Advertisement
I just learned today that the Jewish leaders in Providence, R I. have a meltdown over the mayor's decision to raise the flag of Palestine over City Hall on May 16.
Regrettably, you protested by arguing the flag of Palestine is the same flag of Hamas, which is totally false and misleading. I never heard such a comparison before. But what do you expect from a group of Israeli cheerleaders who celebrated when Yale University gave the Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir a hero's welcome, despite the cast that Ben Gvir confessed in a 2015 interview, to have been indicted 53 times for various crimes in Israeli court. This is the same man who attended a dinner in his honor last month at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
That was Ben Gvir's first official US visit. He was invited only days after he stated, "Israel must 'stop procrastinating' and 'open gates of Hell on Gaza.'" Other words for continuing the genocide.
Two years ago, Ben Gvir called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners on social media in an effort to ease overcrowding in the country's jails. Writing on social media, Israel is currently holding thousands of Palestinian people as hostages who have been detained in the occupied West Bank since October 7. Palestinian rights group Addameer recently said that Israel was holding 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners, not including those taken from Gaza. Providence's Jewish community did not make a peep about it.
After the US House of Representatives sanctuaried the only two Muslim-American U.S. congresswomen (Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib) for criticizing Apartheid Israel and its treatment of Palestinians, you jumped the bandwagon.
When the multibillionaire Elon Musk made the Nazi salute at an inauguration rally last January, you acted blind, deaf, and mute.
Where were you for the last 19 months when both liberal and Jewish-American groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and If Not Now were protesting the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank by picketing, marching, and occupying NYC train stations and the US Capitol? You are on the wrong side of history, and you are simply parroting the Israelis' talking points.
Lest we forget, the Old Glory flew over Rafah, Palestine for the first time on March 16, 2003, to honor a U.S. citizen and peace activist Rachel Corrie who was run down with a bulldozer by an Israeli Occupation soldier while she was attempting to prevent a home demolition. The soldier was never charged with her death. Even that did not stop Israeli soldiers from raiding and disrupting the service, beating the mourners, and tearing down Rachel's pictures.
Shamefully, Providence's Jewish community sided with Israel and blamed Rachel herself for the death. People in Rafah did not fly the Palestinian or Hamas flag on that day. Please save me the agony!
Don't talk to us about your Holocaust or Hamas flag!
With over 60,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza including at least 18,000 children from October 7, 2023, to January 15, 2025, in addition, 17,00 children lost both of their parents according to recent data. This tragic figure has not moved you to take a moral stand to call for a ceasefire and end of the Israeli genocide. Perhaps, you would be happy to know that it is reported that a child is killed in Gaza every 45 minutes, averaging about 30 children killed each day over the past 535 days. Please don't talk to me about your Holocaust or the flag Palestine being flown over Providence City Hall.
You and the Trump administration are on the wrong side of history by blindly supporting the Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
* Neither US nor the Trump administration have called for an end to the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
*Both you and the Trump Aministration attacked the ICC for indicting PM Netanyahu and his war minister for war crimes.
* Hamas is not the enemy of the US even though it has not attacked the US.
* Hamas did not kill US sailors in cold blood.
* Hamas did kidnap a former Marine.
* Hamas did not murder US journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
* Hamas did not crush US peace activist Rachel Corrie to death.
* Hamas never meddled in the US election or internal affairs.
* Hamas never stole US technology and sold it to our enemies.
* Hamas did not blackmail celebrities and politicians.
* U.S. taxpayers are not forced to pay Hamas $3.8 in aid annually.
* It is the IDF, not Hamas, who should be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
You never cease to cease to amaze me! You say "Our hostages" instead of the Israeli hostages. In addition, every US public official talks about the Israeli hostages but no one ever mentions anything about the over 10,000 Palestinian hostages. Why?
What are they afraid of? They will not tell you that the few American hostages are dual nationals who chose to enlist in the IDF instead of enlisting in the US armed forces. Those people took part in the Gaza genocide. They were captured on October 7 while armed and in IDF uniform. In fact, you would be more accurate by calling them as "Israeli POWs" instead. That should be an affront to all veterans and patriotic Americans in Providence, Rhode Island and the rest of America.
Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelancer for Islamicity.com and ColumbusFreepress.com. He can be reached at elyousseph6@yahoo.com
Hamas flag. Hamas was established during the First intifada against the Israeli occupation on Dec. 10, 1987