Reposting today’s op ed with permission (originally appeared in the Portland Press Herald today). Pictures of the May 21 action in Portland were added by me.
Be on the right side of history when it comes to Gaza | Opinion
Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people is a test of our humanity. Don't look away.
by Jamila Levasseur
I am one of 20 people, ranging in age from 22 to 87 from all over Maine, who blocked Commercial Street in Portland in front of the United States Customs House on May 21 to support the people of Gaza. Along with a larger crowd, we chanted “Food, not bombs.”
We chose this location because our federal government works hand in glove with Israel to carry out the genocide in Gaza. The U.S. is overwhelmingly the biggest supplier of weapons.
We chose the date for this emergency action because Israel is carrying out its own version of Hitler’s Final Solution, currently named Operation Gideon’s Chariot. Enabled by the United States, Israel is systematically starving everyone from babies to the elderly and intensifying the bombing. Israel has turned Gaza into a wasteland unsustainable for life.
We chose to disrupt traffic because the media generally does not pay attention unless there are arrests. We got attention. Drivers experienced minor inconvenience. I experienced far longer waits from road construction while driving home the next day.
Israel’s leadership spells out its intentions in plain language. They know it’s bad press when pictures of starving children go viral. (This week, tourists may find some posted around the Old Port.) To continue annihilating Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said, “We need to do it in a way they won’t stop us.” He hopes slow-motion strangulation of Gaza will appease the U.S., maintaining support and avoiding war crimes tribunals. “We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it in piles of rubble, with total destruction which has no precedent globally,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich explained.
Allowing minuscule amounts of food into southern Gaza is intended not only to keep U.S. arms supplies coming, but to force the population into a killing cage if they want to give their children anything at all to eat. Buffer zones and “security zones” continue to corral Gazans into progressively smaller areas.
Once corralled, the plan is forced removal to other countries. So far, no country has agreed to take expelled Palestinians. President Donald Trump hopes to get Libya to accept 1 million Palestinians in exchange for the release of billions of dollars that the U.S. froze over a decade ago. Libya has been in a state of war since U.S.-led regime change in 2011.
This is just another version of what Nazi Germany did to my Czech family, where Jews were forced into progressively smaller parts of Prague, then deported to the Terezín ghetto, from there shipped out to killing sites like Treblinka and Auschwitz.
Words of condemnation are not enough as the world watches Israel enact this version of the Final Solution. Nothing short of stopping the flow of money and weapons will end the genocide.
Missile guidance systems for bombs are made at General Dynamics in Saco. These same bombs destroy hospitals, universities and entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Our taxes fund the genocide while Mainers struggle with housing, health care and education.
Gaza is a test of our humanity. We must do everything we can to stop this genocide, which should be front-page news every day. Alternative media sites give context you won’t find in the mainstream.
Don’t look away. Someday, your grandchildren will ask, “Did you do anything to try and stop it?”
Be on the right side of history.
Jamila Levasseur is a retired nurse and the granddaughter of Nazi genocide survivors.
What a powerful statement, Jamila! I celebrate you and your friends for the action you took!!
How do we do anything to stop it? Besides contacting our representatives who don’t listen to their constituents, & opposing it altogether. Every time I say anything in my community, they clap back, but what about October 7th? It’s truly frustrating to try to talk to people about world affairs anymore.