It is commonly believed that Palestinian citizens of Israel - officially known as Arab Israelis - enjoy full equality in the Jewish State.
Most people agree that the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been occupied since 1967. Much less thought and literature is dedicated to the treatment of Palestinians living inside modern-day Israel proper. I decided to head over there and see for myself. It’s no secret that there is an occupation happening in and around Israel. And their villages are under constant threat of demolition. This has been corrected.Thousands of Arab Bedouins in Israel’s Negev desert are denied power, water, sewage, and roads by the state. This two-party system is failing us, but I plan to work through the system to change the system."Ĭorrection: A previous version of this article misspelled Aniqa Raihan's last name. "He's bad on foreign policy and domestic policy, whereas Hillary is only bad on foreign policy," Raihan said. He's built his whole campaign on hatred." "I personally am probably going to vote for Hillary, as much as I don't like it, because I believe that she is more receptive to what voters want - whereas Trump is this 'I don't apologize,' big, macho guy. "I don't see a great outcome, unfortunately," said Raihan of the 2016 election. So I think I will be begrudgingly voting for Hillary Clinton come November." "Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, is amazing, but unfortunately, with the two-party system we have, she's not a viable candidate. They are split between Stein as the ideal choice and Clinton as the practical choice. "It's going to be a really tough decision, and I'm personally horrified that my first presidential election that I'm going to be voting in I have to choose between a racist and a war hawk," Green said. Two of the presidential candidates we have are the biggest war hawks, so we'll be there for the same thing - demanding peace."Ĭode Pink does not endorse political candidates, but all three women expressed admiration for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. "These things are really terrifying for us, too. "Hillary is the biggest war hawk we know," Byers explained. "I have a lot of issues with her track record on foreign policy and hawkishness and militarism," she said.
But to her and other members of Code Pink, a Clinton presidency is also terrifying. She takes issue with Trump's ban on Muslim immigrants and his desire to build a wall along the Mexican border. He does not represent Muslim friends," said Green, a sociology major at Northeastern University, of the Republican nominee. "I could not listen to him talk about Islamist extremist terror and not say anything, so I unfurled a banner, and I shouted loud and clear to the delegation that sat below that we must be a country of love and of open arms and acceptance to communities, and that our wars are responsible for the refugee crisis that we're so averse to and that we're so unable to deal with, and if we considered what our never-ending wars are doing around the world we'd be in a much better situation," she said. I believe that women can and should be leading the effort," said Aniqa Raihan, 20, a student at George Washington University and Code Pink intern.Ĭhelsea Byers, 26, who spent part of the day protesting in a bra but no shirt, said, "Hate has a pretty large national platform right now and I believe that we need to have a voice for peace anytime there's a voice for hate."īyers was among the Code Pink protesters thrown out of the RNC convention center for interrupting former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's speech Monday night. "I believe in a progressive way to end war. A few of its members took to the streets at the RNC in Cleveland this week, dressed in pink and carrying signs that read, "Bust Up Militarism and War" and "Our Streets Are Not War Zones/Ban Assault Weapons."
They are planning to protest the leaders at both the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week to spread the message of peace, to protest domestic and international militarization, and, as 20-year-old Rebecca Green said, "hold our presidential candidates accountable - Trump and the GOP in particular, for their racist, xenophobic language."Ĭode Pink is a left-leaning women's peace organization founded in 2002 in opposition of the Iraq War. But they aren't exactly swooning over Hillary Clinton, either. The feminist women of Code Pink hate Donald Trump's racist and sexist rhetoric.