Palestine

After a summer marked by land expropriation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, the bombardment of Gaza, shootings and detention of Palestinian children and growing international outrage at the occupation of Palestinian land, a group of local Palestinian activists is calling on the Massachusetts congressional delegation to take a hard stand against Israel.

As of May 18, 212 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s latest air raids. More than 58 of those killed were children. This blood is on American hands. The US finances the Israeli military with a colossal $3.8 billion annually — and that’s just direct funding.

Likening the Israeli government’s repression of nonviolent protests over the displacement of Palestinian families from occupied East Jerusalem to police brutality in the U.S., Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley on Thursday made a case for conditioning America’s $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel to its compliance with international human rights laws.

Once a month, a group of protestors demonstrates in front of the Somerville headquarters of the sports equipment manufacturer Puma to protest the corporation’s involvement in the Israeli Football Association — an organization activists say contributes to an apartheid system in Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupies.