As tensions rise in the Middle East, across the globe, Vermonters rallied in solidarity with Palestine. ”This is not a conflict because conflict assumes there is some sort of balance of power,” said one of the rally organizers, Asma Elhuni. “This is colonization this is settler colonization 101.”She says the attacks on the Palestinian people from the Israeli army are an attempt to ethnically cleanse the land.”I want you all to imagine if today or yesterday somebody came to you and told you that you need to leave your home, and then tomorrow, they actually go to your home and forcibly remove you. This is exactly what’s happening to the Palestinian people,” said Elhuni. And while support for the Palestinian community was on display Saturday, NBC5 reporter on Friday that some in the local Jewish community say they’ve experienced a rise in anti-Semitism. “There are Jewish students who are experiencing antisemitism and they’re beingtold by others that that’s invalid and their own experience isn’t a true experience and that’s not right for Jewish students and that’s not right for anybody to have their own true experiences invalidate by someone else,” said Matt Vogel, executive director of UVM Hillel. He says, “without question, every single student that I’ve spoken with has empathy and compassion for everybody suffering in this conflict.”
As tensions rise in the Middle East, across the globe, Vermonters rallied in solidarity with Palestine.
”This is not a conflict because conflict assumes there is some sort of balance of power,” said one of the rally organizers, Asma Elhuni. “This is colonization this is settler colonization 101.”
She says the attacks on the Palestinian people from the Israeli army are an attempt to ethnically cleanse the land.
”I want you all to imagine if today or yesterday somebody came to you and told you that you need to leave your home, and then tomorrow, they actually go to your home and forcibly remove you. This is exactly what’s happening to the Palestinian people,” said Elhuni.
And while support for the Palestinian community was on display Saturday, NBC5 reporter on Friday that some in the local Jewish community say they’ve experienced a rise in anti-Semitism.
“There are Jewish students who are experiencing antisemitism and they’re being
told by others that that’s invalid and their own experience isn’t a true experience and that’s not right for Jewish students and that’s not right for anybody to have their own true experiences invalidate by someone else,” said Matt Vogel, executive director of UVM Hillel.
He says, “without question, every single student that I’ve spoken with has empathy and compassion for everybody suffering in this conflict.”
Advertisement
