Thursday 🇵🇸 Reflections

Reflections on Day 209 of genocide

Hello Friends and Family,

On Thursdays I am fasting and using the money from lunch and the time gained to reflect and write to you, donate to UNRWA (still defunded by the US) and pray with Sabeel’s wave of prayer. Below is this week’s reflection:

As the country was engulfed in protests following the execution of George Floyd by police officer Darek Chauvin, the term ‘state sanctioned violence’ started to creep into the popular discourse. As my stomach sits empty and I listen to first hand accounts of UCLA student reporters being beaten by pro-genocide counter protesters, the term provides one frame through which to understand the past week.

state (n.) a nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government. (Oxford Languages via Google)

sanction (v.) to give permission for something to take place (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary)

violence (n.) an act of aggression (as one against a person who resists) (Vocabulary.com)

It began with ear-piercing screams of wailing babies loudly emitting from speakers.

Counter-protesters tearing down the barricades. Laser pointers flashing into the encampment. People in masks waving strobe lights.

Tear gas. Pepper spray. Violent beatings.

Fireworks sparked at the border of the encampment, raining down on tents and the individuals inside. - Daily Bruin Editorial Board

On the evening of April 30th, a group of counter-protesters attacked the sit in at UCLA with metal rods, skunk and bear spray, fireworks and flash bangs. A group of student reporters were ambushed and beat. Understandably, the next morning the Editorial Board of the student newspaper asked where the UCLA public safety or LAPD were.

But the police were on their way.

Less than 24 hours later, the encampment was attacked again. This time, by CHP and LAPD in full riot gear. Students barricaded themselves in. Protecting themselves with wood panels and umbrellas, at one point successfully kenneling the cops away from the encampment. The police came back with violent force. Clubs, flash bangs and rubber bullets were aimed at students hands, legs and heads. Several students were hospitalized and more than a hundred arrested. This morning the encampment was littered with debris and broken tents.

As student encampments have popped up around the country to demand that their universities disclose and divest from genocidal Israeli government and companies that aid and abet genocide the frequent response from universities have been to crack down with the armed & violent tools of the state: police and state troopers. What is abundantly clear is that the purpose of so-called “law enforcement” is that they “serve and protect” the interests of the ruling class.

Despite only 36% of Americans approving of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Biden and the political elites have continued to provide billions of dollars in aid to Israel’s war machine. What then are Biden, University Presidents, zionist counter-protesters, and police serving? What political project are they protecting? In other words, what kinds of violence are sanctioned by the state?

Asked after his remarks whether the demonstrations would prompt him to consider changing course, Biden responded with a simple “no.”

On university campuses, the call has been to disclose and divest. In their violent opposition, university leaders have made it clear that they plan to defend the ability to make a return on their investments in war profiteers. Profits made by selling bombs that have destroyed every university and hospital in the Gaza strip, families in their homes and murdering or injuring more than 100,000 people. Profits from arming soldiers who bury patients alive and harvest their organs. Profits from the creation and distribution of AI and mass surveillance systems that facilitate apartheid and generate lists of Palestinians to be slaughtered. Profits from an army that blocks and murders aid workers and is preparing to invade Rafah, where a million displaced people are taking shelter.

So then, with the thousands of students around the country and around the world we continue to say:

“DISCLOSE, DIVEST, WE WILL NOT STOP WE WILL NOT REST!”

This is worth everything. To know that children in #Gaza know we have not abandoned them 2 be decimated by imperial collusion w advanced weapons technologies. We have not surrendered to genocide the ruling class wants us to accept is “normal”

@Rutgers never looked so good.

What I’m Reading This Week:

Sources:

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that because the person Head of DA Recall is an alleged rapist