With enthusiastic community support, the city of Eugene fittingly passed a resolution declaring the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Why? Because Columbus Day represents the brutal genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Americas.

Yet what was our community's response to University of Oregon's "Israel block party" where the brutal genocidal (still ongoing) ethnic cleansing of Palestine was not condemned but celebrated? How can Arab or Muslim or Palestinian students feel safe at our university when UO-affiliated Jewish organizations hold a "block party" celebrating the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and promote the IDF? What would it take for our community to understand that Palestinians, including refugees, might feel the same way about the flag of Israel that Blacks might feel when they see the Confederate flag or that Jews might feel when they see the Nazi Party flag? Has allegiance to Israel, a country that bans return of refugees it has created, replaced theology?