Let Gaza Live!
This speech by Christine Gauvreau, representing the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, was given at the January 10, 2009 “Let Gaza Live” rally at the White House.I am here today because if the U.S. antiwar movement does not embrace fully and passionately the cause of ending U.S. backing for the murderous assault on Gaza, we will never succeed in ending ANY of the U.S. military adventures in the Middle East. Solidarity with the victims of U.S. backed aggression in Gaza, and solidarity with YOU, is the most important task facing the antiwar movement today.
To whom can we look to end the barbaric attacks on the refugee camp called Gaza?
Not the president and certainly not the Congress.
Yesterday the U.S. Congress voted to openly celebrate their support for the horrific and criminal massacres carried out in Gaza. Read the resolutions—they CHEERED the murderous effectiveness of the army of their most valued proxy in the Middle East They CELEBRATED the carnage wrought by their military gifts to Israel—the F-16’s, the helicopters, the munitions.
While the whole world mourned the loss of innocent life in GAZA, the U.S. government instead theatrically APPLAUDED the mowing down of nearly 1000 starving, encircled, and utterly trapped civilians. And with Orwellian language, they designated the colonizer’s methods as self-defense. They perversely defined a brutally occupied people as the aggressor and instigator of war.
Congress uses this double speak for the same reason they went along with the lie of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. In the end, it is all about the same thing. It is all about the willingness of the U.S. government to use the bloodiest means to create a Middle East and Central Asia where Arab and Afghani self-determination, where national sovereignty, is a thing of the past. Where the United States has control over energy resources at any human cost.
That is why they cannot stand the proud and defiant people of Palestine. Their unwillingness to bend in the face of attack makes the Gazans a giant obstacle to U.S. war aims in the greater Middle East. Their fight is our fight.
We say NO to U.S. backed aggression against the people of Gaza.
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations is so honored and grateful to be here today with the movement to end the siege of Gaza and to defend the right of Palestinians to self-determination. This movement to defend the people of Gaza from the U.S. backed Israeli invasion is opening a new stage in U.S. politics. YOU are opening a new stage in U.S. politics. A stage where those from the Palestine solidarity movement and those who have been active to end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan will come together as a powerful force to end the U.S.-Israeli military adventure in the Middle East.
A force independent of the war-making political parties in Congress. A force that can grow exponentially due to our unity. A force that can attract millions because we remain visible in the streets. A force that will first be able to manifest itself on March 21 here in DC and bring us a much closer to ending U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine.
To ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. To getting money for jobs, pensions, housing, healthcare, not for wars, occupations, and corporate bailouts.
Let us pledge to take the next weeks, to use every day, to use every hour, to use every minute between now and March 21 to fight together to take the truth about Gaza, the truth about Iraq, the truth about Afghanistan to the millions of Americans not yet active in the struggle.
Let Gaza Live
Out Now