From the Declaration of Freedom to Supporting Genocide: America's Moral Contradiction in Palestine

On July 4th, while Washington adorns itself with flags and fireworks in celebration of Independence Day, speeches are raised that glorify the values of "freedom," "dignity," and "human rights" as if they were absolute, indisputable truths. This historical declaration issued in 1776 is considered one of the most inspiring political documents in modern history and clearly states:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It also emphasizes the right of peoples to resist oppression and change the existing reality, stating:

"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

However, these principles upon which the United States was founded turn in its international policies into mere suspended texts used when needed and forgotten when they conflict with interests. The clearest face of this catastrophic contradiction manifests in its position on the Palestinian cause, where America not only plays a role of false neutrality but becomes a direct partner in oppression, genocide, and repression.

Since the Nakba of 1948 when Zionist gangs expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of villages, committing countless massacres, the United States has stood on the side of the executioner, aligning itself with the racist occupier rather than the victim. It supported the establishment of the occupying entity by all political, financial, and military means and provided it with a protective umbrella in every international forum, preventing any accountability.

In the aggression of 2023–2024 on Gaza, which resulted in over 60,000 civilian martyrs, including 16,000 children and 17,000 women, and entire communities and families wiped from the civil register, America was not only absent from pressuring to stop the killing, but was the trusted guardian of this killing. It prevented any cessation of the genocide by repeatedly using the veto in the Security Council to block any resolution calling for a ceasefire, protecting civilians, or even sending humanitarian aid, justifying the bombing of schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and people seeking a livelihood under the slogan of "Israel's right to self-defense," disregarding international law, the principle of proportionality, and the most basic human values.

Every time a civilian is killed in Ukraine or a settler is injured in Tel Aviv, Washington moves politically and in the media at the speed of light. Yet, when a Palestinian family is exterminated under the rubble, the world is asked to remain silent and to "exercise restraint."

This bias is not an emergency moment but a continuation of a rich American history of double standards. The country that crafted the Declaration of Independence in the name of freedom practiced slavery for centuries, exterminated the indigenous population of Native Americans, waged bloody wars, aggression, and occupation in Vietnam, and destroyed Iraq under the pretext of "weapons of mass destruction," occupying Afghanistan for twenty years before withdrawing and leaving chaos behind.

In the name of freedom, governments have been toppled, coups led, repressive regimes supported, and entire peoples punished with sanctions and starvation. Today, this moral contradiction is reproduced in Palestine, where resistance of occupied peoples is criminalized, protection is denied to them, and principles are buried with the bodies of children beneath the rubble, as is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.

If the United States is truly serious about respecting the values it was founded upon, it must begin to reconsider its policy toward Palestine and recognize the right of Palestinians to self-determination, to live with dignity, and to establish their state on their land without occupation or restriction.

To raise the banner of "freedom" in Washington while annihilating every manifestation of it in Jerusalem and Gaza is not only political hypocrisy but a blatant betrayal of principles born to liberate man, not to enslave peoples.

Of course, here is a stronger conclusion that expresses the essence of the moral and political message one wants to convey and broadens the focus to include Palestine and all peoples that have suffered from American double standards and domination in the name of "freedom":

The freedom that is excluded from Palestine and is withheld from oppressed and downtrodden peoples is not freedom, but a selective tool used to justify control and domination. Human rights that are fragmented according to identity or geopolitical interest are not rights but privileges granted and withheld by power. The American Declaration of Independence, which exalts equality, dignity, and rebellion against injustice, has transformed in American policy into a beautiful mask concealing an ugly colonial face.

Palestine, like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other countries, has witnessed this horrific dissonance between slogans and practices. Unless the United States stops sponsoring occupations, ceases protecting Israeli criminals, and confronts its reality as a global power practicing moral selectivity, everything written in 1776 will remain mere ink on paper—a beautiful text but hypocritical in reality and wounded in its human conscience.

Justice is indivisible, and freedom must either be inclusive... or it is nothing.