Justice for Awdah

Along with his cousin Eid, Awdah was invited to a number of churches, synagogues, and other event venues in the Bay Area and other US cities. Despite the fact that they had been issued travel visas, Customs and Border Patrol revoked their visas without any excuse, denied them entry, and deported them.

Just one month after the Trump administration denied Awdah from coming here to share about the extreme Israeli settler and state violence his community routinely faces, he has now been murdered by that very same violence.

There are no words to describe our outrage and devastation at the killing of Awdah. There is no clearer indication of the willful complicity of the U.S. government in the wanton slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond. We have spent nearly two years raising the alarm about the genocidal intentions of the Israeli state and have been met with silence, censorship, and condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike.

The right-wing and pro-Israel attacks on ethnic studies and Palestine in schools, the systematic denial of the pervasiveness of anti-Palestinian racism, and the criminalization and repression of pro-Palestine activism have led us to this moment. The dehumanization of our people and their struggle for freedom, the policing of our language and slogans, and the frenetic attacks on any criticism of Israel, have led us to this moment. Palestinians in the U.S. continue to face violence, repression, criminalization, and deportation. Palestinians in the West Bank continue to be murdered with impunity. And our people in Gaza continue to be bombed and starved to death.

This status quo is intolerable. We demand our elected officials unequivocally condemn Awdah’s murder, and take swift and bold action to end the ongoing U.S. aid to Israel that armed Awdah’s killers and continues to fuel the starvation and genocide of Palestinians. We demand an end to the censorship and attack on Palestine in our schools and workplaces. Awdah’s murder was senseless, horrific, and utterly preventable. It is the story of countless numbers of our brethren. Let us stop this madness before it claims another ten thousand Awdahs.