Zarefah Baroud – “United States and Israel: Re-evaluating a Toxic Relationship”

Recently both teleSUR and CounterPunch published “United States and Israel: Re-evaluating a Toxic Relationship”, an op-ed by IAS student Zarefah Baroud. Baroud, who is a junior in Media & Communication Studies with a minor in Human Rights, has published previously on CounterPunch, while this is the first time her work has been picked up by teleSUR. The article explores movements for Palestinian liberation, movements for Black lives and police accountability, and movements actively working against destructive immigration policy. “It is extremely important, especially given the current political climate in the United States, to create a bridge between shared struggles and human rights movements,” notes Baroud.

Baroud is a Social Justice Organizer at UW Bothell. “I hope – along with my team – to contribute to the bridging of that gap by highlighting the intersectionality that exists in these groups, the collective history and objectives which they share for freedom and human rights. Through this article I hoped to articulate that ultimately, our enemies and our oppressors are the same people and the same systems of social and economic repression. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we will be capable of true brotherhood/sisterhood and the sooner we will attain our collective liberation,” explains Baroud.

Baroud, who is considering pursuing a career in journalism, says that the inspiration for her article came from IAS faculty member Dan Berger‘s course ‘The History of Mass Incarceration’ which she took autumn quarter: “Berger stressed the covert connections between the criminalization of immigration, the militarization of the police and the United States’ Southern border, as well as the issue of the history of the incarceration of political prisoners in the US. This research and the course as whole provided me with a heightened level of understanding.” You can read the whole article on teleSUR or on CounterPunch.