There are moments in history like right now,
that help define us as human beings.
Hey BeatStars family,
As many of you know, BeatStars is a global community of creators - and what matters to them matters to us. Last year, we stood with the BIPOC community and joined them in the fight for racial equality. This year, we stood with the AAPI community and joined them in the fight to stop undeserved hate and racial targeting. And through Beats4Love, we've supported organizations that stand with the impoverished community, the LGBTQ+ community, the war-torn communities, and so many more. Now today, I am asking you - the community - to stand with me to speak out against the illegal occupation and human rights violations of the people, my people, of Palestine
I write to you today in desperation. I am so desperate for my community to know I exist. Not Abe Batshon, the CEO of BeatStars, but Ibrahim Salim Batshon - the son of Palestinian refugees from occupied Lydd and Gaza.
A lot of you know me and my journey as an entrepreneur. Still, many of you don't know the injustice my family, my people, and I have endured for over 73 years suffering from an illegal occupation by Zionist European colonizers. Why am I asking you to recognize my existence? The short answer is there has been a multi-national coordinated campaign to erase it for many years, which you probably didn't know.
If you've turned on the news or scrolled through social media recently, I'm sure you've come across images and videos showing the complete destruction, displacement, violence, and death of the native people of Palestine. Many of you may not know the complete story or are confused by so many opinionated and conflicting reports of the situation. It would take me writing a book to educate you all on the origins of what's going on, but today, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to completely focus on the human rights violations, oppression, and injustice my people face in the internationally condemned apartheid state of Israel.
In America, we all know the story too well - there's the colonizer and the colonized, the oppressor and the oppressed, the violent radical nationalist, and the people fighting for basic human rights.
Today, as I write you, the Israeli military - with the billions of annual military aid from U.S. taxpayers like you - are conducting yet another campaign to ethnically cleanse the native Palestinian people. They are uprooting them from their ancestral homes, denying them civil and human rights, access to clean water and medical aid, imprisonment of hundreds of children, thousands of prisoners with no trial, denial of freedom of movement, prohibiting access to the holiest religious sites, illegal confiscation of land and even state-sponsored racial lynchings of innocent men, women, and children by radical settlers and by the military in broad daylight.
BeatStars family: please know that writing this letter was not easy. As a child, I hoped by the time I was an adult, there would be a Free Palestine. A Palestine with no more suffering and for the world to wake up and save us from this brutal occupation. But now, as an adult, I have to explain to my children why our families are refugees and why members of our family have been murdered, displaced, and stripped of all their dignity.
I cry for peace. I cry for all humanity to love and respect each other. I cry for understanding and solidarity. I cry for a Free Palestine.
Thank you for taking the time to read this; I appreciate each and every one of you in our community. I hope this sparks something in you to continue fighting for all oppressed people at home and abroad. I pray God continues to bless you all with happiness, purpose, and good health.
Love you all!
Abe
