{"id":32044,"date":"2024-02-29T11:53:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T19:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32044"},"modified":"2024-02-29T11:53:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T19:53:27","slug":"watch-special-forces-veteran-condemns-us-support-for-gaza-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/29\/watch-special-forces-veteran-condemns-us-support-for-gaza-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Special Forces Veteran Condemns US Support for Gaza Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Alan<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Special Forces veteran and jiu-jitsu professor Alan Shebaro spoke out against Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza during a February 20, 2024 McKinney, Texas City Council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Alan Shebaro\/Facebook)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is wrong, and there’s nothing more American than speaking out against what’s wrong,” Alan Shebaro said during a McKinney, Texas City Council meeting.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 28, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A U.S. Special Forces combat veteran spoke out during the public comment period of a recent Texas city council meeting, condemning Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza<\/a> and United States support for the slaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My name is Alan Shebaro,” the 47-year-old 3rd Special Forces Group veteran\u2014who fought during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq\u2014said during the February 20 meeting in McKinney, Texas, north of Dallas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know war,” he continued. “What is going on in Palestine<\/a> right now is not a war. It is the dehumanization, it’s the genocide, it’s the ethnic cleansing of a specific people to take their land. This is wrong, and there’s nothing more American than speaking out against what’s wrong.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/palinfoen\/status\/1762743019550171309?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1762743019550171309%7Ctwgr%5Ed4551fae6c3a0a1b91e7cd47e3f2197e7e71b151%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Falan-shebaro<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shebaro served 15 years in the U.S. military. Today, he is a 5th-degree jiu-jitsu black belt who owns the Combat Base Texas-Shabaro Jiu-Jitsu academy, which is also the headquarters of the We Defy Foundation<\/a>, a group co-founded by Shebaro that’s dedicated to preventing veteran suicides. An average of 16 U.S. veterans kill themselves<\/a> daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty U.S. airman, fatally self-immolated<\/a> outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., declaring, “I will no longer be complicit in genocide.” His last words were, “Free Palestine!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shebaro and Bushnell decried U.S. complicity in the Gaza genocide. The U.S. provides Israel with nearly $4 billion in annual military aid and diplomatic support including three vetoes <\/a>of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions. The Biden administration\u2014which has repeatedly sidestepped<\/a> Congress to expedite emergency armed aid to Israel\u2014is also seeking<\/a> an additional $14.3 billion in military aid for its key Mideast ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel relies heavily upon U.S. weapons to wage a war in which Israeli forces have killed or maimed at least 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza while forcibly displacing around 90% of the besieged strip’s 2.3 million people since the October 7 attacks by Hamas-led militants. Most of the dead are women and children. Thousands more people are missing and presumed buried beneath rubble. Diseases and deadly starvation<\/a> have taken hold, with children and elders the most severely affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The U.S. taxpayer is paying for this, which makes it even more frustrating,” Shebaro told the McKinney council. “This needs to stop.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Special Forces veteran and jiu-jitsu professor Alan Shebaro spoke out against Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza during a February 20, 2024 McKinney, Texas City Council meeting. \u00a0(Photo: Alan Shebaro\/Facebook) “This is wrong, and there’s nothing more American than speaking out against what’s wrong,” Alan Shebaro said during a McKinney,… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32045,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32044\/revisions\/32045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}