Honoring Our Martyrs

Students for Justice in Palestine Vigil– Duke University

It’s my privilege to stand with you today, to join with you in this solidarity action, as we honor our martyrs. While I am not Palestinian, I am a proud member of the movement for Palestinian liberation. I speak as a friend of the amazing Palestinian people, and as an ally in their struggle for freedom, self-determination, and equal rights.

We gather to honor our martyrs. In naming them “martyrs,” we are saying they are not only “victims,” but they died for a noble cause. Their deaths matter. Their deaths are not in vain. They have made a permanent, positive difference. Here’s why I say that. Before the American-Israeli genocide on Gaza, many Americans didn’t understand the viciousness of Israel, but now they see it, and, as a result, have withdrawn their support. This shift is very real. I see it in people who once staunchly defended Israel who can no longer. And I see this confirmed in the polls. A growing number of Americans are finally seeing what Israel really is.

As much as I welcome this shift, it’s beyond tragic that an estimated half a million of our fellow human beings – we may never know the true number - most of them innocent women and children, had to lose their lives for people to wake up. We do know this: there has never been a more intense and destructive aerial bombardment in the history of the world. Over 100,000 tons of explosives, more than the combined total of the WW II bombing of London, Dresden, Frankfurt, and Cologne, more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. We also know that the Israeli fighter pilots, loaded down with huge American bombs, never had to worry about any resistance. Gaza had no air force of its own, no air-defense systems. It had no way of stopping brutal collective punishment raining down on them hour after hour for 475 days. And this was done not in a “war” between competing militaries, but between two nuclear-armed states with massive killing power lined up against a militia armed with only rocks, rifles, and grenades. The one-sided power imbalance was breathtaking. We should never forget it was all done with the planning, full support, and blessing of the United States government. We are complicit in genocide.

The world not only sees clearly who the Israelis are. They also see the amazing tenacity, defiance, and resilience of the Palestinian people. The American-Israeli genocide in Gaza succeeded in reducing Gaza to rubble, and destroying most of its infrastructure. It caused unspeakable trauma and psychological scars that will last for generations. But it failed and failed utterly to break the spirit of the Palestinian people. Those who thought a long war, a withering campaign of mass death and destruction, would finally finish off the Palestinians, have been proved wrong. Very wrong.

We honor our martyrs by telling the truth of what was done to them. It was a genocide. It was not “a just war”, it was not “self-defense”, it was not even a “war”, it was certainly not “keeping the world safe from terrorism.”

We honor the martyrs of Gaza by insisting on their full humanity, and pushing back against hateful Zionist propaganda that called them “animals,” that said “There are no innocents in Gaza” or “they are all Hamas supporters, so they deserve what they got”. We must reject every attempt to dehumanize them. We must reject every attempt to shift the blame and escape responsibility for the gravest of all crimes against humanity.

We honor them by denouncing the supremacist ideology of Zionism in both its Jewish and Christian forms. Both of these belief-systems are racist to their core. Jewish political Zionism believes Jewish safety requires and justifies the ethnic cleansing, subjugation, or annihilation of Palestinian lives. Christian Zionism believes Christ will return only after all the world’s Jews rule historic Palestine and then convert to Christianity, and if they don’t, Christian Zionists say they must be slaughtered. It’s hard to imagine a more antisemitic theology. These are toxic belief-systems that must be discredited and de-activated.

We honor the Gaza martyrs by demanding that universities, state pension programs, and private investment funds divest from companies that are fueling and profiting from the destruction of Palestinian lives. The Duke Divest Coalition is exactly the way to go, and deserves the strong support of every decent person in the university and in the surrounding community.

We honor the Gaza martyrs by calling out university administrators and donors – here, I am referring to both Duke and UNC - trying to shut down constitutionally-protected free speech. It represents a return to McCarthyism, and has no place anywhere in our society.

Ultimately, we honor the Gaza martyrs by rededicating ourselves to the work for a free Palestine. They died dreaming a free Palestine would one day become a reality. They died hoping the world’s conscience would be awakened to make this dream their own and work to make it real. We honor them by showing the Palestinian people that we do share their dream of a free Palestine. Their martyrs – our martyrs - have not died in vain.

I believe that their sacrifice will be redemptive. It will pave the way to a free and decolonized Palestine. It has already sown the seeds of a life free from colonization and blessed with equal rights and respect for Palestinian dignity and self-determination. We’re in Black History Month, and we do well to remember the teaching of Dr. King about the redemptive power of unearned suffering. He taught us that a redemptive transformation occurs not only in the sufferer, but also in the persons inflicting the suffering. That God’s Yes will always have the final say over any human No, that God’s Justice will always have the final say over any human injustice, that God’s peace will always have the final say over any human violence and inhumanity to the Other. May it be so.