Reflections of Participants in the March 10 Protest in Teaneck NJ Against the Sale of Land and Property Rightfully Owned by Palestinians
The protest of the attempt to proffer the sale of illegally claimed property seized usually through threats and violence by Israeli settler gangsters from Palestinian families is receiving coverage from international press and the articles are putting the issue in the proper context and documenting the criminality of the land deals that were protested. The tremendous achievement of the NJ efforts to communicate this issue to the entire planet is something to be pondered – we do not need to move on from March 10 and this achievement immediately. We still need to keep organizing all of the protests – but we also need to linger here to make sure we realize the full potential to of what we can build on top of this victory. As part of this process FightBackBetter is reaching out to participants in the March 10 event to ask for brief reflections. We got two so far and we are rerunning a 3rd from North Jesey Jewish Voices for Peace linking to their Insta statement. I am hoping that more folks offer their commentary and we will add it to this report.
This is a reflection of one of the coordinators of the Teaneck High School students who was instrumental in leading multiple protest events at the high school and in town:
I’m so glad there was a big turnout at the march! This real estate event is illegal and should never be allowed, the fact that Teaneck—the town I grew up in—is allowing this event is so disappointing. Especially since thousands of people have been protesting and attempting to get it shut down. We will not stay silent while stolen Palestinian land is being sold right here in Teaneck.
Another student of Teaneck public schools offered:
“Although the rally was great, it was really upsetting that we had to have a whole protest in the first place against selling stolen land. That is not right and it shouldn’t be argued over.”
The following is the reflection of an organizer of Path to Victory, a Monmouth County based organization
Alhumdullilah for everything. It was my first time in Teaneck to proudly show solidarity with Palestinians in an area heavy with genocide loving, funding and supporting Zionists. I realized even though they are using the oppressors handbook on false propaganda and censorship (Hitler also used the same tactics, by the way), the numbers of those on the right side of history is growing, the number of those siding with evil doers are staying low and even decreasing. Allah SWT, Al Aziz, The Almighty, is continuously opening the hearts, eyes and ears of His Creation to The Truth, Al Haqq, and Granting us strength and abilities to stand up for what is right and just on His Straight Path, despite constant media suppression and lies! Evil always falls: Pharoh fell after oppressing Jewish folks, Hitler fell after oppressing Jewish, POCs, gypsies and many others, Stalin fell after oppressing his own, as did Mussolini. Zionists like Satanyahu do this on lands they steal after slaughtering, pillaging kidnapping, holding hostage and raping the indigenous people of Palestine – they will also experience exactly what they earned from their Creator because evil never prospers, InshAllah, Amen!
The following was a nice reflection offered on Instagram by: @jvpnorthnj
We came out and took to the streets this past Sunday in Teaneck, standing strong against the blatant flouting of laws, morals, and ethics in connection to the illegal sale of West Bank property happening within Zionist communities throughout the country.
Stolen land sales in synogogues are not kosher, and those involved are a shanda (SHAME) on the Jewish people for allowing these sales to take place within a temple.
As @jewssaynotogenocide so aptly put it, protesting a synagogue for its complicity in selling stolen Palestinian land is part of all fights for justice.
Speaking out against Israeli war crimes (which INCLUDES stolen land sales) is not antisemitic and is in fact part and parcel in the fight for liberation for all.
Thank you to the @guardian for this article that features several of our own NNJ JVP members speaking loud and clear about standing up for what is right and true. Click the picture to read the article in the Guardian:
Quoting the Guardian article:
In a video that has racked up 1.9 million views since 29 February, Rich Siegel, a 65-year old Jewish resident from Teaneck condemned the planned event at a recent township council meeting. “There’s a genocide going on,” he said. “People in this community are in deep mourning … What this real estate event is going to do is it’s going to fan the flames.”
Siegel attended Sunday’s event. “I think that Zionism is Jewish supremacy and Jewish entitlement and I think that this event is an expression of that,” he told the Guardian. “It’s obscene to have an Israeli real estate event while Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
The New Jersey chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and American Muslims for Palestine have called for a federal investigation into the event, saying that it is “deeply concerning to see anyone use a house of worship to allegedly flout international law by selling off stolen land”.
. . .
Protesters on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in the last five months.
Draped in keffiyehs and Palestinian flags and joined alongside families with children and dogs, protestors chanted “Settlers, settlers, what do you say? How much land did you steal today?”
. . .
Protesters rejected charges of antisemitism. “There is a direct connection to sales like this being held here and the violence that Palestinians are facing in the West Bank,” said Adam Weissman, spokesperson for Northern New Jersey’s Jewish Voice for Peace and Teaneck for Palestine spokesperson.
“Ultimately the goal of these events is obviously to make money but the synagogues are hosting them as an ideological project with the intent of facilitating the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.”
“I’m Jewish. I’m not antisemitic,” said Stephen Shalom of Montclair, New Jersey. “Jews believe two things of relevance here. One is that thou shalt not steal and it’s not antisemitic to say that. And two, we believe in social justice so dispossession is a crime,” Shalom added.
Hala Al Ahmed, a 53-year-old resident from Boonton, New Jersey, brought what she said was her grandfather’s original Palestinian land deeds to the demonstration to “show the world that this is stolen land”, she said. “This is 150 years old,” she continued, waving yellowed pages protected behind a plastic film.
View this post on Instagram
