Vasquez 1

Carlos Vasquez

C. Baalke

ENGL 1120

25 March 2024

The Use of a Voice

“Israeli forces just murdered my only brother in front of my eyes. ‫أخويا شهيد‬.”[my brother

is a martyr](@BayanPalestine). An X post from Palestinian journalist Bayan that was posted on

the nineteenth of March, 2024. What she witnessed and experienced has been the reality for

most, if not all, people living in the Gaza Strip of Palestine. Since October 7th, 2023, over

29,000 Palestinians have been mercilessly murdered in the Gaza Strip, a place where the

population consists mainly of women and children. For what reason is an entire population being

wiped off the face of the Earth? Well in simple terms, Zionism, racism, and straight-up

colonialism. What part does America play in this? How can individuals combat this genocide

from where they are? These are questions that have very simple solutions when provided with

the right information.

First, this “war” on Gaza is

not a war at all. No, a war

consists of two armed bodies

conflicting with one another

through the use of weaponry

on both sides. Any form of

‘armed’ forces Palestine

may have had in the past has been erased through the extermination of any Palestinian that the
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occupation can commit under the guise of their “right to self-defense”. What is happening in

Gaza is the ethnic cleansing and eradication of an entire group of defenseless people. When

talking about Israel’s war crimes, people like to bring up October 7th as a way to demonize the

people of Palestine, but what they do not understand is that this attack was not one of no

provocation. Since the beginning of the state of Israel in 1948, “Israel has pursued an explicit

policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony and maximizing its

control over land to benefit Jewish Israelis while minimizing the number of Palestinians and

restricting their rights and obstructing their ability to challenge this dispossession.”(Amnesty

International 14) Hamas only ever came into power because of the apartheid state of Israel and

the displacement and ethnic cleansing it is inflicting on the Palestinian people. Of course, this in

no way justifies what happened, it is just to allow for the understanding that the destruction that

occurred on October 7th is but one stone in comparison to the stones that make the wall Israel

has built with its war crimes. All the while, American tax money is what funds the genocide

Israel is committing. Through American consumerism alone, Israel can conduct its projects of

hatred and Zionism. Because of America’s ingrained culture of consumerism, Americans have

become complicit in genocide. How can American citizens combat this genocide and put a stop

to the use of our taxes to fund such a murderous state by our government? The answer is through

self-education, awareness, educating others, protests, methods of civil disruption through

boycotts, sit-ins, and other methods to essentially get the true voice of American citizens out

there. While these actions do not seem like much, the effects they can have and have had in the

past are powerful, to say the least. Through our words and actions alone can we coerce the

government into a permanent ceasefire, the dismantlement of Israeli apartheid, and the shift of

power back into the hands of its rightful owners, the people of Palestine.
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Ever since the beginning of the occupation, have people been expressing opposition to it.

Recently, however, the people of the world have taken more action due to the constant

bombardment in bombing of the Gaza Strip after the events of October 7th. One of the most

notable in recent times was the march on Freedom Plaza in

Washington D.C. that occurred on the fourth of November,

2023, with over 300,000 attendees in support of Palestine.

While some people may believe that protests such as this

do not have any long-lasting effects, this can not be further

from the truth. No matter the cause, protests, when done

correctly and civilly, can have huge impacts through the

influences they have on the minds of people both

consciously and unconsciously. Protests work in the sense

that they disrupt daily life, forcing people to stop what they

are doing and question themselves and what is currently

going on daily. I have been to quite a few Palestinian protests, and can confidently say that they

do have an impact on the lives of others. In the long term, protests work to “undermine the most

important pillar of power: legitimacy.”(Tufekci) Through protest, ideas are spread. Protests

allow people to use critical thinking on the topics of what is right and wrong as well as allow for

the influence of the public opinion to be taken in on a greater scale. They can influence not only

people’s thoughts but also their actions.

While protests are effective in supporting a ceasefire in Palestine, another way people can

help Palestinians is through their consumerism. Through strategic boycotting, people can

decrease the amount of finances mainstream American companies are giving to Israel in support
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of the atrocities they are committing

upon the people of Palestine. One

example of an Israeli-associated

company is Starbucks coffee.

Starbucks’ zionist ties were revealed

after the CEO sued Starbucks union

workers for showing support for

Palestine. Since its reveal, Starbucks has

lost upwards of $12 billion U.S. dollars

in stock revenue. Through boycotting

alone, the people were able to decrease

Israel’s funding by billions, proving that

boycotts do work. Another method of consumerism that anyone can take part in to support

Palestinians is by shopping small businesses, both Palestinian-owned and ones owned by

Palestine supporters. Doing this also has huge benefits for the consumer by allowing them to

reduce their toxic shopping habits which in turn reduces their carbon footprint, as well as teaches

them how to shop sustainably. Not only will this help promote the dismantlement of Israel and

ceasefire in Palestine, but it will also help the earth and the current climate crisis.

To summarize, it is up to the people of the world to help put a cease to the ethnic

cleansing and murdering of innocent Palestinian lives that is currently happening within the Gaza

Strip at the hands of the apartheid state of Israel and its occupational forces. Through protests,

boycotts, and the general spread of awareness through education, there will be a ceasefire.

Maybe not today or tomorrow, but there will be a free Palestine within this lifetime.
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Works Cited

Amnesty International. “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and

Crime against Humanity.” Amnesty International, 1 Feb. 2022,

www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/.

@BayanPalestine. “Israeli forces just murdered my only brother in front of my eyes. ‫أخويا شهيد‬.”

Twitter, 19 Mar. 2024, https://x.com/BayanPalestine/status/1769992904355807281?s=20

Daniel, Ella. “Palestine Walkout 9.” DailyLobo, 13 Nov. 2023,

www.dailylobo.com/article/2023/11/continuing-to-demand-for-ceasefire-and-a-facilitatio

n-of-discourse. Accessed 25 Mar. 2024.

Helbich, Maria, and Samah Jabr. “A Call for Social Justice and for a Human Rights Approach

with Regard to Mental Health in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Health and

Human Rights, vol. 24, no. 2, 2022, pp. 305–18,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9790960/.

Khatib, Said. “Palestinian Children in the Israeli-Blockaded Gaza Strip Queue for Free Meals to

Break the Daytime Fast during the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan.” Al-Monitor, 15

June 2022,

www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/06/most-gaza-children-suffer-distress-after-15-years

-blockade-ngo. Accessed 25 Mar. 2024.

SHURAFA, WAFAA, and SAMY MAGDY. “Gaza Health Ministry Says over 29,000

Palestinians Have Been Killed in Israel-Hamas War.” AP News, 19 Feb. 2024,

apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-19-2024-81c2d362340b611a98e4b929b4b

5d0a4.
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Stream, The. “Are the Boycotts against Israel Making an Impact?” Al Jazeera, 14 Dec. 2023,

www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream/2023/12/14/are-the-boycotts-against-israel-maki

ng-an-impact.

Thaler, Shannon. “Starbucks Loses $12B in Market Value amid Boycotts over Israel.” New York

Post, 7 Dec. 2023,

nypost.com/2023/12/07/business/starbucks-loses-12b-in-market-value-amid-boycotts-ove

r-israel/.

Tufekci, Zeynep. “Do Protests Even Work?” The Atlantic, The Atlantic, 24 June 2020,

www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/why-protests-work/613420/.