There’s a lot to cover this week as the colonial strongarm seems to be frantically grasping at straws while their narrative unravels for the world to see. I’ll do my best to see the forest amidst the trees.

I’d like to give as little airtime as possible to the Iranian attack on Israeli military infrastructure in occupied Palestine last weekend. It certainly should not be minimized as it was a horrifying experience for those of us in Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine who were up all night to the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted mid-flight. But the dominant voices continue to uphold embarrassingly obvious double standards, where Brown and Muslim actors are immediately demonized as violent terrorists. In contrast, white Western actors are praised and honoured for acts of violence that somehow are not considered violent coming from them. Israel has carried out several attacks against Iran over the years, in a slow burn of provocation and in complete disregard for regional sovereignty and international law, and yet not once have they been held accountable. It’s maddening.

Instead, I’d like to spend time today to honour the tears of Palestinian representative to the UN Ziad Abu Amr and others in the room after the US vetoed a decision to grant Palestine full membership in the United Nations yesterday. Abu Amr made sure to be clear, “The Palestinian people have not lost their humanity. All Palestinian people, wherever they are, want to live and cling to life. You must treat them with fairness.” 

I also want to honour the students of Columbia University who camped out for over 34 hours in a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on campus, demanding the school divest from companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid and genocide. Thousands stood in solidarity while New York police violently dispersed the crowds and arrested over 100 students for peacefully occupying the campus lawn. The Columbia administration has also suspended three students, leaving them without housing, food, or medical coverage. 

At the same time, employees at Google staged a sit-in at New York and San Francisco offices to protest the tech giant’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military. Twenty-eight Google employees were fired for their actions. “In the three years that we have been organizing against Project Nimbus, we have yet to hear from a single executive about our concerns,” stated the No Tech for Apartheid campaigners. “Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labour. These firings were clearly retaliatory.” 

And we at CPT honour and thank the hundreds of people who shut down rail lines in Toronto to disrupt US-Canada freight that transports arms to Israel. The action in Toronto on Tuesday was part of a coordinated country-wide escalation to blockade rail, road, and port arteries as well as weapons manufacturers and Canadian government offices this week.

As Palestinian-US activist and human rights attorney Noura Erakat said in an interview this week, “Justice will come through people. Some of the most racist regimes were meticulous in their legal systems… I have never seen a more hopeful future than I have in the way that Palestinians in Gaza have cared for one another and have shown us what humanity is.”