Khader Adnan: One Man's Struggle & a nation's resistance against occupation

As many of us around the world go about on our day- going to school, going to work, traveling to see friends and relatives, many others are denied this right. While some enjoy the basic right of being innocent until proven guilty, many others are detained in the most grueling way- blindfolded and dragged out of your home… and all the while, not even charged with a single crime. This is what happened to Khader Adnan, a Palestinian man who lives in the West Bank.

We must ask ourselves, as living in the 21st century, the 'Golden Age', how does something so barbaric still exist? Edmund Burke tells it succinctly: All it will take for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.

Sadly, Khader's struggle isn't unique. Many Palestinians are in Israeli jails- many of them not charged with a single crime. Many others are in jail for... wait for it... throwing stones. How does throwing stones compare to being armed with military weapons, tanks, F-16s, Apaches, tear gas and so forth? Not only that, but also using those to keep an entire population submissive, subdued and imprisoned within their own country. Caged in like a bunch of sheep with no freedom of movement.

As Khader goes on to his 60th day of his hunger strike, let us flood the Israeli embassies around the world with phone calls, letters and demonstrations. Let them hear our anger against their unjust 'justice' system.

Injustice and oppression does not last forever. As the world slowly awakes from its slumber, much needed change is sure to follow. And no matter how long it takes for the whole world to speak out such injustice, we as fellow brothers and sisters in humanity must do everything we can with everything we have to change the status quo. Perhaps the steel determination of Khader Adnan and the millions like him around the world will be the catalyst for much needed change. 

"No one is free until everyone is free!"- Dr. Martin Luther King

The Forgotten Holocausts

Today's date, Monday, May 2nd, 2011, marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Hebrew: Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19-May 19, 1943). 


The Holocaust took place from 1933 when Hitler came to power until 1945 when the Allied Forces defeated Hitler and the Nazis. Between this time frame, it is believed that more than 6 million Jews have been killed. According to many, the Holocaust is the worst human genocide to have ever taken place.


The killing of a single human life is a deplorable act, regardless of race, gender, religion or on any other basis.


There have been many more Holocausts that many people are unaware of: Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, Palestine, Kashmir, Kurdistan, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Iraq, Afghanistan and plenty of others.


If the world remembers one Holocaust, in exclusion to all others, then what has humanity learned about the sanctity of human life? The life of one Jew is not, and should not be, considered superior over a non-Jew. If the world remembers the Jewish Holocaust, then it cannot be blind to the many other Holocausts that have occurred.


The Holocaust should not be used as justification to label any individual who speaks out against Israeli Occupation as an Anti-Semit. Individuals who claim to be Jewish, of all people, should know and understand that using the injustice, harm & suffering experienced in WWII is not justification to do the same to the Palestinians. Rather, Jews should understand that the suffering of Palestinians is the same as their own and should speak out against the ethnic cleansing and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

"Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shall not be a bystander"- Holocaust Museum

Repeating History

As the saying goes: Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it 

This couldn't have been more truer in the context of genocide, war, apartheid and occupation. There have been plenty of the above since the end of World War II. With the end of World War II, the world, or rather, world leaders, have made a promise of never again. I would like to ask these world leaders: why the blind eye and deaf ear to the world's atrocities today?

In today's political context, it has been proven again and again that the leaders do not represent the will and voice of the people. Corporate interests take precedence over people's interests. Tax cuts for big corporations take precedence over social spending on healthcare and education.

What the people need to do is mobilize ideas together and create change for a better future. A future without genocide, a future without war, a future without apartheid, a future without occupation.