"I'm here to send a clear message to the Democratic Party and the Democratic candidates for office this fall that the people will no longer support unconditional aiding and abetting of genocide, and we stand for a complete arms embargo on Israel, sanctions, end of U.S. aid to Israel, and a permanent and immediate ceasefire."
Question: "What do you say to people who say, 'Well, you're gonna get Trump elected?'"
"That's a form of emotional blackmail. This is the rhetoric of abusers, right, that we say, 'Oh, well, you don't like one thing, well, what are you going to think of the other guy?' And I think that this is an unsustainable system and I'm actually looking out for the sustainability of our country in years to come. Because if we continue to tell ourselves that we're stuck between the healthier of Pepsi and Coke, we will only have the healthier between Pepsi and Coke.
"But if we don't threaten a vote, if we don't say, 'no arms embargo, no vote, no sanctions, no vote,' we will never be able to leverage any real political accountability. And we've seen the effects of this only in just a few months, I mean, Governor Wals got up right after the Minnesota primaries on CNN and he said openly, that was the first time he said the situation in Gaza is intolerable. He hadn't said a word about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and what prompted him to do so was that one in five Minnesota Democrats voted uncommitted. Because of a one week, grassroots movement to get people to vote uncommitted.
"Now think about how far we will go if we can leverage more civic momentum if it's not just a one week long movement in which voters across the board are rising up and saying, 'We will no longer vote for this just because it's better than the other guy - that is not going to be our standard anymore.' And when we tell ourselves that that is our standard we will only be stuck in this bind between two options and in years and years to come our children and grandchildren will be told that they have to vote Democrat they will have to vote for unconditional Zionism just because it's not as Zionist as the other guy. Slaughter, but better slaughter. Slaughter, but more effective slaughter."
Question: Does the Tim Wals selection as VP make you want to change your mind?
"This is short-sightedness, and actually this is blindness towards Wals's history of policies towards Israel and towards the Palestinian people and his Palestinian constituents. So I am from the state of Minnesota, actually, and I am a leader in the Minnesota community, and I was actually just part of a delegation of Minnesota Palestinian families that had a meeting canceled on the spot (with Wals), like literally two minutes before it was supposed to happen, as we were seated in the room, after ten months of Wals refusing to meet with Palestinian constituents. But, on the flip side, he right away rushed to synagogues and Stand With Israel rallies fight after October 7. So I'm living proof of how Wals treats his Palestinian constituents, and that is that he turns a blind eye to them. He doesn't treat them with respect at all. He treats them as subhuman. But also, if you look at it materially, Wals sits on the Minnesota State Board of Investments, which invests over $157 million in Israeli companies, and that's just Israeli companies, $157 million of state pensions in Israeli companies. That doesn't include, by the way, weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, like Boeing, like security companies like Elbit, etc. that are also complicit in violence against the people of Gaza.
"So he is investing Minnesota money in the Military Industrial Complex. He is also funded (sic) a $1.3 million Minnesota state taxpayer subsidized grant, funded by Minnesota taxpayer money, a grant to construct a Lockheed Martin facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he called that good news from Minnesota. He has a history of being a friend to war, a friend of slaughter, of the Palestinian people, and we ought to not turn a blind eye to it."
-----Sana Wazwaz, American Muslims For Palestine, Minnesota
Source:
Due Dissidence, "Ceasefire Activist Gives BRILLIANT Interview at DNC Protest," August 20, 2024
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