeli state terror in the last few years are not represented in the exhibit. Ditto for the 49,760 wounded, and the 10,4000 detained during the same time period (source: Palestinian State Information Service). Nor is there any mention of the fact that the Israeli victims were killed in an internationally recognized liberation struggle against occupation.

The net effect is a one-sided and racist portrayal of loss as unique to Israeli side, reminescent of the slavery-era treatment of black people, whose deaths were dismissed because they were thought to be "soul-less."

An excellent letter of protest written by a good friend to the Retriever Weekly (UMBC's student newspaper), may be seen here.

I just sent my own brief letter of protest to the Retriever, and encourage others to write as well.