American Freedom Riders Against Israeli Apartheid

London, (Pal Telegraph) - Josh Ruebner views the parallels between the US Freedom Riders of the early 1960s and the current Palestinian Freedom Riders who have begun a non-violent campaign against the segregated transport systems and apartheid conditions endured by Palestinians under Israel’s brutal military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Fifty years ago, Freedom Riders braved beatings and arson by supremacists intent on maintaining apartheid in the Jim Crow South. By challenging segregated transport through non-violent action, these African American and white activists set in motion a process that ultimately dismantled segregation. While the struggle for racial justice continues, at least this shameful chapter of formal racial discrimination is history.

“Freedom”, “Dignity”, “We Shall Overcome”

Reflecting on this anniversary, Member of the House of Representatives John Lewis, one of the main organizers of the Freedom Rides, noted that they “changed America. Before the movement … people were afraid… That fear is gone. People can walk, live, work and play with a sense of dignity and a sense of pride.”

“Fired by the same drive for dignity and pride [as the Freedom Riders], six Palestinian non-violent activists last week boarded an Israeli settler bus to draw the world’s attention to the segregated transport systems and apartheid conditions they endure under Israel’s brutal 44-year military occupation…”

Fired by the same drive for dignity and pride, six Palestinian non-violent activists last week boarded an Israeli settler bus to draw the world’s attention to the segregated transport systems and apartheid conditions they endure under Israel’s brutal 44-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem. Echoing Frederick Douglass, spokesperson Hurriyeh Ziadah said: “Our rights will not voluntarily be handed to us, so we are heading out to demand them.”

While attempting to ride from the occupied West Bank into occupied East Jerusalem, non-violently demanding their right to benefit from infrastructure created by Israel on their land, the Israeli military stopped the bus, physically removed and arrested the riders who held signs reading “Freedom”, “Dignity” and “We Shall Overcome”.

Apartheid infrastructure

For the benefit of 650,000 Israeli settlers living in Israel’s illegal settlements in these occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has constructed – in violation of international law – a vast, alternative infrastructure of roads and bus lines from which 2.5 million Palestinians are all but effectively banned. Palestinians are often confined to their village or town due to hundreds of temporary and permanent Israeli roadblocks, checkpoints, walls and other barriers that prevent them from exercising their right to freedom of movement. When Palestinians are allowed to travel by their Israeli occupiers, they must do so on circuitous, inferior roads to bypass Israeli settlement infrastructure, making even the most mundane trip a gruelling trek. Separate is never equal.

Looking back on his achievements since the Freedom Rides, Representative Lewis is not yet satisfied. “I would like to, before I leave this little piece of real estate, do a little more for the cause of peace. To end the violence here at home and violence abroad. We spend so much of our resources killing each other.”

US taxpayer-funded arms supplies

To do a lot more for the cause of peace, Rep. Lewis and his congressional colleagues should end US weapons transfers to Israel and redirect those resources to better uses at home. Between 2009 and 2018, the United States is scheduled to provide Israel with 30 billion dollars in taxpayer-funded weapons which will be used by Israel to perpetuate this apartheid system the Palestinian Freedom Riders are challenging.

“Between 2009 and 2018, the United States is scheduled to provide Israel with 30 billion dollars in taxpayer-funded weapons which will be used by Israel to perpetuate this apartheid system the Palestinian Freedom Riders are challenging.”

Not only do US weapons to Israel entrench its illegal military occupation of Palestinian territories, allow Israel to expand its illegal settlements, thwart efforts to establish a Palestinian state, and injure and kill Palestinian civilians on a horrific scale (according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Israel killed nearly 3,000 unarmed Palestinians during the 2000s); they also deprive our communities of funds for unmet needs.

Of this 30 billion dollars, residents of Atlanta, many of whom are represented in Congress by Rep. Lewis, are expected to provide Israel with nearly 110 million dollars of their hard-earned money to finance US weapons for Israel. This same amount of money could fund instead each year more than 1,300 low-income Atlanta families with affordable housing vouchers, or provide more than 3,200 at-risk Atlanta school children with early reading programs.

Palestinian Freedom Riders are seeking their rights to be treated as equal human beings free to move about in their own land. They are not seeking the type of “charity” provided by US economic aid that often functions to entrench the very system of Israeli apartheid against which they are protesting. A 2010 report by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem found that one-third of roads funded and built by the US Agency for International Development reflect Israel’s priorities for constructing an inferior and segregated transport system for Palestinians.

If Rep. Lewis helped end the immorality of segregation in the United States, then half a century later he can also contribute to ending discrimination in Israel/Palestine by stopping US weapons transfers that sustain Israeli apartheid toward Palestinians.

Josh Ruebner is National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and former Analyst in Middle East Affairs at the Congressional Research Service.

Source: https://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/10424-american-freedom-riders-against-israeli-apartheid.html