MY AUNT GAVE HER LIFE FOR THE TRUTH COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROFITING FROM GAZA GENOCIDE
April 29, 2024🕊️ “I’m here because my aunt gave her life for the cause of sharing truth with the world.” – Basil Rodriguez, referring to slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
🏫✊Basil, a Mexican Palestinian student at Columbia University, is advocating for a ceasefire and urging Columbia to divest from companies profiting from the genocide in Gaza, alongside hundreds of her classmates.
*NEVER FORGET THE ONES THAT LED THE WAY FOR US TO FOLLOW*
📝 Original content by AJ Plus: Producer Iliana Hagenah, Associate Producer Katherine Conner, Senior Producer Asiya Ahmed. Photo of Shireen Abu Akleh sourced from Al Jazeera. Trimmed & Edited by @HearsayEvidence.
#Israel #Palestine #ColumbiaProtest #ColumbiaEncampment #university #student #studentlife #shireen #shireenabuakleh #journalist #power #peoplepower #wethepeople
@tom.zreika
If you advocate for TRUTH & JUSTICE, SHARE to spread the knowledge.
#FreeGaza #PalestineSolidarity #GazaGenocide #UNRWA #EndGenocide #Palestine #ICJJustice #ceasefirenow
English Script:
Basil Rodriguez: I’m here because my aunt gave her life for the cause of sharing truth with the world, about what was happening to Palestine and calling for freedom for Palestinians. I cannot sit idly by as a student in this university, which is discussing the making profit off of the genocide. They are invested in weapons companies, and surveillance technologies, and they’re invested in the normalization of this genocide and the ongoing dehumanization against Palestinians, which paints us as worthy of death, as people who were born to die. She was wearing her press jacket. She was wearing her press helmet. They executed her by looking through the gun and shooting her in her face. No one batten an eye, no one lifted a finger. And now, with the ongoing genocide, we see this was always part of their plan, was to silence us for complete silence. They always planned to target Palestinian journalists because they are carriers of truth, who have a direct line from Palestinian voices to the world. And immediately after she was killed, my whole family mobilized for liberation, for justice, whatever that could look like. She even was a U.S. citizen, so my cousins, all of us were reaching out to this government, the U.S. government. My aunt has completely inspired me. My cousins have completely inspired me. And they are journalists now, putting everything at risk, their own lives. For Palestinian journalists, that’s a life or death practice. We are holding our ground just as Palestinians are holding their ground. We are looking to our ancestors, the voices of truth that have come before us. We will not be moved until the school divests. And this is the bare minimum. We could be demanding so much more literally, so much more beyond divestment. All we want is that they stop profiting off of the death and desecration of Palestinian people, Palestinian humans who are just as human as the next. I believe that this will come and we will be victorious.
