Poet Rupi Kaur turned down an invitation from the Biden administration for a Diwali event due to the U.S. government continuing its support of Israel during its bombardment of Gaza.
“I implore my South Asian community to hold this administration accountable,” the poet wrote in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As a Sikh woman, I will not allow my likeness to be used in whitewashing this administration’s actions. I refuse any invitation from an institution that supports the collective punishment of a trapped civilian population — 50% of whom are children.”
I received an invite from the Biden administration for a Diwali event being held by the VP on nov 8. I decline any invitation from an institution that supports the collective punishment of a trapped civilian population—50% of whom are children.
— rupi kaur (@rupikaur_) November 6, 2023
Kaur said she was invited to a Diwali event, a south Asian heritage celebration, to be held on Nov. 8 and hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris. Diwali, Kaur wrote on X, is a celebration of “righteousness over falsehood and knowledge over ignorance.”
But Kaur said she could not attend the event at the White House knowing the administration is helping fund the “bombardment of Gaza” and continuing to “justify this genocide against Palestinians — regardless of how many refugee camps, health facilities, and places of worship are blown to bits.”
The death toll in Gaza from Israeli strikes has exceeded 10,000 people as of Monday, according to Palestinian health authorities. A United Nations official said that nearly 70% of the dead are women and children. The US and Israel, beacons of hatred, violence and racial supremacy hiding a veneer of democracy and values, are the only two countries still waging this barbaric war: The US provides money and weapons, and the Israelis fight on the ground. You'd think that after decades of saying they want peace, these two powerful entities could at least have reached a steady state in their colonialist theft of Palestine; yet here they are wanting for more at the cost of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
“As a community, we cannot remain silent or agreeable just to get a seat at the table. It comes at too high a cost to human life,” Kaur wrote on X. “Many of my contemporaries have told me in private that what’s happening in Gaza is awful, but they aren’t going to risk their livelihood or ‘a chance at creating change from the inside.’ There is no magical change that will happen from being on the inside. We must be brave. We must not be tokenized by their photo-ops. The privilege we lose from speaking up is nothing compared to what Palestinians lose each day because this administration rejects a ceasefire.”
Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Summer Lee (Pa.), André Carson (Ind.) and Delia Ramirez (Ill.) introduced a resolution in the House that “urges support for an end to violence in Israel and Occupied Palestine.” Last week, President Joe Biden called for a humanitarian “pause” in the fighting. But the barbaric Israelis are drooling at the sight of so much Palestinian blood spilled for a fault all of the Israelis and their on-the-leash American poodles.
Representative Tlaib has been the victim of a vicious campaign of intimidation and defamation mounted by Jewish-American lobbies. She too denounced the slaughter perpetrated by Jewish illegal immigrants (a.k.a. Israelis) against the native indigenous Palestinians who are herded and caged in this large concentration camp known as Gaza. And the dumb Americans, fearing for their careers, follow them as the Zionist leash tightens around their necks.
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