Teach-in slams attacks on Muslims

More than 200 students and community supporters attended a Bay Area teach-in on Palestine, U.S. wars and Islamophobia on Nov. 30, sponsored by the United National Anti-war Committee, Cal Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Student Alliance at the University of California-Berkeley and the Middle East Children’s Alliance. Held on the UC Berkeley campus, the teach-in was one of several anticipated events building toward national anti-war actions called by UNAC for April 9, 2011.

The teach-in was divided into two dynamic, information-packed panels featuring primarily student activists. Members of Students for Justice in Palestine chaired both panels. The first session, “Palestine: the struggle for liberation,” gave an historical overview of the division of the Middle East following World War I, the birth of Zionism, and the genocide and displacement of the Palestinian people.

Ziad Abbas, associate director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, put this history into perspective when he noted, “The right of return is the key to peace in the Middle East.” Nuha Masri from the Music Students Association spoke about the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel and local attempts to win support for BDS on campus.

Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley professor and member of American Muslims for Palestine, exposed the dual role of both the U.S. and Israel in whipping up Islamophobia against the people of the Middle East.

Jeff Mackler, a local leader of UNAC, called the “war on terror” another form of Islamophobia and anti-communism. He urged people to get involved in local organizing for the April 9 anti-war mobilizations that will be held on both coasts. Mackler reminded everyone that support for Palestine was voted on at the UNAC founding meeting in Albany, N.Y., and remains an important tenet of the upcoming national demonstration.

The second panel of the evening, “America’s wars, Islamophobia and the right to resist,” focused on local and international actions in support of Palestine. Dr. Masao Suzuki, a professor and member of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, talked about the FBI raids and grand jury witch-hunt of anti-war activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. Suzuki himself was visited by the FBI, refused to talk, and has not been subpoenaed before the grand jury. He likened this recent government repression to the 1941 internment of the Japanese people and the use of Cointelpro to attempt to intimidate and destroy Black, Latino/a and Native leaders and organizations in the 1960s and 1970s.

Blanca Missé, a member of the UC Berkeley Student Workers Action Team, linked the fight against budget cuts and for accessible public education with the anti-war struggle. “We have been doing a lot of talking tonight,” Missé stated at the end of the evening, “but now it’s time to build the fightback.”