Dear VTDigger,
No surprise that supporters of Israel object to Palestinian flags. The flags represent the 100-year struggle for the liberation of the country of Palestine from Zionist colonization and apartheid.
This colonization was sponsored first by Britain (No Kings!) and then by the U.S. But for the growing movement against President Donald Trump and authoritarianism in the U.S., the struggle for freedom and equality in Palestine means much more.
Listen to the message from Palestinian-American student Hisham Awartani at the Burlington No Kings rally: “As we stand here today, unified in common cause, we must realize that no struggle stands in isolation. The migrant camps of El Salvador are modeled after the prisons of Israel, and ICE has been unleashed to suppress Palestinian and undocumented alike. We are facing a seething force of hatred and division, and we must stand in lockstep to fight it.”
Awartani, a target of a shooting in Burlington, knows about the violence of occupation and genocide boomeranging back to the U.S., fueling the far right and being used to attack our free speech, dissent and aspirations for justice and dignity for everyone.
No movement accepting apartheid and genocide will succeed in defeating authoritarianism.
Paul Fleckenstein
Burlington
