“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to [email protected].
Mother’s Day, Hands Off and Gaza
A perspective from Chris Mayfield
Here in beautiful springtime North Carolina, many of us are preparing to celebrate our mother-child bonds with special tokens of love and appreciation. Many of us have also been gathering during the past month in “Hands Off!” Rallies in our communities. I am truly grateful for my wonderful children and grandchildren, and am looking forward to family feasts. I am also thankful that so far, we can still gather in public spaces to stand up for what we believe—most of us without landing in jail or being exported.
But I often feel a disconnect in these public protests, despite their value and despite the positive emotions they generate. It sometimes feels as if bringing up the US-sponsored genocide in a Gaza is viewed as impolite or even intrusive, despite the horrific images being live-streamed daily on our phones, of bleeding a starving children and their agonized parents for whom Mother’s Day this year (even more so than last year) is worse than a cruel joke. When I and a few others stand in these “Hands Off! Crowds with our Free Palestine tshirts and our “Hands Off Gaza “ signs, I often feel that I am striking a discordant note, that our chants are not truly audible unless they are directed solely at Trump. Is it rude to remind people that this particular set of crimes against humanity is a bipartisan project?
Lest we forget, on March 25— a full 23 days after Israel imposed a total siege on the tiny territory—only 15 Democratic Senators voted to support the Resolutions of Disapproval filed by Bernie Sanders which would have canceled $8.8 billion in bombs and other weapons sales to Israel. And this number is sadly fewer than the number that supported the resolutions when Sanders filed them back in November.
Since that time, with the siege now entering its third month, not a bite of food, drop of water, or gallon of fuel has entered Gaza, though some 3,000 trucks are waiting at the border. According to the UN, 92% of infants and pregnant and lactating mothers lack sufficient nutrition. At least 50 children are documented as have starved to death since the siege started March 2. A recent report from Amnesty International (an addendum to their December report stating that “ states that continue to transfer arms to Israel . . . are violating their obligation to prevent genocide” ) focuses on the struggles of most Palestinian families for survival. They quote one mother on having to send children to search for drinking water for the family: “I had to send my young son to queue for water for hours, and he had to walk long distances. With the relentless bombardment and danger lurking everywhere, you don’t know. You may send your child to bring water, only for him to return in a body bag. Every day is like this here.”
This past weekend, the Israeli Knesset voted unanimously to expand the war in Gaza even further, calling up tens of thousands of reservists and vowing to wreak even more destruction on Gaza’s already decimated infrastructure. Is this the democratic ally we should be urging both parties to support? Aren’t there connections between financing a genocide abroad and allowing our own rights here at home to be trampled?
Yes, we should definitely and vociferously be chanting, “Hands Off Social Security! Hands Off the Constitution!” I am glad we are protesting the many outrageous and dangerous abuses of the Trump regime—from spiriting immigrants to hellholes in El Salvador to DOGEing our Veterans Administration, our Education Department, our Environmental Protection Agency, and on and on. And yes, we need and should cherish our family celebrations this weekend, too. But let’s not forget to speak up also for the Palestinian families suffering unimaginable horrors minute by minute, that BOTH our major parties are allowing proceed unchecked.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
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