Elijah Kahlenberg, a Jewish-American student who took part in the pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Texas at Austin, said he believes Israel’s actions in Gaza “do constitute genocide”.
The 21-year-old told Al Jazeera: “In most Jewish education when it comes to Palestinians, you’re not told about 1948. You’re not told about the Nakba. You’re typically told sometimes outright racist things about Arabs and Palestinians. I began a process of unpacking a lot of what I was told in Hebrew school, but also engaging with Palestinians and the conclusion I came to is that Palestinian culture is more similar to my culture than to any other culture in the world.”
He said that speaking out on behalf of Palestinians is not anti-Semitic.
“I’ve personally dealt with a lot of accusations that I’m either a self-hating Jew, and even worse, some have called me a Kapo, which is a Jew sellout of fellow Jews to the Nazis, all for the stances I’ve taken for my Palestinian brothers and sisters. And that’s personally very hurtful to me. I lost family in the Holocaust. But it doesn’t stop me. I understand what I’m doing is just. I am standing with my Palestinian brothers and sisters for a very noble cause. And I view them as my family.”
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