Jewish and Palestinian community leaders share their feelings about Israel and Gaza. No group is a monolith: Perspectives varied within communities as much as between them.
Dear Editor,
Bruce Ticker states that Amani Barakat “has been listed as chair of the national coordinating committee of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition which proclaims on its website “that the Palestinian Arab people…are entitled to live anywhere in Palestine which encompasses present-day ‘Israel’, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” (“War and Peace: The Shape of Teachers’ Anti Israel Drive“, Bruce Ticker, July 1, 2021).
The Palestine Return Coalition wants the right for Palestinians to live anywhere they want including within Israel, yet the Palestinian Authority has stated that Palestinian refugees will not be awarded citizenship in the state of Palestine nor will they be allowed to settle within the Palestinian governed areas. So it’s OK for refugees to move to Israel but not to Palestine.
So much for “the peaceful solution” and “this very peaceful way.”
Amani Barakat must be joking when she twice touts the “peaceful” tactics of an anti-Israel drive among West Coast teachers’ unions. Simultaneously, Barakat continues in a leading role in an organization that seeks the right of return for Palestinians to Israel, a mission that could readily lead to war.
Such a contradiction stands out with news that the leadership of the Los Angeles teachers’ union will vote in September on a resolution to “express our solidarity” with the Palestinians.
This move is revealing in generating multiple concerns not only about this pending vote but also the hypocrisy of this supposed pro-Palestinian movement. This campaign run by members of United Teachers Los Angeles campaign signals not just a willingness to go to war but also distresses Jewish students and employees, mocks the very idea of seeking social justice, lies about opposing anti-Semitism, singles out Israel
Over 35,000 protestors converged in Washington DC this Memorial Day weekend for The National March for Palestine, the largest protest against U.S. foreign policy in the nation’s capital in decades.