------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 2, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- NEW YORK: JEWISH UNIONIST URGES SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE By Brian Becker New York [The following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Hillel Cohen at an Oct. 13 mass rally in support of the Palestinian people in New York. The demonstration was over 10,000 strong and mainly organized by the Arab-American community. Mosques from the New York/New Jersey area mobilized to attend. Cohen's speech was met with a tremendous ovation. Right-wing and racist propaganda portrays the Israeli- Palestinian struggle as a "religious war." The same propaganda demonizes those who are fighting against U.S.- backed Israeli aggression as "anti-Semitic." Cohen, who is a member of Workers World Party, puts the Palestinian struggle in a more accurate context as a struggle against imperialism, racism and colonialism:] Brothers and sisters, I speak to you today as a member of health-care workers' union 1199/Service Employees, an organizer for the International Action Center and a Jewish- American in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination. Working people join unions in order to fight for a better life for their families. This includes the right to a decent place to live, to health care, to education and to be treated with dignity and justice. Isn't this what the Palestinian people are in the streets fighting for? It is the same struggle, which is why every union and every union member should be here, standing side by side our Palestinian brothers and sisters. The union movement is all about solidarity and right now the Palestinian people need and deserve the solidarity of working people here and the union movement in particular. I also urge all of you who are in unions to appeal to your union for solidarity. And, if you are not in a union, to join one and teach the union movement about the Palestinian struggle. The International Action Center is trying to reach out to the people of this country to explain that Ariel Sharon is a killer. Barak is a killer. But people have to know that Sharon and Barak are not acting by themselves. They are hired killers. They are bought and paid for by the banks, the oil companies and the big businesses in the United States that stand to profit from the blood of the Palestinian people. The guns have been paid for by the Pentagon. The bullets are paid for by the Pentagon. The tear gas, the helicopters and the rockets, all paid for by the Pentagon. The same bankers and big-business interests that pay to kill Palestinian youths are the ones who pay the cops here to attack workers fighting for justice and to terrorize people of color. The millions and billions of dollars being used to pay for these crimes should be used instead for jobs, housing, education and health care. Stop all U.S. arms to Israel! WHOSE RIGHT TO RETURN? There are many parallels between the struggle in Palestine and the struggle here. New York cops killed Amadou Diallo in front of his home. They shot Patrick Dorismond for refusing drugs. They tortured Abner Louima for daring to speak out against an unjust police attack. The police were carrying out acts of racist violence. This is the way the Zionist police and military treat Palestinian youths. We have to fight to stop the police murders here and in Palestine. I was born in New York City. My parents were born here and my grandparents came here from Eastern Europe. Because I am Jewish, I can go and buy an airline ticket to Jerusalem and claim first-class citizenship rights. But my Palestinian friends who were born in Jerusalem, or whose parents and grandparents were born in Jerusalem, don't have that right! The Zionists say that I as a Jewish-American have the right to return. I don't want that right! That right belongs to the Palestinian people. Long live the just struggle of the Palestinian people for their homeland. Long live Palestine! - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
