Think about your cake

On Wednesday, a group called “Aggies for Israel” celebrated Israel’s Independence Day in the Taggart Student Center. Passers by were given cake to celebrate Israel’s independence and probably told about how great the club was and asked to join and support Israel.

I will never understand why people don’t recognize that this is an issue.

First, celebrating Israel’s independence is an oxymoron in itself seeing as the land was gifted to Israelis by the western world. It was taken from Palestine, whose residents were forced to flood into overcrowded regions of the country or simply into other countries. Now areas like Gaza or the West Bank are impoverished and tightly controlled by a government system that Palestinians have no vote on.

Second, the people who took cake walked away taking part in a celebration of Israel.

It is one thing to not care. I don’t want to sit here and tell people that they should care more about world affairs because nobody wants hear it. What I do want is to encourage people to think critically about the meaning behind some of the handouts they receive in passing. Some people in the group may not have even thought critically about Israel.

Not 10 months ago, almost 2,200 people died in the Gaza Strip from Israel’s bombs and 11,000 more were injured. Most of these people were civilians. Their crime? Being in Gaza.

Gaza is an open-air prison with two exits: one into Egypt and one into Israel. There are no sea ports allowed and it is one of the most densely-populated regions in the world. A bomb, even aimed at a specific target, would undoubtedly draw large scale death and suffering.

I’m not saying that Palestine is blameless. Hamas also fired rockets in these situations, though not advanced ones and with minimal damage comparatively. Why Hamas prods at Israel is beyond me. However, why Israel jumps on the first move from Hamas to kill and cripple thousands is even further beyond me.

I have been to the West Bank. I have family there. Israeli soldiers patrol the borders with guns. Israeli officials control the water distribution. Palestinians have to travel to other countries to fly anywhere and are given bright green passports so that they are easily identified.

Israel has lit Gaza on fire. Israel has made life so inconvenient for Palestinians that they leave their homeland. Israel controls and oppresses Palestinians who in turn get no vote on Israeli leaders. Then Palestinians are painted as the problem.

So I’m going to call it what it is. It is ethnic cleansing. It is genocide. And it is working.

This is how I take it: on our campus yesterday, there was a demonstration in support of a genocide. I’m sure somebody will come to me and dispute this. I’m sure someone will tell me that how I take it was not the intent of the cake.

But that is how I, as a Palestinian, take it. You can be indifferent. You can disagree. If you do, by all means, eat your damn cake.

— Jeffrey Dahdah is a junior majoring in journalism. His grandfather was forced out of Palestine to Jordan by the Israeli occupation. He maintains Jordanian citizenship as a result. Contact him at dahdahjm@gmail.com.