What can I do in the face of genocide?

Credit: Artist Zahra Gulraiz created this image in honor of US Air Force Aaron Bushnell who self-emulated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC two years ago today in protest of his country’s complicity in genocide.

I find myself asking this question over and over again as I bear witness to the blatant abuse of power. Whether it is the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the power struggle in Sudan or Congo, the senseless war in Ukraine, the intentional nondisclosure of the rest of the Epstein files, the militarization of ‘law and order’ in America, the crackdown on civil liberties at home and abroad, or the desecration of the Earth through pollution and resource extraction, largely thanks to the US military as illustrated in the recent documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy, my shock and outrage compel me to act. I know I am not alone.

Answering that question manifests in different ways: protests and campaigns; education through independent media, webinars, and forums; financial support through mutual aid networks; economic pressure through boycott and divestment; nonviolent resistance; bearing witness to state violence at home and abroad; disrupting the supply chain of military equipment and components; or artistic expression, to name a few. For Aaron Bushnell, a US Air Force pilot, he made the ultimate sacrifice with self-immolation on the steps of the Israel embassy in Washington, DC two years ago today.

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have bene experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, its’ not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” — Aaron Bushnell

Today also marks 32 years since Meir Kahane follower and extremist Baruch Goldstein gunned down 29 Muslim worshipers during pre-dawn morning prayers of Ramadan at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. That is long before before October 7^th and points to the consistent record of state violence against Palestinians since the launch of Zionism by Theodore Herzl at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. Even though that form of extremism was outlawed in Israel at the time, Kahane followers now hold leadership positions in the Israeli government. In fact, Israel’s Minister of National Security Ben Gvir proudly hung a portrait of Goldstein in his home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron until he decided to run for office in 2000.

It is up to each and every one of us to decide what action to take based on our own level of awareness and risk assessment. Awareness is key, and awareness requires education. At a gut level, it is not difficult to declare GENOCIDE BAD as Sim Kern entitled her recent book on Zionism and Palestine. You don’t have to be an expert on the Middle East to come to that conclusion. You do have to be in touch with our shared humanity. And yet how many people remain silent because they don’t feel it is their place to speak out?

Sim would say the hesitation is by design. Doubt yourself, write off the entire situation as too complex, and it will continue because we didn’t stop it. For people who are still roped into Zionist hasbara (Israeli propaganda), Israel is defending itself and dead Palestinians are collateral damage. But 20,000 children killed in ‘self-defense’ doesn’t make any sense. It wreaks of Israeli exceptionalism where Israel is the eternal victim that justifies anything to uphold an exclusive Jewish state in the name of protecting the Jewish people. That narrative simply weaponizes antisemitism instead of actually fighting it as Peter Beinart explains in his recent book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza. This sentiment is echoed by Palestine solidarity activists, as anti-Zionist Jews or non-Jews alike will point out.

So I urge people to trust their gut but also to educate themselves and others. The era of swallowing Israeli narratives is over, though far too many still make a hefty meal our of them, particularly Christian Zionists who support Zionism to fulfill Biblical prophecy to ensure the return of the Messiah even if that means that Jews who do not embrace Christianity will burn in Hell. This strange partnership is only getting stronger with the convening of the first joint Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress.

To set the record straight, Palestinian voices are telling their own story and more and more people are listening. Just as many Jews are deconstructing the decades of indoctrination they were subject to through synagogues and summer camps, the focus of the film Israelism, others are questioning the prevalent myths of Israel as outlined in Ilan Pappé’s Ten Myths About Israel. And Israelis — from top leaders to soldiers to talk show hosts — are being fully transparent about their disdain for Palestinian life and intention to take the entire land of Palestine and beyond for themselves as alluded to by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson.

I cannot tell you what to do in response to the normalization of state violence, but I can tell you to do something, to tap into the outrage of the current moment, and find a way to challenge this destructive path that is destroying the Earth, people’s lives, and their livelihood. If you don’t know where to start, ask yourself if everyone deserves to live with dignity, the golden thread of my memoir Crossing Borders: The Search for Dignity in Palestine. If your answer is yes, imagine what that looks like for you, your neighbors, your town, your country, and the peoples of the world. Anything short of dignity is subjugation of many for the benefit of the few. Find your moral compass. Find your voice. Find your humanity.