Two years ago, on the first anniversary of October 7, I spoke at the Palestina komiteens demonstration. I said what Hamas militants had done was to break out of a prison that for 76 years held captive not just their generation, but their parents’ generation and their grandparents’ generation.
The Hamas attack was horrible, yes, but it revealed to the world the true face of zionism. The face that Palestinians had seen all along but suffered all alone. Now, two years later and three years into the genocide, here we are again.
Yes, there are other struggles, but Palestine remains the epicentre of the struggle for global liberation. And Gaza remains the beating heart of Palestine. Gaza is not just a demonstration of how far our leaders will go, Gaza is a test to see how far we will let them go.
Three years of genocide shows we have failed that test.
Today I speak on behalf of IJAN, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. IJAN stands in unwavering solidarity with Palestinian resistance and defends the right of Palestinians to resist on their own terms.
Sitting in a Birmingham jail in 1963, Martin Luther King jr wrote a letter, now famous, in which he stated that the black man’s greatest enemy was not the white supremacist but, “the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”
Who can speak of justice in a time of genocide?
Some people would blame the victims. And we have a long list of victim blamers – made longer now by people who should know better. People who used to know better. People who stood with us the last two years but are not here today. For some reason today has suddenly become too controversial.
Why?
Nothing has changed, except perhaps the career prospects of those who would use Palestine for their own ends. But this is only to be expected in Norway, a country which pretends to love Palestine, but loves more the profit from its genocide.
The question is: Does this day belong to the colonisers or the colonised?
Does this day belong to the indigenous or the zionist?
We know our political leaders are all zionists who follow the path of the Epstein class. Erna Solberg and Sylvi Listhaug may be evil, but this genocide – and Norwegian participation in it, and Norwegian profiteering from it – is with Arbeiderparti, SV and Rødt at the top.
They claim to stand with Palestine while they fight amongst themselves to support a government of war criminals. They all support Israel and always have, if not in word, then in deed – and that deed has now become 3 years of genocide.
And then we have our so-called movement leaders. They tell us that BDS is important, but a music festival owned by zionists is more important. We could have had our Mackelmore moment, but it seems that boycott is good, unless it is inconvenient.
And the oil fund. We celebrate the removal of a few Israeli companies because our movement leaders tell us this is a victory. But when the government shuts down the oil fund ethics council, our movement leaders are silent. And we are silent as we profit from every Palestinian killed.
In reality, we no longer own the oil fund, the oil fund owns us. The truth is, we are the white moderates – We are the good Germans.
Some here still believe the lie that Germany was de-nazified. The truth is that, for the most part, the nazis were rewarded in Europe and the holocaust never ended – it was only exported to Palestine. This is why it continues to this day, two sides of the same genocide.
The anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful community citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
In this we must remember that true Judaism, like true Islam, teaches the force of example while zionism, like nazism, teaches the example of force. And if we are to follow the precepts of our own religions we must set the example.
Yes, it feels good to yell at Netanyahu and Trump. Week after week. Rinse and repeat. But if we want justice – we must set the example of justice. And the example we must set is to send our leaders — Støre, Barth Eide and St Stoltenberg — to the Hauge.
Thanks to the work of the ICJ, our current government officials have been required since 2024 to take all steps to prevent the genocide and to this day they have taken none. And it is not enough that the oil fund be taken out of Israel – the oil fund must be put into Palestine. Not as investment but as reparation.
Yes, it is too late to prevent this genocide – but if we set the example, we can take the first step to end the European-American pattern of settler colonialism once and for all. And we must start right here and we must start right now.
Free Palestine!