Daniel Ellsberg at Shakespeare and Company

 A picture I took of Daniel Ellsberg at Shakespeare and Company when I heard him speak in Paris in 2005.

Re-print: “From Minneapolis to Palestine, we must end systemic racism”

Mondoweiss – News & Opinion About Palestine, Israel & the United States, 22 June 2020. Online. https://mondoweiss.net/2020/06/from-minneapolis-to-palestine-we-must-end-systemic-racism/

From Minneapolis to Palestine, we must end systemic racism [Op-Ed]

Op-Ed on George Floyd, written June 1, 2020.

Millions of people in the U.S. and around the world have viewed the videos of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a white police officer and three additional white police officers aiding in the killing.

It has sparked outrage that the officer with his knee on the neck of George Floyd, who pleaded that he could not breathe, was not originally arrested and the consequences for the other three are yet to be determined. Seeing this happen in South Minneapolis is hard because I used to live there.

Traveling to Palestine/Israel on a delegation in 2017, when I returned to the States I viewed race relations here at home with a sharper lens by seeing parallels to Palestine.

From Minneapolis to Palestine [Pictures]

A mural of George Floyd, who was murdered by police in Minneapolis, can be juxtaposed with murals of Palestinians murdered by the Israeli military at a refugee camp in Palestine/Israel. Recently President Trump stated his intention to deploy military across the United States to quell protests. In the U.S., the treatment of African Americans by law enforcement resembles the way the Israeli military treats Palestinians in Israel's effort to "ethnically cleanse" Palestine/Israel.

Photo above by Lorie Shaull via flickr. The George Floyd mural outside Cup Foods at Chicago Ave. and E. 38th St. in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Photo by Emma Johnson. Murals of refugees murdered by the Israeli military in the Deheisheh Refugee Camp in Palestine/Israel. The question mark posits, "Who will be next?"

Compass works to help LGBT during COVID-19 and beyond

Midland Daily News, 11 May 2020: XX. 

Online. https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Compass-works-to-help-LGBT-during-COVID-19-and-15256344.php

Colleges, Universities Embrace New Virtual Learning Reality

Greater Lansing Business Monthly, 1 May 2020 XX. Online. https://lansingbusinessnews.com/features/2020/05/colleges-universities-embrace-new-virtual-learning-reality/

Reader: Let’s stay home and save lives

Midland Daily News, 21 Apr 2020

Print and online.

https://www.ourmidland.com/opinion/letters/article/Reader-Let-s-stay-home-and-save-lives-15214527.php

Publications

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Presentations to focus on human rights in the Holy Land

By Emma C. Johnson

Midland Daily News, 15 Nov 2019: A1.

https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Presentations-to-focus-on-human-rights-in-the-14835358.php

FULL TEXT:

Johnson: This is one deportation America must stop

Op-Ed by Emma Johnson
Midland Daily News, 4 Sept 2019.  
https://www.ourmidland.com/opinion/voices/article/This-is-one-deportation-America-must-stop-14408759.php

FULL TEXT:

Isabel Bueso came to the U.S. from Guatemala to participate in a rare-disease study at UCSF and now has 33 days to leave the country; but, in Guatemala, they don’t offer the intravenous infusions that keep her alive.

The Trump administration’ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is deporting children who are receiving life-saving medical care in the U.S. due to a deferred action policy. While all cases are egregious, Bueso’s situation stands out as especially disturbing.

At an internship at Michigan Technological University that involved analyzing human blood, I had to pass two tests before conducting any research using human subjects. One was on safety and the other concerned ethical guidelines by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

In the scientific community, it is against the rules to conduct testing on populations that will not benefit from the research.

That’s why there cannot be testing on prisoners, the homeless, or people in third-world countries. The only exception is for diseases that have a higher prevalence within a population and the cure will benefit that population.

This rule is to avoid past unfortunate cases such as:

1. Studying the effects of syphilis on African Americans in the South without treating them and lying about it.

2. Doing studies that could have deleterious outcomes on vulnerable populations that are desperate for money, such as prisoners and the homeless.

3. Going to third-world countries to test on their populations, only to let participants die because they can’t afford the life-saving medicine they helped develop.

4. An African-American woman Henrietta Lacks unknowingly “donating” her cancer cells and then not receiving treatments based on research employing her cells.

The United States government and the scientific community deemed that using the bodies of vulnerable populations only to let them suffer and die, while an affluent mostly-white population reaped the benefits, was ethically wrong.

Today, we have another case violating this code of ethics. Bueso was part of the solution to finding a life-saving treatment for MPS-6, an enzyme disorder that inhibits cells from processing sugars and now she faces being cut off from treatment.

To use her body, deport her, deny her treatment, and then save the lives of affluent white babies who haven’t yet been born will be a shameful mark on our country’s history if this deportation goes forward.

Emma C. Johnson is a writer and a Midland resident.
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Refugee presentation will tell how Midland residents can make a difference

By Emma C. Johnson

Midland Daily News, 22 Mar 2019: A1.

https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Refugee-presentation-nbsp-will-nbsp-tell-13707939.php

Palestine/Israel presentation at First United Methodist Church

Palestine/Israel presentation and discussion at First United Methodist Church adult Sunday school forum class in Midland, MI.
January 6, 2019.

Photography by René Johnson.

Presentation on human rights in the Holy Land slated for Creative 360

By Emma C. Johnson

Cody O’Rourke, a native of Gladwin, Michigan, didn’t know it at the time, but in 2004 he was about to attend a presentation that would end up changing the trajectory of his life. “It was really by chance that I ended up being involved in the conflict in the Holy Land,” said O’Rourke.

Held at the Church of the Brethren in Beaverton, Michigan, Speaker Bob Schnepp discussed the situation in Palestine/Israel. Afterwards, O’Rourke expressed admiration for Schnepp’s commitment to peace. Schnepp suggested O’Rourke travel to Palestine/Israel, but O’Rourke said he couldn’t afford it. Schnepp offered to pay. It was settled.

“So there I was, Bob was paying for me to go to Hebron on a two-week delegation with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in 2005,” O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke says his 2005 trip had a huge impact on him. Today O’Rourke has been living in Bethlehem for seven years fighting for social justice.

“I wasn't political,” said O’Rourke. “I had no historical background and I wasn't even that religious ... And I wasn't much into social justice. Because, why would I be? As a white, straight guy from northern Michigan, I had never experienced institutionalized violence.”

“I had never witnessed, or could have imagined for that matter, the intentional system of control that Palestinians were forced to live under in Hebron,” he said. “After witnessing the oppression, hearing the personal stories, it bothered my conscious in a way that I couldn't turn away from,” says O’Rourke.

Speaker Cody O’Rourke’s talk is titled “South Hebron: The struggle for human rights in the Holy Land.” He will discuss Israel's military occupation, the implications of the Oslo Accords, and ways to work toward peace in the Holy Land.

O’Rourke seeks to “unpack the way in which the Israeli state exercises military control over the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights and how that system is directly connected to the political and social dynamics of the United States.”

O’Rourke will focus on the Palestinian village of Um al-Khair in South Hebron.

In Um al-Khair, “[Palestinians] aren't allowed to have water, electricity, or any infrastructure – while the Israeli Jewish settlement of Carmel has full services and public transportation.”

In South Hebron, Palestinians must get building permits from the Israeli military, which approves less than 1 percent of Palestinians’ applications. “[I]t is basically impossible for them to stay on their land,” explains O’Rourke.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there are 151 structures slated for demolition in Um al-Khair. Only two homes would be left standing.

“Israel is trying to carry out an impossible colonization project, in which it wants all the land, but to retain a Jewish demographic majority on the land,” says O’Rourke. Currently, there are about 6.5 million Jews and 6.5 million Palestinians living in Palestine/Israel. “Israel cannot retain a Jewish democracy while simultaneously granting rights to 6.5 million Palestinians,” he said.

“[T]o secure any sort of peace in the Holy Land, we have to start working on … one democratic state in which all people have equal and inalienable rights,” he said.

“This violence isn't rooted in hate like some people want to frame the conflict,” says O’Rourke. “The violence is rooted in political inequalities which are represented in thousands of laws enacted to suppress Palestinian rights. … We need a change in the laws, which are only changed through a political process.”

“[U]nless we put a premium on a one-state solution that focuses on creating systems of economic equality, we will have failed. Essentially we will have just reorganized oppression and violence from the military level to an economic level,” O’Rourke said.

While O’Rourke’s presentation focuses on South Hebron, he says these social justice issues transcend geography.

“[A]ll these systems of oppression are interconnected,” says O’Rourke. “I could see how on various levels the Palestinian experience was intrinsically connected to the experiences of People of Color. I began to see … that in order to make any sort of change, I was going to have to be an ally not only to those oppressed in the Holy Land, but to marginalized and oppressed everywhere.”

“My son is an Israeli Jew. He goes to well-funded Israeli Jewish schools. … [W]e talk often about how life is different for the Palestinians. So when my son goes out with me to Um al-Khair, it's pretty clear to him that the Palestinians aren't being treated the same as Israeli Jews. My son gets this reality pretty easily, but yet for some adults, this basic reality evades them,” he said.

The event is sponsored by the Islamic Center of Midland and Reaching Out for Justice and Peace Work Group of Memorial Presbyterian Church and will take place on Sunday, June 17, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Creative 360, located at 1517 Bayliss Street in Midland.

Palestine/Israel presentation slated for 6/17/18

South Hebron: 

The struggle for human rights in the Holy Land

Right to boycott should be protected

By Emma Johnson
Midland Daily News, 10 Apr 2018: 6A.
https://www.ourmidland.com/opinion/voices/article/Right-to-boycott-should-be-protected-12818625.php

A sign points to the Israeli settlement Pisgat Ze'ev located in East Jerusalem. Pisgat Ze'ev houses 50,000 of the 700,000 Israeli settlers illegally residing in the occupied Palestinian territories. Photograph by Emma Johnson.

FULL TEXT:

Do you think it should be illegal to compile public information? To participate in a boycott? U.S. Republicans and Democrats seem to think so.

In fact, they are currently trying to make it law. The bill currently has 269 co-sponsors; 225 in the House (H.R.1697) and 51 in the Senate (S.720). This includes our own Republican Rep. John Moolenaar and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act is a direct response to the BDS movement, which stands for “Boycott. Divestment. Sanctions.” The Israel Anti-Boycott Act would make it illegal for U.S. businesses to cease doing business with Israel, or companies that operate on illegal Israeli settlements, if it is — or is only perceived to be — for political reasons.

Squirrel film screening in Midland, MI

Thanks to everyone who attended Squirrel: The Movie directed by Thalia Drori!

We had a great discussion about reframing the dialog concerning violence in our society as well as how we've become inured to the over-representation of the male gaze in film. Here I am introducing the movie dressed in character (a.k.a. wearing my own clothes).

Thanks to Creative 360 for hosting, The Delta Collegiate for covering the event, and for everyone who made it a great night!

Picture by René Johnson.

What I Witnessed in Palestine/Israel [VIDEO]

Video of "What I Witnessed in Palestine/Israel" presentation on 1-24-18. (1hr 34min)



"What I Witnessed in Palestine/Israel" is a public presentation by Emma Johnson on January 24, 2018, at Creative 360 in Midland, Michigan. Thank you, Midland Community Television (MCTV) Volunteers John and Nana Metcalf for filming, Nana Metcalf for editing and producing, and MCTV for broadcasting. 

Op-ed: We should stop military aid to Israel

By Emma Johnson

“We should stop military aid to Israel,” Midland Daily News, 5 Feb 2018: 6A. Online. http://www.ourmidland.com/opinion/voices/article/We-should-stop-military-aid-to-Israel-12551246.php

FULL TEXT

What would you do for the City of Midland with an extra $8.6 million in the yearly budget?

Would you put more money into our schools? Fund healthcare? Improve our infrastructure? Propose a tax cut?

Midland could have an extra $8.6 million in its budget but, instead, our city contributes $8,634,511 in aid to Israel every year. This $8.6 million pays for weapons to bomb Palestinian civilians, including women and children, and subsidizes new Israeli settlements that are illegal according to international law.

"Eye on Alumni: Emma Johnson speaks about trip to Israel, Palestine"

By Michael Piwowarski of The Delta Collegiate.
February 2, 2018.
http://deltacollegiate.altervista.org/eye-on-alumni-emma-johnson-speaks-about-trip-to-israel-palestine/

MEDIA ADVISORY for Palestine/Israel event 1/24/18 (+ media resources)

Press release 1-13-18

Midland resident to give presentation on Palestine/Israel trip involving meetings with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists