I campaign against Israeli apartheid as it’s the basic moral floor: Jewish activist

By Press TV Website

More than a hundred activists, mostly Jews, were arrested by police in New York on Saturday after they demonstrated against the Israeli bombardment and blockade in the besieged Gaza Strip.

One of them was Rafael Shimunov, a prominent Jewish activist, who is a board alumnus of Jews of Color and a caucus member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JEREJ Action).

Shimunov and others took to the streets of New York to condemn the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip and specifically called out the US government to stop aiding the massacre of Palestinians.

They were released hours after being arrested, with Shimunov posting on X (formerly Twitter) that everyone was “safe and sound” and continued to call for “Free Palestine.”

In a brief conversation with the Press TV website, the New York-based activist, who is a radio host as well, said he campaigns against the occupation and apartheid “because it is the basic moral floor.”

“I see my name, our religion, and our ancestors being grotesquely transfigured from a story of moral survival against all odds to one of moral cowardice against all innocents,” he stated.

The protesters specifically called on Senator Chuck Schumer, a senior senator from New York and the US Senate Majority Leader, to “act now” and say “not to Gaza genocide.”

It came as tens of thousands of people were forced by the Israeli regime to leave their homes in the northern part of Gaza and move to the southern part of the coastal strip and then bombed on the way.

Shooting the messenger: Palestinian journalists targeted, killed in Israeli blitz

Amid the Israeli regime’s indiscriminate air blitz in the besieged Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon in past one week, at least 11 Palestinian journalists have been targeted and killed.

Hospitals in Gaza are teeming with wounded and mortuaries are full of dead bodies as Israeli warplanes continue to pound the densely-populated civilian areas, killing mostly children and women.

Shimunov told the Press TV website that it “is not a question of Jewish vs Muslim or Palestinian survival but “all of our survivals are bound up and part of each other.”

“Ask any child on the street before we make them unlearn morals and justice. There is nothing fancy or complicated about standing with each other on a basic human level. It is the very basic core of any civilization,” he remarked, urging worldwide solidarity for the Palestinian cause.

“This isn’t a question of Jewish vs Muslim or Palestinian survival. All of our survivals are bound up and part of each other. Not only just morally. But mathematically. There is no chance to survive unless we maintain our global multi-ethnic multi-faith majority against the rise of far-right nationalism.”

JEREJ Action, one of the organizers of the New York demonstration, called for an end to the Gaza genocide.

“Last night on Shabbat, JFREJ joined thousands of Jewish NYers—in our communal grief & fear—to demand CeasefireNOW. No genocide in our name. At least 60, including JFREJers, elders, rabbis, & elected officials, were arrested in front of @senschumer's home to demand his support.”

In another post on X, the Jewish body said after anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian violence, “JFREJ stood today with our siblings @ArabAmericanNY (as they stood with us before) providing solidarity safety teams as they trained their members in hate crime safety and prevention.”

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