Friday, June 30— One hears the propaganda daily—"Palestinian terrorism"..."Palestinian terrorists"..."terrorist government"...it's the same propaganda that says that a Jewish supremacy state built on genocidal colonialism is a "democracy."

So of course the current rhetoric surrounding the "kidnapping" (why not capture?) of an Israeli soldier and Israeli settler—both of whom through military might and settler infrastructure make possible the continued genocide of indigenous Palestinian people—is no surprise. Similarly, the Israeli "arrests" of over 87 Palestinians throughout the West Bank—many of them members of the elected government—is not being called kidnapping. And the current aerial bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza and the incursions into the West Bank are not being called collective punishment, but rather “Israeli responses to terror.”

We hear it every day—the war criminals enforce "law" while any and all resistance to the war criminals is criminalized. It's all upside down. The level of racist arrogance and inhumanity of Israeli propaganda can only be matched by its father American propaganda. The left and the right here are indistinguishable in their parroting of this propaganda—same terms, same frame of reference. One settler invader's life will always be worth more in the court of American settler opinion than that of the millions of Palestinians who have suffered for over 70 years.

But enough. For once, let us not scream in the silence about the inhumanity of the occupier. Instead let us sing a love song to the heroes of Palestine, who in the face of over 70 years of massacres, land theft, and starvation by the colonial settler state of “Israel”—remain steadfast and strong.

What do Palestinians do when the occupier has repeatedly tried to starve them? If you are a Palestinian teacher, you do what hundreds did in the West Bank several weeks ago. You march on strike under threat of death by an Israeli sniper. But this is not the kind of strike we are used to here. In this strike, you are not asking for more money. As the American, Israeli, and European governments attempt to starve your family into submission, you instruct your government: "We can accept hunger, but not concessions" and in so doing communicate that you will not bow to racist brutality and bullying. In the face of death—the death that is colonization and occupation—you are saying, we can meet death, and we will meet it on our own terms as men and women and children.

The Palestinian resistance—the ones they call "terrorists"—had the ingenuity this past week, under absolute closure, economic strangulation, and starvation to tunnel under the ground and attack a military installation and capture an enemy soldier. They are now trying to negotiate the release of women and children Palestinian prisoners who constitute only a portion of the over 10, 000 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. Imagine the creativity, the steadfastness, the risk, and the sacrifice that is involved in carrying out such an operation to free the women and children of your movement locked in Israeli prisons. Where is the international support for such courage and selflessness in the face of so much suffering?

The Palestinian resistance—the ones they call the residents of Gaza—marched in the streets this week in the thousands telling their resistance, the occupier, and the world, that they do not want the Israeli soldier released until their political prisoners come home. With all the Israeli sonic booms, F-16 fighter planes, tanks, and the bombing of bridges and electrical plants (cutting off the water supply), the Palestinians will not bow to "Israel" as their master. Even as the occupiers imprison them in concentration camps, they will stand as free men and women do—with their heads held high.

The Palestinian resistance—the ones they call "suicide bombers"—have given the ultimate sacrifice—their lives—in service to their people—to liberate their people from the suffering that comes with colonization, the suffering that comes with the senseless death from an Israeli settler bullet or a "targeted assassination" or a bomb dropped from an Israeli fighter plane by an Israeli fighter pilot who will go back to his comfortable life without ever having to lay eyes on the lives he's destroyed. I say senseless, because it is all about greed and nothing else—greed for land, greed for power. And you, our martyrs, have fought them with honor.

We are sick of their vilification of you. If they are not calling you a “terrorist,” then they are psychologizing you—twisting an act of courage into some pathology of the mind or act of desperation. They do not see the absolute love for one's people that is implicit in such a sacrifice, the kind of giving that only people living in a true community have any understanding of. We are sick of their excuses for you. We need none. You will be remembered for who and what you are—heroes who gave what was required of you for the liberation of your people. In a world ruled by the law of individual interest—the law of colonization, the law of capital, you are an aberration. They will never understand you and it doesn't matter. The people to and for whom you have given your life know who you are and of what you are made.

To the Palestinian people, the Palestinian resistance—your dignity, strength, humor, courage, and love for your land and people cannot be touched by their bombs, guns, shelling, bulldozers, F16's, helicopters, tanks and settlements—and they know it.

You are heroes. You are the light of our world.

The writer is a member of NECDP, New England Committee to Defend Palestine.