by Eldad Beck
The annexation of American history is the latest in the Palestinian takeover of U.S. protest movements on various issues
The U.S. celebrated Columbus Day on Monday,
a national holiday honoring the explorer who 525 years ago discovered
America. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Columbus Day a
national holiday 80 years ago, at a time when U.S. morale needed a shot
in the arm to help it through one of the toughest times in its history.
In recent years, organizations that fight for recognition of the right
of America's indigenous peoples, whom the Europeans killed methodically
after they discovered the "new continent," are demanding – with the
backing of the liberal Left – that the name of Columbus Day be changed
to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."
The Palestinians and their supporters on
the Left have latched on to this struggle. These past few days, college
campuses have hosted conferences and marches put on by activists from
Students for Justice for Palestine under the slogan "Decolonize Columbus
Day."
Calling on people to participate in these
events, organizers wrote: "As kids we learn that Christopher Columbus
discovered America. History shows that not only is this false, but there
is nothing worth celebrating about him. Columbus killed, enslaved, and
tortured the native americans (sic) that helped him and his crew."
The great minds then go on to link Columbus
to the present day: "Israel is currently committing such violence
against the indigenous people of Palestine. Families are rebrutalized on
a regular basis as Israel continues to systematically expel and
ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homeland, as they have for
the past 70 years."
Last year, as part of a protest against
Columbus Day, the activist website ThinkProgress published an article by
Lebanese-American journalist Justin Salhani titled "The struggle for
indigenous rights extends to Palestine."
"Much as the Native Americans view Columbus
Day, the Palestinian people view the creation of the State of Israel, a
day they commemorate on May 15 each year as youm al-Nakba,
which means 'day of catastrophe' in Arabic," Salhani wrote. He might
admit to a historical Jewish presence in the land of Israel and the
Middle East, but claims that "indigenous Jews continue to suffer today,
even within the borders of Israel. Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern
descent) often face strong counts of racism from
Ashkenazi Jews (descendants of European Jews)," and it's obvious that
Palestinian children's suffering should be thrown into the mix.
The annexation of American history is the
latest in the Palestinian takeover of U.S. protest movements on various
issues: Linda Sarsour, for example, became the official spokeswoman of
women's groups when she created a unique link between feminism and
Islamism in the name of fighting racism. Sarsour, a native of Brooklyn
who led the so-called Women's March on Inauguration Day, also became one
of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter protest movement, whose
official colors have become black, white, red and green – the colors of
the Palestinian flag.
Israel can't ignore this growing trend of
Palestinians' co-opting the narratives of minorities in American
society, especially in light of the fact that the anti-colonialist and
anti-imperialist dialogue ignores the fact that Muslim Arabs, including
the Palestinians, were and are a colonialist phenomenon, not victims of
history, even if for a short period of their existence they were under
colonial rule.
Eldad Beck
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/columbus-in-palestine/
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