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<\/a>Everyone is talking about one thing this morning, the outstanding piece by Michelle Alexander in the New York Times<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a> yes, the New York Times<\/em>, titled, \u201cTime to Break the Silence about Palestine,\u201d in which she says she can\u2019t be quiet about Palestine any longer.\u00a0 The author of \u201cThe New Jim Crow\u201d is a regular columnist now, and she has changed the discourse about Palestine in one explosive swoop, stating that progressives have been silent about Palestine partly because of fear for their careers, but the time has come to end that silence.<\/span><\/p>\nThe 51-year-old\u00a0legal scholar<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and civil rights advocate begins by\u00a0quoting Martin Luther King\u2019s courageous coming out against the Vietnam War in 1967, when it could do him no good. Just as speaking up for Palestinians can only hurt our careers today thanks to the \u201cwell-documented power\u201d of the Israel lobby.<\/span><\/p>\n [King\u2019s] was a lonely, moral stance. And it cost him. But it set an example of what is required of us if we are to honor our deepest values in times of crisis, even when silence would better serve our personal interests or the communities and causes we hold most dear. It\u2019s what I think about when I go over the excuses and rationalizations that have kept me largely silent on one of the great moral challenges of our time: the crisis in Israel-Palestine.<\/span><\/p>\n I have not been alone. Until very recently, the entire Congress has remained mostly silent on the human rights nightmare that has unfolded in the occupied territories. Our elected representatives, who operate in a political environment where Israel\u2019s political lobby holds well-documented power, have consistently minimized and deflected criticism of the State of Israel, even as it has grown more emboldened in its occupation of Palestinian territory and adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n Many civil rights activists and organizations have remained silent as well, not because they lack concern or sympathy for the Palestinian people, but because they fear loss of funding from foundations, and false charges of anti-Semitism. They worry, as I once did, that their important social justice work will be compromised or discredited by smear campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n Similarly, many students are fearful of expressing support for Palestinian rights because of the McCarthyite tactics of secret organizations like Canary Mission, which blacklists those who publicly dare to support boycotts against Israel, jeopardizing their employment prospects and future careers.<\/span><\/p>\n Alexander all but outs herself as a PEP, Progressive Except Palestine. \u00a0Here is a\u00a0principled person who has done groundbreaking work on human rights and anti-racism, and she is revealing that one of the reasons she keeps quiet is because she wants to protect her ability to participate in the mainstream discussion, to write about racism in the U.S. without being smeared and attacked.<\/span><\/p>\n This is an open secret that everyone knows: if you speak up for Palestinian human rights, your character will be assassinated. That is a very fair description of the mainstream landscape, surveilled by the likes of Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss of the New York Times<\/em>, and Abe Foxman and Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL (Just ask Paul Krugman, who has rationalized his own silence on this issue on that basis).<\/span><\/p>\n Alexander also describes the very-productive struggle of the left here. She makes clear that she has broken her own silence thanks to Jewish Voice for Peace and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in the Congress.\u00a0And no matter what you think about identity politics, it must be emphasized that just as queer rights organizing fostered the growth of Jewish Voice for Peace as one-time outliers in the Jewish community, the ascendancy of women of color into positions of real power<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0at last has helped break the ice on Palestine.<\/span><\/p>\n Alexander summarizes the growth of the boycott movement in the US:<\/span><\/p>\n Even in Congress, change is on the horizon. For the first time, two sitting members, Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan,\u00a0publicly support<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. In 2017, Representative Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota, introduced a resolution to ensure that no U.S. military aid went to support Israel\u2019s juvenile military detention system. Israel regularly prosecutes Palestinian children detainees in the occupied territories in military court.<\/span><\/p>\n That paragraph puts TREMENDOUS pressure on liberal Zionists (including well-meaning people like another New York Times<\/em> columnist, Roger Cohen, and J Street), to come out for McCollum\u2019s important legislation. If you can\u2019t support removing US aid for the detention of children, what do you stand for? \u00a0Alexander\u2019s long, persuasive article will put pressure on all progressives to end their silence about human rights abuses in Palestine backed by the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n