What About U.S.-Supported Racism in Palestine and Kashmir?

Saturday, 20 June 2020

What About U.S.-Supported Racism in Palestine and Kashmir?

By Robert Fantina

The savage murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer has caused worldwide protests against the racism that is so prevalent in the United States. Other such murders have caused civil unrest, but the current situation seems to have struck a nerve more than most. U.S. politicians support the cry for equal justice, but quickly change the subject to criticize any violence that occurs during the protests.

The hypocrisy of U.S. government officials knows no bounds. We have seen likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden visit the family of Mr. Floyd, but this writer does not recall him visiting the families of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Philandro Castile, etc., etc. President Donald Trump is harshly criticized for his disastrous photo-op in front of Saint John’s Episcopal Church, as well he should be. But why then praise Biden for his photo-op with the Floyd family? Mr. Floyd’s savage murder has certainly galvanized many people across the globe, but his bereaved loved ones are in no more need of consolation than are any of the other victims of racist police brutality.

And what about U.S.-supported racism in the Middle East? For decades the savage, apartheid regime of Israel has oppressed the Palestinians on their own land, yet Biden has said that there will be no reduction in U.S. aid to Israel, even if Israel proceeds with the annexation of much of the West Bank, a move illegal under international law and condemned by most of the world. No, freedom from racism and oppression is only supported when it provides political opportunities for self-service politicians. With AIPAC, the Apartheid Israel Political Affairs Committee (the reader will excuse this writer’s slight, but accurate, adjustment of the name) donating large amounts to election and re-election campaigns, what meaning do human rights have? Biden himself has collected at least $1,263,092.00 from pro-Israel lobbies during his career. That is a boat he will certainly not want to rock.

Let’s us move for a moment to Kashmir, long an illegally occupied colony of India with some limited sense of autonomy, that autonomy was stripped last year with some Indian government officials actually saying they would use the ‘Israel model’ to destroy Kashmir. U.S. officials have been strangely silent about this oppression.

Yet those some officials have been vocal in their condemnation of China’s suppression of pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong. Why not condemn the suppression of pro-democracy protesters in Palestine or Kashmir? What makes the difference?

Could it be that most of the people in Palestine and Kashmir are Muslim? Donald Trump has clearly, even proudly, proclaimed his animosity toward all things Muslim, supporting and even financing the oppression of the Palestinians, and ignoring the tragic plight of the Kashmiris.

This is not to say that his hatred of Muslims is universal; no, as long as they have the money to purchase huge amounts of weaponry from the U.S., as Saudi Arabia does, Trump is fine with Muslims. Saudi Arabia has one of the worst records of human rights violations in the world, but as long as there is money to be made, what’s a little murderous oppression among friends?

During the current civil unrest in the U.S., Trump and his cohorts have not hesitated to use tear gas, illegal in war zones but just fine for use against local citizens, and brutal violence to prevent it. Trump recently proclaimed that he is a ‘law and order’ president, conjuring up unpleasant memories of the administration of Richard Nixon. But again, we see blatant hypocrisy. Trump wants ‘law and order’ but has no problem violating international law by sanctioning Iran and Venezuela, supporting the occupation of Palestine, and financing wars all over the planet. Where is the ‘law and order’ in any of this?

The political pundits of the day presume to tell us all what to think, who to care about and how we are going to vote. They ignore the daily murders of unarmed Palestinians by heavily armed Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers, yet scream the headlines if an Israeli is even injured by a Palestinian. For a short time, it was very fashionable for the news media to report on the caging of children at the U.S. – Mexico border, but we never hear of that now. This might imply to some that it no longer happens, but the only thing that has changed is where the media has chosen to focus. Racist police brutality is now the big news, but this is not a new phenomenon: it has been happening since the dawn of the U.S. It has only worsened as the federal government sells, at bargain basement prices, hardware designed for war zones to local municipalities, and as those towns and cities have received ‘training’ from Israel, one of the most savage regimes on the planet.

We can all speculate on how soon something else with be the topic du jour. Let us consider the prominent news from the last several months: caged children, impeachment, coronavirus (still raging, but seldom reported on), racism and police brutality. Each one serious and requiring a solution, and some solutions quite simple (e.g. stop separating immigrant children from their families and putting them in cages), and some far more complex (e.g. overcoming racism in the police departments across the nation).

But the media are all, with a few independent exceptions, corporate owned, as are most government officials. The 1% will do what is necessary to maintain their positions of power and wealth; they follow their own twisted version of the Golden Rule: the one who has the gold makes the rules. And so those without the ‘gold’ – the middle class and the poor, often people of color – are simply victims, expendable in the eyes of the government, and not worth any consideration.

This is the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’, as demonstrated by the sight of a policeman strangling an unarmed man by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes (Mr. Floyd was probably dead for the last two). This is the ‘shining city on a hill’, awash in the blood of Palestinians. The ‘exceptionalism’ which even Barack Obama said, shamefully, he believes the U.S. possesses, “with every fiber” of his being has been used to wreak havoc around the globe.

The hapless U.S. voters seem to believe that that are faced with a devil’s choice in November: Trump or Biden. This dismisses the many third-party candidates who are blocked from debates and other means of conveying their message by the Republicans and Democrats. But they are there, and a quick internet search will find them. Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Howie Hawkins of the Green Party are just two worthy of consideration.

This writer has long since repented of ‘lesser of two evil’ voting, and now votes for candidates he can believe in, regardless of their chance of success. In 2016, faced with a devil’s choice, he voted for Gloria La Riva, and plans to repeat that vote this year. Until the people of the U.S. stop validating the evil policies of elected officials, which is done each time they are elected, nothing will change. The sooner this ends, the better it will be for the entire planet.