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Missouri activist hopes to open American eyes to injustices experienced by Palestinians • Missouri Independent [1]

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Date: 2025-08-21

Palestinians strive to practice “sumud,” Arabic for steadfastness in reference to their dignified, nonviolent resistance to Israel’s occupation of their ancestral lands over the past many decades.

Their resolve to remain is being tested as never before as Israeli military forces slaughter and starve the people of Gaza. Their perseverance and humanity merit expanded global activism, particularly by the public domestically since the United States is Israel’s chief enabler.

Bob Suberi of St. Louis is among the millions of people protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Suberi is the son of Jewish-Palestinian immigrants to the United States, a Vietnam veteran and president of the local Veterans for Peace chapter. Last month, he was part of the 21-member international crew of the Handala, the latest vessel that sailed attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver medicine, baby formula and other humanitarian supplies.

Israeli naval commandos intercepted the ship in international waters on July 27 and abducted its crew, as others had done in response to nearly all the other 36 vessels launched by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and allied groups since 2008. Only five ships have reached Gaza’s shores.

All the journeys were protesting Israel’s blockadeimposed 18 years ago that controls all movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza by land, air and sea. Israeli officials released Suberi and the other members of the Handala‘s crew over the next few days, deporting most to their home countries.

Suberi, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, instead travelled to the West Bank to continue “doing protective-presence” work he says he has done since 2019 with Palestinians targeted by Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers.

It’s heart-breaking to fathom the horrors Palestinians have endured, particularly in Gaza.

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 60,000 people, including 18,000 children; wounded more than 100,000 individuals; killed at least 184 journalists and media workers; destroyed all 12 of Gaza’s universities; destroyed about 70% of its infrastructure; and damaged or razed 16 cemeteries.

The famine threatens the lives of approximately two million Palestinians in Gaza. As of Aug. 12, health officials report that at least 227 Palestinians, including 100 children, have starved to death due to the continuing blockade.

While 6,000 trucks are waiting at the border to enter Gaza, the United Nations reports, Israel on average has allowed just 85 in each day. Aid groups insist at least 600 trucks should enter daily to meet the peoples’ needs and halt the burgeoning catastrophe.

Israel has been able to behave with criminal impunity particularly due to bipartisan U.S. backing and diplomatic cover.

Israel received over $174 billion in U.S. assistance since its founding in 1948, more than any other nation. Our government, furthermore, provided at least $23 billion more in military aid to Israel from October 2023 to last September. In June, the U.S. cast the lone “no” vote, vetoing a UN Security Council resolution demanding an Israel-Hamas ceasefire. It marked the 50th time our country vetoed a Council measure on Israel.

“If Israel’s genocide against Palestinians is going to be stopped,” Suberi said in a recent phone interview from the West Bank, “it will be by civil society.”

Trump signaled his acceptance of the war’s expansion, responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Aug. 7 that the Israeli military would force the evacuation of a million Palestinians from Gaza City despite adamant international opposition.

Months ago, the Trump administration embraced Israel’s proposed U.S.-financed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to replace the effective UN network of 400 food-distribution sites across the Gaza Strip shut down by Israel. Instead, it opened just four militarized collection sites where Israeli soldiers and U.S. mercenaries have killed more than 1,800 Palestinians trying to collect food.

Suberi has traveled annually, since 2019, to Masafer Yatta, an area of villages in the West Bank. Hours after he was released from Israeli custody last month, Suberi received what proved to be a haunting call from Awdah al-Hathaleen, a friend who was instrumental in the making of “No Other Land,” the Academy-Award-winning documentary,

“Come tonight,” Suberi recalls al-Hathaleen urging him.

Too tired and hungry to travel immediately to visit his friend’s home in the village of Um al-Kheir, Suberi said he’d journey there the next day. Their reunion never occurred, however.

The following day, al-Hathaleen, a peace activist and father of three, was documenting Jewish settlers expanding their nearby settlement (all approximately 150 are recognized internationally as being illegal). A notorious settler Yinon Levi was overseeing the unwelcome excavation of ground near a village structure. Brandishing a pistol, Levi fatally shot al-Hathaleen, who was filming the encounter. The Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem recently released a recording and report of the shooting.

Levi was initially detained by Israeli officials, put on house arrest and then set free. He was charged with no crime. Two days later he returned to the crime scene, overseeing more excavating. Levin also pointed out to soldiers seven Palestinians he claimed had threatened settlers, leading to their arrests. All were released days later after posting bail.

Suberi considers himself a “recovered Zionist.” Until 15 years ago, he believed the central tenet of Zionism, that “God gave Jews the land” for a greater Israel where Palestinians had no right to dwell.

Then he traveled to the West Bank and began to realize the humanity of the Palestinian people and the injustices they experience.

May enough people of conscience in Missouri and beyond both recognize the right of Palestinians to exist and exercise steadfastness of their own to nonviolently compel our government to publicly condemn and end the bipartisan, uncritical support for Israel, and consequently, its genocide of our Palestinian kin.

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[1] Url: https://missouriindependent.com/2025/08/21/missouri-activist-hopes-to-open-american-eyes-to-injustices-experienced-by-palestinians/

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