The advisory referendum is our opportunity to undo what never should have been done by Illinois law. It is our opportunity to tell our state legislators to revoke the special privileges that Illinois has granted Israel, a nation that stands in violent defiance of any modicum of decency. Singling out Israel for protection from boycott is an extraordinary privilege that comes at our own material and political expense, erodes our moral clarity and violates every notion of what we know to be American.
Growing up Palestinian American, I understood two things. First, that the American ideals of freedom of speech and conscience, of democracy and justice, of equality and rule of law, albeit imperfectly applied, are sacred and essential to any society worth living in. And second, that these human dignities which apply to others do not apply to Palestinians. From my earliest moments of consciousness, I have understood the Palestine exception.
For as monstrous and as seismic as the past three years have been to anyone with eyes on Palestine and a shred of empathy in their hearts, there has been one reprieve: an undeniable shift in the tide of public opinion. The veil on the American public has been lifted. Those in opposition to November’s referendum are desperate to pull the wool back down over our eyes and obfuscate a genocide.
Those in opposition to the referendum and in favor of the current law claim, as they often do, that the measure discriminates against Oak Parkers who identify with Israel. “Everyone deserves to feel like they belong.” Everyone, it would appear, except Palestinians, whose very existence has been imperiled by a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing, land theft and massacre, and whose diaspora is systematically silenced when they dare to protest.
Vote Yes on this referendum. The right to boycott and divest is an essential American freedom. Exercising that right to rebuke Israeli cruelty is a moral obligation. It is long past time to end the Palestine exception.
Mariam Nawas
Oak Park
