#03 First They Came for the Palestinians
Repression is escalating in the US.
But panic and shock — the white bourgeoisie’s official sport — are not useful. Neither is blaming those who colluded with the genocide and persecution of pro-Palestinians. Although absolutely justified, blame won’t make a political difference.
To resist these distractions, it’s crucial to tame the supremacist arrogance of the liberal elites. The fascist steps they’re now anticipating have been trampling our Palestinian, Black, and Latin lives for decades. If they pause to listen for once, they may learn something.
The infamous poem “First They Came” is often viewed as an apologetic confession of guilt. But it can also be read as a sober description of the fascist algorithm.
The order of its verses reflects how such regimes always begin: eliminating the most active radical political opposition before gradually moving on to attack those without political affiliation.
It comes in waves, like the stock market graphs they worship: arbitrarily attacking wider circles, marking high targets, intensifying terror. Groups start to question their identification and solidarity, preferring survival. In the climax of fear, the regime retreats to “compromise” and eliminates smaller groups, leaving the less-political majority trembling in relief — isolated from solidarity, conforming to authority.
The crackdown on the pro-Palestinian solidarity movement over the past decade is no coincidence. This movement — for its universality and intersectionality — is the vanguard of a broad front against the US imperial structure, the very structure enabling internal repression and the rise of potential new dictatorships.
Meanwhile, the liberal elite think they can survive by sacrificing pro-Palestinians. Many Heideggers in the making at Columbia and Harvard. A century after Max Weber’s prediction of a “polar night of icy darkness,” ICE is literally knocking on our doors.
THEY still have time. Rallying around the anti-genocide movement is the only political hope in the US today — the answer and possibility for a universal, intersectional resistance to imperialism and Trumpism. Ours is a movement of human values, clear awareness, and urgent necessity. █
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Inspire
We proudly spotlight the Sameer Project—one of the largest independent, community-led rapid response initiatives operating in Gaza. Founded by Palestinians in the diaspora and supported by a vast local network, the Sameer Project has built shelters, set up medical stations, and distributed essential supplies including food, water, diapers, and formula. Among its many efforts is the Refaat Al Areer Refugee Camp, which serves some of Gaza’s most vulnerable families: women with high-risk pregnancies or newborns, children with disabilities, adults with special needs or mobility challenges, and people with war injuries or chronic illnesses. “Our ethos,” the project states, “is to promote resilience, maintain dignity, and provide agency for the families we serve.”
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