As a Palestinian-American father, educator and Somerville resident, I want to thank my Somerville community for getting Question 3 on the ballot.
I want to say thank you to my Somerville Educators Union, who endorsed Question 3, because we teachers know that the children of Palestine are our children, too.
I want to say thank you to those who will vote YES on Question 3 on November 4th.
I want to say thank you for this brave show of solidarity, in the face of attacks, silencing, fear mongering and racist lies. We reject these obfuscations, falsehoods and accusations as nothing more than what they are: a shameful support for the continued oppression of the Palestinian people.
Palestinians have been calling for a boycott of the companies that sustain the Israeli government’s genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation of the Palestinian people for 40 years.
Somerville Educators Union heeded that call, and voted to endorse Question 3, because we understand that our silence is complicity, especially when our tax dollars go to funding the oppression of the Palestinian people.
Our students, the young people who look to us for guidance, need to see us enact our stated morals and beliefs, and stand up bravely against the oppression of Palestinians.
The endorsement of Question 3 by the SEU means so much, not just to our Muslim and Arab students and families, but to all the young people in Somerville Public Schools, who look to the adults for guidance on the horrible injustice we have all been witnessing.
We must strive to show the youth that when there is an injury to humanity, we must stand up against it, because it is an injury to all of us.
We will use a boycott because it works. South Africa’s apartheid regime was dismantled because companies, feeling the pressure from consumers, refused to invest in or support it any longer. Young people at Somerville High School learn about this in history class.
At the same time, students in Somerville are using Hewlett Packard laptops, bought by the school district, with our tax dollars, and this business arrangement directly contributes to the continued oppression of the Palestinian people. HP supplies the materials and infrastructure used to enforce an Apartheid system, and second class status, on Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.
