To the editor:
“Palestine was a land without a people…”
“Palestinians left their homes voluntarily in 1948…”
“Israel only acts in self-defense…”
“Israel only targets terrorists….”
“Israel has no partner for peace…”
“Israel is the only democracy in the middle east…”
These are just a few of the propaganda lies promoted by the State of Israel. But thanks to the suppression of Palestinian voices in Western media, this is all believed as truth by many Westerners. The silencing of Palestinian voices has contributed massively to the ability of the Israeli government to flout international law with impunity for 75 years, leading up to the last two years of devastating war crimes.
We are Berkshires in Solidarity with Palestine (BSP), a small grassroots group seeking to bring local awareness to the human rights, culture, and political aspirations of the Palestinian people by hosting films, lectures, and other media events. In doing so, we also hope to provide community for people who are in despair over the 75 years of ethnic cleansing and apartheid and the genocide still being inflicted by Israel on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Our group has so far held four events: 1) screened a documentary film widely available on Netflix about Gaza in the years before October 7; 2) presented a recorded history lecture available on YouTube given by a Palestinian Ph.D. candidate at NYU; 3) screened a documentary and held a moderated discussion exploring the connections between disability justice and Palestinian liberation; 4) held a discussion with the developer and curator of the first Palestinian art museum in the Americas. These are not radical offerings. On December 6, we will screen the film “From Ground Zero,” a collection of short films by Gazan filmmakers struggling in the context of Israeli destruction that was shortlisted for an Academy Award.
To advertise our events, we have posted flyers around Berkshire County and surrounding areas, carefully hanging our flyers on community bulletin boards and other locations where similar flyers for events and services have been posted. We have experienced a unique phenomenon only in Great Barrington: Our posters are torn down with great regularity. We see them removed and replace them, and a few days later they are torn down again. Other posters stay up for weeks and months at a time; ours do not.
Make no mistake, trying to sabotage the sharing of Palestinian voices is done out of fear. Fear that the lies will be exposed. Panic that violently oppressive and racist viewpoints will finally be seen for what they are. So much fear that some are willing to collude with the lowest and most damaging methods totalitarian governments use: suppressing free speech.
Tearing down our posters is an effort to silence Palestinian stories in a way that reenacts a key tactic of political Zionism. To create the Jewish state, Israel destroyed and depopulated 531 towns and villages, erased their names from their map, and planted trees on the ruins in hopes that they would be forgotten. Israel has banned the display of the Palestinian flag; restricted public assembly and speech by Palestinians, including speech about their history and their rights; censored and banned Palestinian newspapers, books, poems, songs, and art; and arrested without charge Palestinian students, writers, and journalists, while extrajudicially murdering others. Even Israeli Jews who try to tell the Palestinian story, like historian Ilan Pappe, are harassed and threatened until they must leave the country. During the current genocide, Israel has murdered hundreds of journalists trying to document Palestinian voices.
Tearing down our posters also colludes with authoritarian suppression of free speech here at home. Our government increasingly seeks to restrict forms of protest, targets workers who hold opposing political perspectives, withdraws press access and threatens media companies that do not do their bidding, and targets universities that share narratives they do not agree with. They have pulled individuals who have spoken out in support of Palestine off the street, thrown them in detention, and pursued deportation.
Support free speech. Support the open sharing of ideas and experiences. Support Palestinian perspectives being shared with those interested to hear them. Stop tearing down our posters.
On behalf of Berkshires in Solidarity with Palestine:
Ivan Kruh, Great Barrington
Nadia Milleron, Sheffield
Anne O’Connor, New Marlborough
Christine Fulton, Pittsfield
Corinna Barnard, Sheffield
Jason Brown, Sheffield
Renee McCormick, West Stockbridge
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