As five of us prepare for our arraignment on misdimeanor tresspassing charges (or, in my own thinking, "urgent and moral civil disobedience")...I'm moved to tears by our friend Sam Bahour and the risks he takes in speaking truth to power: https://youtu.be/3zDnLD7XSf0?si=oMIHU2HOZcJC5Hx1. A Palestinian-American who lives and works now in Ramallah, Sam notes early on that, in speaking to us in this way, he risks arrest and imprisonment (without charges, and for 6 months or more) as so many of his colleagues have already done.
From the West Bank, he speaks to us now with two key messages: (1) Nothing has changed, and everything has changed; and (2) This is a US war.
The slaughter of families is a US slaughter. The annihilation of culture is a US annihiliation. The murder of thousands and thousands of children is a US-funded campaign of terror and destruction. In this country, we are breaking our own laws in this complicity. We are flaunting and dismissing international law--and the rules-based order we claim to champion.
This is why we sat in at the Congressman's office last month, and did not leave. He and his colleagues--on our behalf--insist on persevering in Israel's defense; and in doing so, they and we are complicity in slaughter.
