On November 5th I will vote against genocide | US elections 2024

Earlier this year, as the genocide unfolded in the Gaza Strip, I began volunteering with various medical organizations to help Palestinians. I went on a mission to the occupied West Bank and remotely supported healthcare workers in the Gaza Strip. I have taught and mentored Palestinian children, supported teams providing care to pediatric and geriatric patients with cancer, chronic illness and dementia, and led research collaborations on disease and injury patterns in Gaza and the West Bank.

What I write below is based solely on my views and my experiences and does not reflect the position of any organization with which I have been involved.

My work in Palestine and with the Palestinians has deeply influenced how I view American domestic politics and how I will vote in the upcoming presidential election.

If there is one major takeaway from my work and recent mission to Palestine this summer, it is that reports of Israeli crimes represent only a small part of what is actually happening. Many are undocumented because cameras and phones are confiscated or destroyed, or victims fear reprisals through direct violence or collective punishment if they speak out.

Indeed, it is almost impossible to imagine the extent of the structural and physical violence perpetrated daily on this population, as well as the ingenuity of the crimes committed against them.

Palestinian lives are disrupted and isolated by hundreds of permanent and temporary checkpoints that litter the occupied West Bank. They can prevent Palestinians from going to school or work, stop trucks carrying goods, including perishable food, from reaching their destinations, and impede the transport of people in urgent need of medical attention. The Palestinian economy is completely dependent on Israeli authorities, who often make decisions that suppress or bankrupt Palestinian businesses.

Israeli soldiers regularly raid Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, breaking into houses, arresting Palestinians and sometimes killing civilians. In addition, Palestinian homes, lands and other property are being attacked, destroyed and taken over by Jewish settlers protected by the Israeli army.

Violence against children is also an everyday occurrence. Israeli troops have targeted Palestinian children in their regular attacks in the occupied West Bank, killing 165 people over the past year. Many are also subject to detention and violence, including sexual abuse, by Israeli soldiers or detention center staff. Palestinian children I met told me about Israeli soldiers lighting cigarettes on their hands, cheeks and other parts of their bodies.

In Gaza the horrors are even more indescribable. The current official death toll of more than 43,000 in no way reflects the true scale of human suffering and loss of life. What these numbers do not reflect are the deaths and life-altering injuries or conditions that Palestinians are now subject to due to Israeli restrictions on food, basic medical supplies such as sterile supplies and antibiotics, and much-needed medications for the chronically ill. This environment of uncontrolled infection and malnutrition is also a death sentence for many pregnant women and their children. This is effectively equivalent to birth control, which constitutes the crime of genocide.

Amid the complete dehumanization of the Palestinians by Israel, as well as its allies in US politics and media, many Americans feel disconnected from what is happening in Gaza and Palestine as a whole. But the truth is that Americans are also victims of Israel’s American-backed campaign of genocide.

Dozens of Palestinian Americans have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli authorities harassed, arbitrarily arrested, and beat Americans and routinely denied entry to American medical missions into Gaza and the West Bank.

Even non-Palestinian Americans have been harassed (myself included), shot at, and killed. Most recently, 26-year-old Aishenur Ezgi Eigi was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper near Beita in Nablus.

In the West Bank, I saw Israeli soldiers shout at Americans and other foreign nationals, rub their passports against one soldier’s genitals and then throw them in their faces, and were denied entry at checkpoints.

One day, while waiting to go through a checkpoint, I struck up a conversation with an Israeli soldier who told me that he had participated in a joint training exercise with a police department in Ohio, where he and his fellow soldiers taught birth control and military occupation techniques at checkpoints. American policeman.

It was unpleasant to hear, but it reminded me that not only is the United States exporting technology of violence and death to Israel, but vice versa as well. Brutal policing in the United States, which disproportionately affects marginalized communities, has been shaped by Israel’s experience of colonial subjugation of the Palestinian people.

Indeed, the exchange of knowledge, ideas, weapons and intelligence supports the dominance of the US imperial structure and the manifestation of racial, cultural, economic and military superiority in the US, Israel and other countries of the world.

The Palestinians recognize this symbiosis and view the US as an equal partner in their colonial oppression. One American doctor told me how a patient in the Gaza Strip became hysterical when she saw the US flag on his gown, and her family had to hold her down so he could operate on her without anesthesia due to the unavailability of such medicine.

It is time for Americans to also recognize that unconditional US support for Israel not only harms and kills Palestinians, but also harms the American population. The Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration has done its best to suppress opposition to genocide at home, demonizing the pro-Palestinian movement and showing ignorance of a horrific surge in hate crimes against Arab Americans and Muslims.

Through its actions against international courts and the UN, and its coercion of other states, it actively undermines the international legal order, which threatens to erase the codified concept of human rights. Endorsing racist, colonial brutality and crimes against humanity normalizes these atrocities and will inevitably encourage such violence against minorities and vulnerable groups here in the US.

I participated and was a strong advocate for the no-strings-attached vote in the Democratic primaries, hoping that it might push the current administration to change course on Israel.

But the US president and vice president ignored the message that hundreds of thousands of their constituents sent them earlier this year. As the new Democratic candidate, Harris is at pains to convey her unwavering commitment to Israel. She ridiculed and bullied Democratic Party voters and organizers trying to raise awareness about Gaza, silenced anti-genocide protesters at rallies, and kicked Muslim Democrats out of her events.

During an October town hall event, Harris said there are people who care about “this problem” but also care about “lowering food prices.” I am one of those who is much more concerned about the real possibility of complete destruction of the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip than about food prices in the United States.

On November 5th, I will vote against genocide, and I will do so not only with the plight of the Palestinian people in mind, but also with the plight of my fellow Americans. It is an act of love and caring and I am completely committed to it.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.