Minnesotans demand that Klobuchar drop all support for Israel
Minneapolis, MN – On August 28, approximately 50 protesters rallied outside Senator Amy Klobuchar's office to protest U.S. support for Israel's forced starvation of Palestinians. The rally drew much attention from onlookers on what was a day of multiple protests in the city. This action was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition (MPAC).
On August 22, the UN officially declared a famine in Gaza. In recent months, Israel's intentional starvation campaign has produced countless images of malnourished, skeletal Palestinians, shocking people around the world. In response, MPAC speakers expressed disgust at Israel's actions and at those who have contributed to the bombing and starvation, not least of which is Amy Klobuchar.
Taher Herzallah, director of outreach and community organizing for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), told the crowd, “They hope – as Smotrich stood on the pulpit and said today – that the mass murder of Palestinians, the large scale, engineered starvation of an entire population, [will] teach them a lesson so that they never rebel again. The only thing that Smotrich will accomplish, him and his government in Israel today, is to cause more people, millions and millions more people around the world and in Palestine, to hate them even more.”
This growing worldwide revulsion towards Israel has placed politicians like Amy Klobuchar under significant pressure. Klobuchar, a staunch Zionist who continues to affirm the genocidal colony's right to “defend” itself, recently gave a speech on the Senate floor where she actually criticized Israel's starvation policy. While this concession can be seen as a minor victory for the pro-Palestine movement, Trent Fast, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), made it plain that Minnesotans are not taken in by empty posturing, stating, “Where was this outrage when you were posing and smiling with Netanyahu not a week before your speech to the senate?”
CeCe Maves, another AWC organizer, gave an agonizingly detailed description of the effects of starvation on the human body stating, “Starvation can cause permanent brain damage and, with children under the age of two, severely alter brain development. The psychological impacts of this will be seen for years to come.”
Nadiyeh Salawdeh of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network closed out the event by stating, “Like all liberal Zionists, Amy Klobuchar is doing all that she can to extend the life of the collapsing U.S. empire and its proxy in Israel. She wants to redeem the irredeemable. The world sees the fascist entities for what they are, and they see you as a foot soldier for genocide. You can no longer hide. It is our job to make sure that people like Amy Klobuchar are always held accountable for their role in genocide.”