We preview the upcoming Second Annual People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit next weekend, August 29-31, with two of the conference organizers, Tara Alami & Rama Ali Kased.
But first, two important articles have appeared, in Counterpunch and Current Afairs respectively, which have addressed the dismal question as to the actual death toll to date of Israel’s continuing & unchecked genocide in Gaza. For almost two years the mainstream or, rather, the state-sanctioned media has maintained the obscene charade of questioning the death toll released by the Gaza Ministry of Health, either by using the moniker “Hamas” to taint its numbers, though they are widely accepted by international organizations and even Israeli intelligence, or by reiterating the mantra that the ministry does not distinguish between combatants or non-combatants. This distasteful and unchanging caveat contributes to the pretense that the number of deaths in Gaza is hard to establish. But as Adam Rzepka writes in Counterpunch, “we do have a very clear idea of the minimum. … And that minimum number is indeed much higher than the Ministry’s count.”
Rzepka’s figures for the toll Israel’s genocide has taken–and these are the most conservative possible figures–are indeed horrifying: "That minimum scientifically plausible number of traumatic deaths only—immediate deaths from bullets, bombs, and demolished buildings—in the Gaza genocide is currently more than 115,000. The minimum scientifically plausible number of deaths attributable to the genocide overall is more than 460,000."
We encourage our listeners to check out these articles that cast the western media’s complicity with genocide into sharp relief. The horror that they document can lead us to feel numb and the refusal of the governments of the United States and its allies to intervene to prevent it–as is their duty under international law and the Genocide Convention–may make us feel helpless. We devote this episode to an upcoming event that not only gives hope in this darkness but also the opportunity to consolidate Palestine solidarity work in the United States and beyond and to imagine new paths forward to contest the genocide and to shape a liberated Palestine.
Next weekend, August 29-31, the Second Annual People’s Conference for Palestine will take place in Detroit, Michigan. Sponsored by an array of organizations familiar to regular listeners, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, National Students for Justice in Palestine, and many others, the conference is designed to address the current political moment and to bring together critical voices in the struggle. Given the ongoing genocide that Israel is committing, Gaza will be the focus of the conference. As the organizer’s announcement states:
Gaza is the compass! This is our guiding principle for the Second Annual People’s Conference for Palestine. Gaza keeps our path true: it reminds us of our direction in the struggle and the sacrifices that have been made by the Palestinian people; it exposes the forces that we have to contend with on the path to liberation. For this reason, Zionism and imperialism are waging a continuous genocide on Gaza, and we, the people of the world, will fight at every turn to reject it.
Today we speak with two of the organizers of the conference, Tara Alami and Rama Ali Kased, about the conference and its goals and where listeners can find further information about it.
Tara Alami is a Palestinian writer and organiser from occupied Jerusalem and occupied Yaffa, and a member of Palestinian Feminist Collective. Her writing can be found at The New Arab, Mondoweiss and The Maple among other publications.
Rama Ali Kased is Professor of Race and Resistance Studies at SF State University, and long-time organizer currently organizing with US Palestinian Community Network and also a member of the Palestine Feminist Collective.
