Where should I begin?
With this past month when the Knesset — the Israeli parliament — passed a law to legalize the hanging of Palestinian prisoners? Or with October 2023, when Israel escalated its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza?
(Gianna Horcher)
Or should I go all the way back to 1948 — to the creation of Israel and the mass displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Nakba.
It is baffling when people describe this history as “complicated” or use “bothsidesism.” One side has been put through a genocide and an “embedded regime of settler-colonial apartheid” by the other for the past 78 years. One is indigenous to the land, and the other is an occupier. There is nothing complicated about that.
The world has turned its eyes to the war in Iran and the bombardment of Lebanon, with emergency protests across the world including Boston. Two weeks ago, the Boston chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation organized a protest to go “all out for Lebanon, Gaza and Iran” and to “stop U.S.-Israeli terror.” By 6 p.m., chants of “hands off Iran” echoed across Park Street.
But Israel’s genocide in Palestine continues.
Since the so-called ceasefire in October 2025, officials have reported 777 Palestinians killed and 2,193 wounded in Gaza, according to Middle East Eye. Israel continues to violate the “ceasefire” and the world keeps looking away.
As the next global flotilla sails to break the blockade in Gaza, the rest of us go about our lives as if images of murdered and maimed Palestinian children haven’t filled our feeds for the past 31 months.
Not all of us though. The Boston University Palestine Student Association hosted a Gaza Concert Fundraiser on April 17 on BU’s central campus. The student group brought Palestinian artists to share traditional songs from the Levant and opened the event to the public. All ticket proceeds were donated to the nonprofit Go Project Hope to support Gazan refugees.
Our governments want us to forget and become complacent. It is imperative that we don’t.
On March 30, the Knesset passed a racist, inhumane law legalizing the murder of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank. So they admit the murders were illegal before?
Within Israeli courts, Palestinians accused of killing an Israeli with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel” will be executed by hanging. Sentences must be carried out within 90 days of ruling.
There are more than 10,400 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and nearly a third of them are held without charge. This includes hundreds of children who are being detained and tried in Israeli military courts. Have you ever heard of a civilian, much less a child, being tried in a military court? Moreover, Palestinians have a 96% conviction rate, based on confessions extracted during torture interrogations.
Let’s do some math. If there are 10,400 prisoners and 96% of them are convicted, that’s 9,984 Palestinians that could be hanged. All in a continued systemic effort to ethnically cleanse Palestine by the Israeli government.
Of course, this law doesn’t apply to Israelis committing the same acts of violence against Palestinians. How very apartheid of them.
As UN experts have warned, “a law that effectively singles out Palestinians for execution conveys that Palestinian lives are less worthy of legal protection.”
Accounts from released Palestinian detainees describe immense psychological and physical abuse. Many thought they would die from the mental and physical torture inflicted upon them, and others wished for death because of the sexual abuse from Israeli soldiers. International organizations have repeatedly raised concerns about detention conditions and violations to human rights.
And yet, accountability remains illusive.
Israel is the first state since Nazi Germany to issue a law, specifically a death penalty, that applies to one race and not another. Atrocities that we vowed to “never allow again” are happening once again.
We said “never again” after Nazis put Jewish families in concentration camps, so why are 2 million Palestinians living in an open-air prison with a declared famine and nowhere to flee as their homes are destroyed?
We said “never again” after Nazi soldiers raided Jewish homes, so why can Israeli soldiers demolish Palestinian neighborhoods and illegally settle in their towns?
“Never again” only derives meaning through consistency. It cannot apply selectively — only to some and not others.
And let’s not conflate anti-zionism with antisemitism. Israel does not represent Judaism or Jewish people as a whole, and many individuals and groups have publicly opposed Israeli state policies — including organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace. Reject anyone who tries to equate the two.
Normalize calling out the apartheid state for its genocidal policies against the Palestinian people and its illegal occupation of indigenous land.
Stop waiting for others to fix the “big” problems. Lobby. Boycott. Protest.
It’s free Palestine until Palestine is free.
