Blaine Coleman Was there any excuse for a bunch of armed European settlers to occupy Palestine? No. Was there any excuse for those armed gangs—now called the “Israel Defense Forces”– to ally themselves with the most racist regimes on Earth, including Apartheid South Africa? No. Was there any excuse for handing $300 billion to Israel, as it mass-murdered so many Palestinians and Lebanese? No– but Congressman Dingell admits that Israel really did get $300 billion from your pocket, from the U.S. Congress. That $300 billion should be spent to re-build Detroit, not to fortify the Israel Defense Forces. I hope the Detroit City Council will send that message to Congress. It would solve a lot of problems, in Detroit and worldwide. Resolutions for Boycott and Sanctions against Israel The Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission sent a very modest version of that message to its own City Council a few years ago. A “Resolution in Support of Ending U.S. Military Support for Israel” was approved—unanimously– by the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission, in December 2003: http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2010/01/resolution-in-support-of-ending-us.html The Commission urged the Ann Arbor City Council to approve that same Palestine Resolution. The City Council has certainly had enough time to think about it! Now that the Israel Defense Forces have massacred 1400 Palestinian people in Gaza, the City Council should be jumping to approve that Resolution and more. In fact, every City Council should join the student governments of Wayne State University, and the University of Sussex, in demanding total boycott against the Apartheid state of Israel. The Palestinian people have demanded exactly those kinds of boycott resolutions. City Council’s Revenge, against the Palestinian People: Yes, the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission stood up for the Palestinian People. Within a year, City Council member Joan Lowenstein stated that the Commission’s chairperson would not be reappointed, and the Commission found itself with no staff. Now the City Council has approved the appointment of a man from “Friends of the Israel Defense Forces” to the Ann Arbor, Michigan Human Rights Commission. That new Commissioner’s name is Neal Elyakin. Don’t Deny the Palestinian People’s Existence Ann Arbor’s new Human Rights Commissioner, Mr. Neal Elyakin, has publicly written that “The term ‘Palestinian’ is itself a masterful twisting of history… If the Palestinians are indeed a myth, then the real question becomes ‘Why?’ Why invent a fictitious people? The answer is that the myth of the Palestinian People serves as the justification for Arab occupation of the Land of Israel.” Armed Zionist settlers destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages. Most of Palestine was emptied of Palestinians. The Palestinians were driven out by massacres, rapes, and other violent means, according to Professor Ilan Pappe. Resolution to Spend $300 Billion on Detroit, not on Israel: Ann Arbor’s Human Rights Commission must speak clearly now. It must repudiate any statement from its Commissioners claiming that the Palestinian people are a “myth”. It must push the City Council to approve a resolution to boycott all products from Israel, and to cut off all aid to Israel. Those billions of dollars belong in Detroit, to begin repairing a half-century of federally-enforced strangulation imposed on Detroit. I also hope the Detroit City Council will step up to the plate. I hope the Detroit City Council will approve a Resolution asking Congress to totally cut off the trillions currently spent slaughtering Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. That Resolution should tell Congress to spend those trillions of dollars to re-build Detroit and every inner city. What Detroiter would say “no” to that? –Blaine Coleman Blaine Coleman has been demanding a Resolution to Spend $300 Billion on Detroit, not on Israel, for years– at Detroit City Council, at Ann Arbor City Council, and at the Michigan Student Assembly. He asks readers to do the same.
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