Statement on the US Attacks on Yemen from the Middle East Committee of WAMM, written 1/17/2024
The WAMM Middle East Committee demands that the Biden administration and Congress immediately end all political and military support of Israel and its genocidal attacks on the people of Gaza.
We denounce the hypocrisy and doublespeak of our political leaders in the face of the horror that is being unleashed on Gaza, resulting in the death and injuries of thousands of people – mostly women and children, the utterly devastating destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, even bakeries, and the lack of food, clean water, medicines, electricity, and fuel because of the imposition of a draconian siege by Israel, which is not even letting in the fuel for hospitals.
As of this writing, November 3, the death toll is over 9,000, 40 percent of them children. There are black-outs cutting off communication with the outside world and within Gaza.
The aid allowed into Gaza is completely inadequate to supply even a small fraction of human needs and acts as a fig leaf to cover crimes against humanity while at the same time, Israel continues to bomb the people with the complicity of the U.S. and with the use of U.S. weapons.What has been commonly described as an open-air prison is being turned into a death camp. Israel and the U.S. do not value the lives of hostages either in this scenario.
In addition to the $3.8 billion that the U.S. gives to Israel every year, we vehemently oppose the additional billions of dollars that Washington wants for Israel, Ukraine, the U.S. border wall, and Taiwan to continue military madness. The Israeli component of this money will be used to fund more of the thousands of bombs being dropped on Gaza right now, aircraft carriers, other military equipment, and thousands of U.S. troops sent to the area.
We join the millions of people around the world who are in the streets every day demanding an end to the ongoing slaughter to eliminate the Palestinian people with the massacres in Gaza and the state-sanctioned murder and imprisonment in the West Bank just being the most recent phase of what is metaphorically referred to as “mow-ing the grass,” a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
Because this could not go on without the full support of the U.S. government, it is especially up to us, the people of the U.S., to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all the heroic people of Palestine who have bravely resisted the obliteration of their collective identity, history, and culture for 75 years. With them, we call for justice and self-determination, not to be cast into exile again, and to have the right of return to their native land.
Aida Touma-Sliman was elected to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in 2015, the fourth Arab Israeli woman to become a member of the Knesset. She was born in Nazareth into a Christian Palestinian family and earned a B.A. in psychology and Arabic literature from the University of Haifa. She lives in Acre with her two daughters (since her husband’s death in 2011). Touma-Sliman founded the Arab feminist group Women Against Violence in 1992. She joined the Hadash party, later becoming editor in chief of Al-Ittihad, an Arabic language newspaper owned by the Israeli Communist Party, a faction in Hadash. She became the first female member of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel and co-founded the International Women’s Commission for a Just Palestinian-Israeli Peace.
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) denounces in the strongest possible terms the illegal and deadly bombing of Syria on the border with Iraq on February 25, 2021. The airstrike, which was conducted inside a sovereign nation and without Congressional approval, took place only 37 days into the Biden administration. The outrageous attack saw 35,000 pounds of bombs dropped and as many as 22 people have been reported killed.
What happened to Biden’s promise to engage the world in decency and diplomacy?
WAMM condemns the outrageous “deal of the century,” the so-called “peace plan” for Palestine and Israel, announced by Trump and Netanyahu on January 28. This is a scheme that further expands Israel’s land base by stealing even more Palestinian land and violating Palestine’s right to sovereignty for the vague and empty promise of their own broken-up state depending upon vague measures of behavior. This is business-as-usual and expands the Zionist 100-year project to further and permanently develop an Israeli apartheid state. This plan would deepen political polarization in the Middle East and around the world.
The “plan” was developed without Palestinian participation. Even Israeli officials admitted it is a non-starter for Palestinians. It has been rejected by all Palestinian officials and organizations. Palestinian people are demonstrating in the streets against this wrong-headed “plan.”
A four-year freeze on further expansion of settlements in the West Bank is proposed – though this is openly disputed by some Israeli officials – in exchange for a Palestinian state and “capital.” It names Abu Dis, a village outside Jerusalem, behind the wall and check points and inaccessible to Palestinians, as the capital of a semi-state of Palestine. In 1948, the international community designated Jerusalem an International City. Palestinians have always considered East Jerusalem as their capital. A look at the map of the West Bank reveals that a Palestinian state in any meaningful way is impossible because Palestinian lands are separated, disrupted and surrounded by Israeli settlements and roads.
This announcement comes at a critical time politically in both the US and Israel. Netanyahu was indicted on criminal charges on the same day as the plan was announced, and he faces an election within a month. Trump is in the midst of an impeachment trial in the US Senate and faces an election in November. With the Iowa caucuses coming in a week, the plan has propelled the issue of justice for Palestine into the news. It has finally become part of the election discussion. Both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have issued statements opposing the Trump/Netanyahu plan. We call on all supporters for justice for Palestine to take action now and oppose the Trump/Netanyahu plan.
Tell Congress to Oppose Trump’s Plan
Minnesota Statues 3.226 and 16C.053 are unconstitutional
The word “boycott” was changed in the legislation to “discrimination” and the laws are said to prohibit discrimination against Israel.
Laws meant to infringe on practice of BDS
The laws require vendors and contractors who want to boycott Israel to refrain from First Amendment-protected expression in order to get a state contract.
Vague. The laws pretend to fix the Constitutionality problem by including words that free speech is not prohibited.
Lawsuits in other states with similar laws have been successfully brought. Federal courts have ruled that the laws are unconstitutional. However, lawsuits are expensive and unnecessary.
Women Against Military Madness stands with Ilhan Omar, the newly elected Congresswoman from the Minnesota 5th District, who publicly supports the constitutional rights of the BDS Campaign—a nonviolent resistance tactic that seeks to pressure the Israeli government to end its anti-Palestinian policies. Omar’s campaign stated that “Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement and has fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalized.”
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) acts for social justice in U.S. foreign policy. WAMM members believe it is their responsibility as U.S. citizens to oppose any government actions that use U.S. taxpayer money and diplomatic cover to occupy another entity with military force. One very effective way to educate about and interrupt such actions is through economic boycott campaigns. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Campaign seeks to influence the government of Israel, without the use of violence, to create lasting peace and security for all people of Israel and Palestine.
Today, Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinians who are being forced from their homes up through the present day, the right to return. As Israel continues its illegal occupation, the U.S. government continues to pledge $3.8 billion every year, enabling Israel to oppress and violate the rights of Palestinians, creating a reign of terror for the occupied.
Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS Campaign urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law. The boycott is not designed to destroy companies that are complicit in the occupation but to change their behavior.
BDS is a global nonviolent movement, initiated in 2005 by 170 Palestinian civil society groups, to increase pressure on the government of Israel and corporations based within Israel to desist from the oppression and exploitation of Palestinian people who live and work in Israel and the militarily-occupied territories of West Bank. The objective of BDS is also to end the brutal eleven-year-long blockade of Gaza which has kept Palestinians confined by air, land, and sea. BDS challenges the ongoing destruction of Palestinian society perpetrated by the Israeli government and military – demolition of homes, denial of access to water, construction of illegal settlements, and a wall that divides Palestinian communities and farmlands.
Resistance to this movement for justice has emerged across the U.S. Several states, including Minnesota, have passed legislation requiring that anyone entering into a contract with the state certify that they had not discriminated and would not discriminate against Israel. This is a euphemism for refusal to do business with individuals and companies that support BDS and resist the oppression of the Palestinian people. WAMM members have opposed such legislation, which is being challenged as a violation of the Constitutional right to free speech.
BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, religious congregations, and grassroots movements across the world. Eleven years since its launch, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.
WAMM will continue to struggle for justice for Palestinians and Ilhan Omar’s right to speak out in support of the international BDS Campaign. #IStandWithIlhan.
“The Middle East Committee of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) urges individuals, as well as civic, educational, and religious organizations to join us in denouncing any and all U.S. actions against the people and government of Syria.”
The Middle East Committee of WAMM educates about the role of U.S. foreign policy in the military and economic oppression throughout the Middle East and beyond.
MEC is action oriented, focused especially on challenging the unconditional political, economic and military support the U.S. provides to Israel’s decades long illegal and unjust occupation of Palestine. MEC supports and works towards an equitable solution in accordance with International law.
