Jews for Palestinian Right of Return slam NY Zionist Governor Cuomo’s support of assault on Gaza

NOVANEWS
israel-parade
Gov. Andrew Cuomo marching in the Celebrate I$raHell Parade in New York. (Photo: John Minchillo/AP)

The following statement was authored by the group Jews for Palestinian Right of Return. Sign their petition addressed to New York politicians on a trip to Israel here.

(Please also sign Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel)

On August 10, 2014, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, announced an upcoming “unity visit” with Israeli leaders “in light of the continued threat of attacks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations” [1]

But the justification for the visit is in fact a lie; Israel’s latest massacres in Gaza — whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled — are NOT an act of self defense.

Rather, Israel’s current war on Gaza is the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist racism, colonialism, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing.

Scattered rockets, fired from Gaza — into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place — are merely a response to this systemic injustice.

Co-Leader Klein, grandson of Holocaust survivors, calls Israel “a beacon for the values and rights inherent in a Democracy.”

But over 250 Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors know better: they just signed a statement “condemning Israel’s massacre on Gaza and calling for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people.” [2]

Speaker Silver added, “I am delighted to join Governor Cuomo and Senators Skelos and Klein in our mission to Israel to show New York’s solidarity with the people of the Jewish State.”

Solidarity with this state, however, is solidarity with injustice. As Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah says, “Israel was created as a ‘Jewish state’ by expelling Palestinians and preventing their return. It can only survive in this form by maintaining current and committing future violations of the rights of Palestinians.”[3]

Governor Cuomo, et al: your “unity” with apartheid Israel doesn’t speak for us.

We stand with the people of Gaza and with the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, which demands:

* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories

* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel

* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194

1. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/081014-leaders-israel-trip
2. http://ijsn.net/gaza/survivors_and_descendents-letter/
3. http://mondoweiss.net/2014/04/process-abunimahs-palestine.html

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