My name is Michael Spath, and I’m the Executive Director of Indiana Center for Middle East Peace. We’re a “voice of conscience for peace, justice, human rights, and intercultural encounter.”
We’re here today to keep vigil. We’re here to bear witness.
Day 74 of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.
19,000 Gazans murdered, over 60% of them civilians, 70% of them women and children, more than 51,000 wounded; and more than 300 killed in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel starving civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza – a war crime.
Only 11 out of 36 Gaza hospitals even partially functioning, and the two major hospitals in southern Gaza have more than three times the patients for their beds.
As of today, 57 Palestinian journalists have been murdered since October 7. While US corporate-owned media remains criminally complicit – lies. There’s a war on truth happening.
Israeli soldiers target, shoot two women inside a church compound walking to a convent. And Israeli soldiers drive bulldozers over sleeping hospital patients burying people alive. If these were animals, we’d be disgusted. Hospital patients!
Out of the 2.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza, 1.9 million displaced, living in destitute conditions, most at the Rafah Crossing into Egypt. And Israel bombs them, too. Their 100+-year plan all along just revealed in an uncovered Israeli document – a Second Nakba, to permanently transfer Palestinians, now into the Sinai. Nothing less than ethnic cleansing. They are the ones who want Israel “from the river to the sea.” It’s that way today, it’s been that way for more than 100 years.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says Gaza is “unlivable.” And the World Health Organization calls the health situation in Gaza “catastrophic.”
And today’s Wall Street Journal headline: “Israel’s Freed Child Hostages Are Haunted by Trauma of Captivity.” Now I want to be clear, we grieve every death, especially every child’s death, every one, and every civilian taken against their will. But when I read that headline, I just shook my head: Really? Really? Where have the headlines been for the last 75 years – 75 years – about Palestinian children, who’ve become refugees in their own land, who’ve had their houses demolished, who’ve lost parents, siblings, whole families, who’ve been rousted out of bed in night raids, spirited off to military prisons, denied parent visits and lawyers, tortured, and worse, Palestinian children shot, wounded, scarred, shot in cold blood. Generational trauma. 75 years! Where were their tears then? Where were their headlines then? Again, our corporate-owned media. You just can’t believe a word they say.
All this while most churches that sing, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” don’t give a damn about the people who actually live in Bethlehem.
All this while most churches that focus on the birth of a Christmas Child, don’t give a damn about the children who are living and dying in the land where Christmas was born.
And all this while the US President wants to have it both ways. Biden tells us he’s asking Israel to “limit civilian casualties,” yet sells Israel billions of dollars of more weapons. And he doesn’t think we’ll notice. I’m tired of mincing words about Biden. He cares more about Zionist votes than dead Palestinian babies.
I’ve heard all the arguments for next year’s election. “Given a binary choice, yes, we know what’s happening is bad, but the alternative to Biden is worse.” I get what they’re saying, but my answer is, “Then tell me, what is worse than genocide? What’s worse than a racist genocide of an indigenous people?” I mean, you gotta have a pretty damn low bar. What does it say about us if we can vote for genocide, no matter who the alternative is? I don’t, I won’t vote genocide. Period!
We reject powerlessness. We reject helplessness. And we reject hopelessness, too. We will not despair.
We have more power than we know. Change will happen not from the top down but from the power of the people up. We must embrace our power. We must make them listen.
We’re not going anywhere. We’re here to stay. We’ll be here next Tuesday, too, from 5:00-6:00. Spread the word, bring a friend. We plan to be here for the duration. Let us stand together. Free, free Palestine. Free, free Gaza.
We’re here today to keep vigil. We’re here today to bear witness.
Never again means never again for everybody. Never again is now.