TINLEY PARK, Ill.—The tide is turning, the narrative is shifting, Palestinians will be free, attendees were told at the 17th annual American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) convention, themed “Gaza: Outlasting Genocide.”
Presenters at the Nov. 28-30 gathering cited increased international support for a free Palestine and increased criticism of Israeli aggressions.
The conference was held in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park to tell truths about genocide occurring in Palestine, and specific horrors witnessed by Gaza residents.
Several thousand participants attended workshops discussing such topics as “Understanding the Palestinian Relationship with Zionism” and “Apartheid: Israel’s Foundational System of Oppression and Domination.”
AMP holds its annual convention on Thanksgiving Day to highlight the impact of “settler colonialism” that has subjugated native populations throughout the world.
AMP board chair Haten Bazian posited that the plan to seize Palestine goes back to the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose diaries indicate he wanted to use resources from the newly discovered [Americas] to “reclaim the holy land.”
“The land we currently stand on was originally home to [Native Americans] who stewarded the land for generations,” said AMP board member Noor Ali.
“We honor their history, their cultures, and their continuing contributions to our movement. It’s a time of mourning for those indigenous to this land affected by the same kind of settler colonialism we as Palestinians experience.”
Ms. Ali cautioned the audience to be aware of how the Palestinian experience is connected to those who have experienced oppression throughout history. The nuance in Palestine, she said, is the oppressor once was oppressed.
“But we must understand that Zionism isn’t so much a Jewish movement as it is a movement for settler colonialism. It is not a movement that celebrated Jewish people, it is a White supremacist movement” similar to what Black Americans experience, she said.
Tarek Khalil likened the terms colonialism and Zionism as identical. He cited the Balfour Declaration, which says England would use its power to establish a “national home” for Jewish people, and communications between Zionism founder Theodor Herzl and British settler Cecil Rhodes, who colonized Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia).
The text of the Balfour Declaration identifies the indigenous population of Palestine as “non-Jews,” he said. “The word Arab is not there; the word Palestinian is not there. We are the ‘other,’ even though we are the owners of the land,” he said.
ICC: Arrest Netanyahu!
Palestinians suffering in Gaza were described as the backbone of the movement. The challenge is for Palestinians and supporters in the U.S. to be the frontline for the movement and to pressure the American administration to stop the genocide, organizers said.
Speakers also highlighted media biases, such as a Washington Post editorial questioning the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The American media promotes “pervasive lies” about Gaza, said Dr. Zarefah Baroud. The first is that Israel has operated in a defensive military strategy, which also supports a larger lie that Israel is simply a modern democratic nation-state responding to the Palestinians as any other nation-state would under similar circumstances, she said.
What is erased is the foundational identity and structure of Israel … as a colonial entity engaged in the “elimination of the natives,” she said. Without placing Israel in its proper context, the understanding of Gaza is completely distorted. Palestinians live in a state of permanent self-defense, she said.
Even when stories of Palestinian suffering are told, U.S. media often doesn’t explain how the amputee or wounded child got that way, said Deanna Othman, co-chair of the Coalition for Ethical Reporting on Palestine.
“The perspectives we’re presented are through the lens of a western White observer,” Ms. Othman said. “We have a concept of objectivity, but [objectivity] is a thing only if it’s from a White person. If you’re a Palestinian, throw it out because we can’t be trusted.
“So, the narrative of Palestinians is often contorted to dehumanize them and to erase their humanity when they are the ones going through genocide.”
Zionists have unleashed all their forces to suppress criticism by Palestinians in the U.S. who live in “the belly of the beast,” said attorney Jinan Chehade, who was fired from her job and has been arrested numerous times due to her activism.
She highlighted U.S. complicity in genocide by using its veto power in the UN numerous times to prevent a ceasefire. She said the average American citizen gives $50 a day in tax dollars to Israel for the purchase of bombs and bullets.
Apartheid conditions in Gaza consist of military control, seizure of property, travel checkpoints, and denial of the right of return for refugees. Palestinians have suffered 76 years of ethnic cleansing, 57 years of military rule and a 17-year blockade since Israel was established in 1948, she said.
“Our role is to make it an inconvenience for this system to ignore our demands by disrupting everything. The only thing this system listens to is money. Expect us everywhere,” she said of planned U.S. protests.
Dr. Samar Harfi pointed out the historical and collective trauma on the Palestinian people because of Zionist apartheid. A clinical psychologist at the Khalil Center in Chicagoland, she said the system is designed to “create instability, helplessness and put Palestinians in a situation to lose their sense of will and agency.”
Trauma, she said, is transferred from generation to generation. The destruction of all hospitals in Gaza and the man-made starvation are intentional to cause more deaths and trauma, she added.
“Children can’t be children. People are shot while looking for food. People have seen food and flour mixed with the blood of their loved ones,” she reported. “Loss in Gaza is complex, shocking and extremely painful. People are not only grieving and losing family members, they also don’t have time to grieve because they’re focused on survival.”
The backdrop in the conference room consisted of videos from aid agencies showing the need for food, water and other vital resources, the devastation of homes and buildings, victims in long lines holding pots and pans to have a hot porridge poured into them, and images of women and children bleeding, crippled and missing limbs.
Outside the main room was an area for daily prayers and a large bazaar where vendors sold food, clothing, jewelry and other items. On the opposite end of the conference area, youth in the movement held their own workshops.
Farrakhan’s warning
Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in 2023, denounced the Biden administration’s “complicity in Gaza” and was rejected when he raised concerns. There was a repression of debate on the topic, he said, adding.
“I don’t think any of my colleagues went into government to be complicit in the killing of children, so why are we saying ‘yes’ to every Israeli weapons request when we know they are being used to do so much harm?”
House Resolution 6090, still being debated in Congress, conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism and threatens to take away funding from colleges and universities where criticism happens, he told The Final Call. It’s an effort to squash debate and tear apart coalitions around civil rights and civil liberties, he said.
Rabbi Dovid Feldman said his Neturei Karta orthodox Jewish community is embarrassed by what Zionists are doing in the name of the Jewish faith. Sitting at a booth and distributing literature, the rabbi said religious Jews stand with the Palestinian people.
He distinguished Judaism as a religious faith from Zionism which is a political movement and to be anti-Zionist is not Anti-Semitic.
“We are here to express solidarity with Palestinians and to share the voice of our communities with the proud Palestinian people to say what is happening is wrong,” he said.
On Feb. 25, 2024 during the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned of Mr. Netanyahu’s goal to eliminate Palestinian people from their land and the further aims to annex parts of the Middle East.
He said Allah (God) had given Mr. Netanyahu the heart of a beast and called on Muslim nations to aid the Palestinians, saying: “Who could do to another human being what is being done to our Palestinian family and let it happen and not think of a humanitarian crisis?
I am saying this openly to my brothers and sisters in Islam: You have to stand up against the genocide that is happening to our Palestinian family. They don’t need platitudes; they don’t need cheap talk. They need the Muslim world to unite to say to Israel what you should say.”