Asian American Community Members Confront Gov. & Tammy Murphy Over NJ Ties to Genocidal Israeli Regime and Lack of Support for Cease Fire
This story has broken in the paywalled NJ dot com site at this link.
Per @amp_newjersey
During Lunar New Year celebrations at the Governor’s Mansion in Princeton, Asian American activists confronted New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on disbanding the New Jersey-Israeli State Commission. The Commission’s goal includes strengthening economic ties between NJ and Israel and is responsible for $1.72 Billion USD in bilateral trade.
Activists confronted First Lady Tammy Murphy, who is campaigning for U.S. Senate nomination of the Democratic Party in June in hopes of running this fall and has evaded ceasefire calls for months as Gazan death tolls have skyrocketed. Not shown in the video, but Tammy Murphy attempted to grab the phones off of one of the activists who was recording the confrontation.
New Jersey is home to the second largest Arab population in the country where all levels of government have failed to acknowledge the intimate deaths in this state, the rising numbers in Islamophobic hate crimes, or the moral duty to cease all economic, academic and cultural activities with any Zionist related work in solidarity with Palestinians.
#LunarNewYear #AllEyesOnRafah #SuperBowl2024
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELESAE:
For Immediate Release Contact: Tea Burns
February 13, 2024 (347) 841-6721
News Release
Asian Americans Disrupt Murphys’ Lunar New Year Party
Demand Gov Phil Disband NJ-Israel Commission, Condemn Senate Candidate Tammy’s Apathy for Palestinian Suffering As Israel Commits War Crimes in Southern Gaza
VIDEO, STATEMENT AT HTTP://TINYURL.COM/MURPHYPALESTINE
PRINCETON, NJ — On Monday, February 12, 2024, Asian Amercans attending Governor Phil Murphy’s Lunar New Year celebration were violently removed as they loudly urged Governor Murphy to disband the New Jersey-Israel Commission and his wife, Senate candidate Tammy Murphy, who has not called for ceasefire in Gaza after months of evasion, to address Palestinians in New Jersey. The Asian community members politely explained Israel’s bombing in Rafah while the US was distracted by the Super Bowl. Amnesty International has described the bombing of Rafah, the city Palestinians were told by Israel was a safe zone they could flee to, as illegal under international law.. Murphy responded dismissively, refusing to disband the commission and his aides physically blocked the community members from the governor as he walked away. Thereafter the pro-Palestine attendees raise their voices so they could be heard by the governor and were dragged out of the event by security, denouncing the governor’s active participation in genocide in Gaza as they were removed.
According to one of the community members who was removed, “As of February 12th, over 28,000+ Palestinians have been murdered since October 7. To stand by and do nothing is to sign onto their deaths. Asian Americans are insulted by this superficial celebration of Lunar New Year while Gov. Murphy continues playing an active role in the genocide of Palestinians. I refuse to have the governor use our cultural heritage to boost his public image and Tammy Murphy’s genocidal Senate campaign while simultaneously constructing material gains for Zionism in New Jersey. This Lunar New Year will be forever stained with genocide by American hands.”
The following is an excerpt from a statement released by the community members who were removed (available in full at the link above):
“As members of the Asian diaspora – many of whom were forcibly/coercively displaced – we are living on Occupied Lenape land in an illegal settlement that is funding the occupation of an Indigenous people in Western Asia. It is because of the shared, living histories of colonization, imperialism, and displacement evoked by a radical understanding of Asian American identity that we reject the normalization of all kinds of occupation and genocide. Governor Murphy proudly claims New Jersey as the sister state to Israel, as seen in the continued and unchecked work of the New Jersey-Israel Commission. According to the Commission’s most recent annual report, the bilateral trade volume rose to $1.72B in 2022 between NJ and Israel. The Commission is one of the many formal avenues through which NJ legally profits from genocide and death through the maintainenance of the state of Israel.
While Gov. Murphy touts the recognition for being an ‘ally’ to Asian American diaspora, he is purposefully participating in the genocide of Palestine in West Asia – the blood of countless Palestinians are on his hands. Gov. Murphy himself was welcomed into the Islamic Center of Passaic County, only to support the killing of over 700+ of the Center’s family members. Gov. Murphy’s actions are not an anomaly; politicians stand for nothing other than the continued establishment of the so-called “united states,” built off of blood money and sustained by bombs. He comes from a long lineage of feeding empty promises to some people while stepping on the necks of others. Liberal ‘diversity parties,’ like the one held in Princeton, have proliferated to boost electoral careers while our siblings are being murdered by the very elected officials claiming to stand with us.
We refuse to have our Asian identities reduced to only food and dances. We instead chose to honor our ancestors, who militantly resisted against imperialism, by continuing the struggle—generation after generation until total liberation. For those of us in the diaspora who recognize the Lunar New Year, we see our steadfast commitment to aiding and abetting Palestinian Liberation as a necessity to our celebration of the new year. The party held at the so-called governor’s mansion is nothing more than a performative and reductive signal intending to placate Asian diaspora and contribute to manufactured consent of genocide.”
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Asian American Activists Confront Gov. & Tammy Murphy Over NJ Ties to Genocidal Israeli Regime – Tammy Reportedly Physically Tried to Grab Phone of a Recorder of Encounter! Keep Your Hands To Yourself Tammy!https://t.co/e9sgvq7zvo pic.twitter.com/kP3esFZPUl
— FightBackBetter (@fightbackbettr) February 13, 2024
Asian Americans Disrupt Murphys’ Lunar New Year Party https://t.co/Tohvl98ymx via @YouTube https://t.co/e9sgvq7zvo
— FightBackBetter (@fightbackbettr) February 14, 2024
ADDENDUM Info on the New Jersey-Israel Commission
1989 Brochure when the NJ-Israel Commission was first founded
Commission Website on New Jersey-Israel Relations
“In 2019, the value of bilateral trade between New Jersey and Israel was valued at $1.27B and Israel has continued to be a notable source of job creation and foreign direct investment into New Jersey.”
According to U.S. Census data, New Jersey retains the fourth largest populations of people born in Israel and those having Israeli ancestry in the United States.
2022-2023 Public Annual Report from Commission
