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December 16th, 2020 
Awake Goy 
Resist censorship of Palestinian voices!
In September, I co-led an online open classroom of international activists discussing gender, justice and resistance. You did not see it – you could not, in fact – because Zoom censored it. Facebook and YouTube blocked it, as well.
Caving to pressure from Israel’s apartheid apologists, these massive platforms silenced important Palestinian, Black, Jewish and South African feminist activists.
Hundreds of students brought together by my colleague, Professor Tomomi Kinukawa, and I were robbed of the critical education they deserved.
What subject, and whose opinions, are so threatening as to provoke these efforts to silence us? We both know the answers: Palestine and its advocates.
This is a great time to give to Mondoweiss. A generous donor has offered $20,000 if we match that by dollar for dollar by Sunday, December 20.
As a Palestinian scholar, writer and researcher, Zionists and white supremacists have long sought to muzzle me. Now they are widening their nets considerably.
In the past few months alone, more than 120 pro-Israel groups have lobbied Facebook to censor criticism of Israel.
The UK Labour Party is trying to crush solidarity with Palestine. Among members suspended by the party was Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong defender of Palestine and racial justice advocate.
Trump’s State Department launched a bid to label major human rights organizations as “antisemitic” and governments worldwide – including the U.S., Germany, the UK, and Canada – have adopted a twisted definition of antisemitism that shuts down citizens’ free speech.
Why is this happening now? We both know. It’s because more people understand that Israel’s settler colonial project is built upon the erasure of Palestine and Palestinians.
As Adalah’s Sumaya Awad writes in Mondoweiss: More young, diverse, and working class people in the U.S. are “rapidly drawing the connections between Palestine, mass incarceration, austerity, and the immigration crisis; in other words, between Palestine and all the other major political flashpoints …” of justice.
Each U.S. election cycle brings more candidates willing to stand up for Palestine. Polls show that more Democrats support cutting U.S. military aid to Israel because of its human rights abuses. Trade unionists, scientists, students and academics worldwide are building solidarity with Palestine. Black Lives Matter and other movement leaders are calling out Israeli occupation for what it is: apartheid.
This is huge: The tide is turning and we must press forward. It’s why your support for Mondoweiss is more important than ever.
You know that Mondoweiss calls out the tortured logic of politicians who put Israel’s interests before justice and freedom. It publishes Palestinian voices silenced by corporate media, and spotlights Jewish and Israeli voices challenging the land theft and human rights abuses carried out under the banner of Zionism.
Your gift centers the voices who support justice in Palestine. Can you support Mondoweiss with a contribution today?
Your gift spotlights Israel’s destruction of an entire Palestinian village during a pandemic while Washington looks the other way. You help families locked down Gaza connect with the world.
With your support we share in the joy farmers experience when they taste the season’s new olive oil and we witness the terror when armed Israeli settlers attack during the harvest. Your support connects courageous, committed activists from Gaza City to Louisville to Soweto to Buenos Aires.
As I write to you today, with a pandemic raging worldwide, there’s a lot about the future we don’t know. But whatever happens, there’s one thing we do know. The fundamental injustice upon which Israel is conceived and built – the erasure of Palestine – continues and must be resisted.
Mondoweiss sounds a clarion call to right that injustice.
Out of a fog of colonial narratives and muzzled voices, Mondoweiss is a beacon of truth and sumoud. You can keep that beacon shining. Thank you!
Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi
Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and Race and Resistance Studies and the Senior Scholar at the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies at San Francisco State University.
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