https://www.recorder.com/Charlemont-activist-Sherrill-Hogen-talks-recent-Palestine-visit-56168698
Greenfield Recorder, July 26, 2024, By Dominic Poli
By sharing some of the photographs she took during her recent trip to the West Bank, Charlemont activist Sherrill Hogen said she hopes that attendees of her virtual presentation on Wednesday might “meet the people of Palestine and hear their stories.”
Describing herself as “an American Christian advocate for the liberation of Palestine,” Hogen said she has visited the embattled region almost annually since she first went in 2002. She became a champion for the Palestinian cause and recently returned from her 18th journey, which was meant to show solidarity, collect information and visit friends.
Hogen said many Israelis, though certainly not all, “would like Palestinians to disappear.” The situation is now particularly dire, she said, after Hamas — which has governed the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007 — and at least four other Palestinian armed groups attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,195 people and taking approximately 251 hostages in what has been described as the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Israel responded to the assault with a large-scale ground invasion, displacing nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and resulting in 39,175 deaths, including at least 15,000 children, according to the news service Al Jazeera. Gazans now face shortages of basic human necessities, including food. In fact, Hogen said men have lost up to 55 pounds of body weight due to the food shortage caused by the Israeli blockade.
“Every bomb dropped on a civilian target, whether a hospital, a mosque, a pharmacy, a university, a church or a clinic … is celebrated by Israeli soldiers and civilians,” Hogen said, “and it is paid for by the United States.”
According to Reuters, the U.S. and Israeli governments in 2016 signed a third 10-year memorandum of understanding, covering from Oct. 1, 2018, to Sept. 30, 2028. The agreement provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems over that 10 years.
Hogen, one of four Franklin County residents who in early January traveled to Boston to try to deliver petitions and letters to consulates calling for peace in Gaza, showed attendees of her presentation photos of friends she has made in Palestine and told their stories of alleged abuse at the hands of the Israeli military. She also spoke about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a relief and human development agency. Hogen said UNRWA has been financially devastated by an American boycott after Israel alleged that 13 of the organization’s 13,000 employees were associated with the Oct. 7 attack.
Many who are critical of Israel or its actions are accused of being antisemitic, or prejudiced against Jewish people. But Hogen stressed that she is not antisemitic, or even anti-Israel. She mentioned a two-state solution — a proposed framework for resolving the decades-long conflict — is not viable because Israel has settled inside the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. This area is what would have been the state of Palestine.
Hogen said Israel is the only country in the world that prosecutes children in military courts. She said 96% of defendants are found guilty and many are charged with crimes as minor as throwing rocks at soldiers.
The presentation was held the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, defending his nation’s handling of the war and comparing the Oct. 7 attack to the 1941 Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor. Hundreds marched in protest outside the Capitol and roughly 40 Democrats boycotted the speech.
Please go to the link above to read this front page story on Sherrill’s excellent zoom presentation.