Sovereign People's Light

BREAKING: Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants the International Criminal Court to be shut down immediately due to corruption.

“ZIONISM IS A BRUTAL RACIST IDEOLOGY” -Vanessa Redgrave said this 48 years ago when people did not even know how to spell the word. Her career was sacrificed for the truth.

🇵🇸 Le Moyne College President Tells Genocide Survivor He Cannot Use the Word “Genocide.” Le Moyne College, a Jesuit institution in Syracuse, New York, sent a letter to students this week condemning the language used by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha during an April 15 guest lecture — specifically his use of the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. President Linda LeMura, without naming him, wrote that the word caused “real hurt” to Jewish students and implied its use was incompatible with the college’s commitment to inclusion. She then listed her commitments going forward: dialogue sessions, new guidelines for “deeply charged” campus programming, and a declaration that antisemitism has no place at Le Moyne — describing Abu Toha’s testimony, implicitly, as an example of bigotry requiring institutional guardrails. Abu Toha, who survived Israeli strikes in Gaza, lost over 100 relatives—most of them children—and still carries physical wounds from a 2009 airstrike, called the letter “deeply shameful.” “How dare you tell a person who survived a genocide that they cannot speak about it?” he wrote. “I never once used the word ‘Jewish’ during the entire event. I refuse to conflate the faith of Judaism with the actions of the state of Israel.” “If anyone told you they felt ‘hurt’ because I used the word genocide,” he wrote, “then I ask you: how should I feel? How should my wife feel after losing her father? How should my three children feel after losing their grandfather?“

****Statement from Mosab Abu Toha in response to LeMoyne College's President's email to students today***** This is deeply shameful. I cannot believe what I am reading. How dare you tell a person who survived a genocide that they cannot speak about it? On April 15, I had the honor of visiting and speaking at Le Moyne College. I spoke about my lived experience in Gaza, shared the family trees of those killed by Israel, and read my poems. I also played the actual recordings of Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling that I documented myself while on the ground in Gaza. This morning, the President of the college sent out an email condemning my use of the word GENOCIDE when describing these crimes. She claimed that using that word is "antisemitic." She stated that she recognized the "real hurt" that the word caused to Jewish students. Seriously? Are the crimes of the Israeli state representative of all Jewish people? I personally refuse to believe that is the case. It is utterly ridiculous to begin a letter by stating that your institution welcomes the "free exchange of ideas," only to immediately condemn a speaker, not for sharing abstract ideas, but for sharing his own life. I still carry the physical wounds of a 2009 airstrike on my neck, my forehead, and my cheek. My wife and I have lost over one hundred relatives, most of them children. Some of them have still not been buried. Who are these students you are talking about? Not a single person who identified themselves as Jewish approached me after my talk to offer condolences or acknowledge the actual crimes committed against me and my family. I never once used the word "Jewish" during the entire event; I refuse to conflate the faith of Judaism with the actions of the state of Israel. Yet, you suggest my language caused "hurt." Whoever went to your office to complain about my words should have been the first to approach the stage to show humanity and support for a survivor. It may surprise you to know that I used the word GENOCIDE to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza long before most human rights organizations, including prominent Israeli organizations, and leading Holocaust and Genocide scholars arrived at the same conclusion. I hope this fact does not "hurt" anyone even more. If anyone told you they felt "hurt" because I used the word GENOCIDE, then I ask you: how should I feel? How should my wife feel after losing her father? How should my three children feel after losing their grandfather? At a time when a GENOCIDE should be condemned, it is the survivors and those who speak out against it who are being targeted instead. SHAME!!!!!