Abdullah Elagha, a Palestinian activist and member of the Colorado Palestine Club, is tired of Colorado politicians dodging questions about Palestine. After trying for months to get a meeting with Rep. Diana DeGette on HR 2590 — a bill introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum in 2021 that would bar Israel from using American funds for the “military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children” — Elagha was frustrated at the representative’s refusal even to state her stance on the bill.
“They know in their heart that what’s happening is wrong,” Elagha said, shaking his head. “But you can’t go against Israeli interests because Israeli interests and U.S. interests are as intertwined as they could possibly be.”
The Colorado Palestine Club was one of several organizations that met to break bread and discuss the future of the Palestinian solidarity movement in Colorado last Sunday. Other organizations included Friends of Sabeel, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Colorado May Day Club, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Center for Freedom and Justice Colorado and the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project.
Now under the banner of the Colorado Palestine Coalition, these organizations are seeking to be a “clearinghouse for action for Palestine in the Front Range,” according to Terry Burnsed, a member of JVP, DSA, and the Colorado May Day Club. Looking forward, the coalition hopes to pressure Colorado representatives, support proposed legislation by politicians like Rep. Betty McCollum and improve education on history and current events in Palestine.
Burnsed spoke of direct political action to pressure Colorado representatives to end the training exchange program between Colorado law enforcement and Israeli military forces, coined “the deadly exchange” by JVP and which Burnsed called ”a birthright trip for cops.”
Elagha hopes to continue collaborating with indigenous organizers, drawing on the parallels of the struggle for sovereignty and autonomy between the two liberation movements. Last year, Elagha and other Palestinian community members participated in the Four Directions, All Nations March, an event organized by the Four Winds American Indian Council, as the East direction.
The two organizers agreed that one of the greatest barriers to public understanding of Israeli occupation of Palestine is the deliberate conflation of anti-zionism with anti-semitism by American politicians and media.
Elagha gets why this is so prevalent. “It’s an incredible weapon for Israel to use. Weaponizing anti-semitism is probably one of their most successful campaigns,” he said.
The charge of anti-semitism is often used by Zionists and pro-Israel entities to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel, even when said the criticism has no relation to Judaism or Jewish people. Recently, this was employed by House Republicans to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar on the basis of anti-semitism.
“As always, it is very important to distinguish opposition to Zionism and to Zionist settler-colonialism and Israeli apartheid from anti-semitism, which the various slanders and attacks against Ilhan Omar … both confuse and deliberately confuse,” explained Burnsed.
This has a particularly bitter irony for the Republican Party, as their own members have been known to dine with anti-Semites, espouse anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and place said conspiracy theorists on House committees. Rep. George Santos even falsely claimed to be descended from Holocaust survivors.
Burnsed and Elagha see this conflation as a further need for improving public awareness of Palestine, especially in Colorado. Burnsed was looking forward to March 4, when DSA will hold a “Palestine 101” educational event.
Elagha felt that, in part due to Israeli propaganda, many Coloradoans are “just not aware.” This is why taking the time to walk people through the specifics is so important. “It’s not that complicated,” he said. “One of the go-tos is that it’s a complicated issue, but it’s really not.”
