People of Gaza, We Hear You

I'd been thinking vaguely about writing some kind of account of what I've been up to lately, about what's been going on for the past six weeks in Israel / Palestine, and not just in Gaza but in the West Bank, too.

Then this afternoon, this video popped up first in today's TikTok feed. I'm so glad it did, because it re-lighted the fire that's been burning under my ass for weeks now. Before reading on, please watch it. No dead bodies (visible), no screaming injured children; just a guy talking about what happened Nov. 18, 2023, in his home-town of Khan Younis, Gaza, Occupied Palestine. Watch it here.

About five or six times in the past couple of weeks (after clocking out from work, and retrieving from my truck a sign that I made), I've walked around downtown Austin for an hour or so, holding the sign above my head. I'd walk up and down Congress Ave., from around 7th St. down to Cesar Chavez St. and back, before driving back home to let out the pooch.

Twice I walked up to the Texas State capitol: 3 blocks from where I work. A demonstration took place there last Sunday, with crowds estimated at 15,000. But weekday lunchtimes the capitol grounds are fairly deserted.

Once, as I was walking around the capitol with my sign, I came upon a bunch of 12- and 13-year-old kids and their chaperones, milling around a couple of buses they'd just got off. I gave them as much time as they wanted to read the side with the shorter message (below left), before flipping it and showing them the other.

The shorter message boasts 45 peel-and-stick letters in 6 neon colors. I'm happy with the way it came out, but now I think that its message -- implying a relationship between leaders and events of World War II with what's happening today -- is unclear to many.

The other side (right) has four boxes, the first two of which read: 1/2 of Gaza's 2.1 m citizens are CHILDREN! US taxpayer support now tops $4 billion/yr to Israel: NO STRINGS ATTACHED

The third has a bullet-list: Collective PUNISHMENT / FORCIBLE TRANSFER / MASS MURDER of CIVILIANS / USE of WHITE PHOSPHORUS > WAR CRIMES > GENOCIDE

Finally:WHATEVER HAPPENED to NEVER AGAIN!

About 90% of reactions from pedestrians and a few drivers has been supportive. Those in favor of genocide have so far done their finger-raising and name-calling from the safety of passing cars.

One day last week, I left the sign in my truck and went out instead with a small bag of jumbo chalk. Between the white bars in crosswalks, I wrote: CEASE FIRE NOW! and RUSSIA > UKRAINE / ISRAEL > GAZA: What's the difference?

A young man came up to argue with what I was doing. He said, What about the hostages? I said, Dude, no one is arguing the hostages should be held on to. At the time I thought touché, but later realized I'd missed the opportunity to point out how a cease-fire might to save hostages from being blown to bloody bits by the US fighter jets with which Israeli is well-fortified.

More than one person thanked me; one young woman pointed to the example others were seeing. They witness my bearing witness.

You don't need to wait for the next demonstration. A thousand ways exist to show that you too bear witness, and that you too are opposed to ethnic cleansing.

Please consider adding your voice to those of millions of others around the world, demanding that the United States -- beginning with Biden and Secretary of State Blinken, and including officials at federal, state and local levels -- must use its considerable leverage as Israel's biggest supporter to make it clear that the unmitigated destruction -- the brutal genocide -- of the people of Gaza must stop NOW.

American Complicity in Israeli Impunity Must Stop, NOW. The rule of international law only means anything when it is enforced, stood up for, and protected.

Cease fire NOW! The wanton murder and burying of children in collapsing apartment buildings, hospitals, ambulances, schools and United Nations centers must end NOW!

Genocide has rarely been so well-televised. Please tell everyone who will listen and those who will not: This Horrific. Violence and Brutal Bloodshed. Must. Stop.

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