Jamil Dakwar Profile picture
Jun 10, 2020 16 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Live: George Floyd’s brother testifying before Congress.
#BlakeLivesMatter Image
"The world knows him as George, but I called him Perry. Yesterday, we laid him to rest. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m the big brother now. So it was my job to comfort our brothers and sisters, Perry’s kids, and everyone who loved him."
"And that’s a lot of people. I have to be the strong one now, because it’s what George would have done. And me being the big brother now is why I’m here today. To do what Perry always did for us – to take care of the family and others."
"I couldn’t take care of George the day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today, I can help make sure that his death isn’t in vain. To make sure that he is more than another face on a t-shirt. More than another name on a list that won’t stop growing."
"George always made sacrifices for his family. And he made sacrifices for complete strangers. He gave the little that he had to help others. He was our gentle giant. I was reminded of that when I watched the video of his murder."
"He was mild mannered; he didn’t fight back. He listened to the officers. He called them ‘sir.’ The men who took his life, who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds. He still called them ‘sir’ as he begged for his life."
"I can’t tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that. When you watch your big brother, who you’ve looked up to your whole life, die. Die begging for your mom."
"I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another black person is killed for no reason. I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain. Stop us from being tired."
"George’s calls for help were ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change."
"Honor them, honor George, and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution – and not the problem. Hold them accountable when they do something wrong. Teach them what it means to treat people with empathy and respect."
"Teach them what necessary force is. Teach them that deadly force should be used rarely and only when life is at risk. George wasn’t hurting anyone that day."
"He didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars. I am asking you, is that what a black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars? This is 2020. Enough is enough."
"The people marching in the streets are telling you enough is enough. Be the leaders that this country, this world, needs. Do the right thing. The people elected you to speak for them, to make positive change. George’s name means something."
"You have the opportunity here to make your names mean something, too. If his death ends up changing the world for the better. And I think it will. I think it has. Then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain."
"I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to Perry while he was here. I was robbed of that. But, I know he’s looking down on us now. Perry, look at what you did, big brother. You’re changing the world."
"Thank you for everything. For taking care of us when you were on Earth, and for taking care of all of us now. I hope you found mama and can rest in peace and power."

Philonise Floyd's testimony before U.S. Congress: cnn.com/2020/06/10/pol…

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More from @jdakwar

Sep 2, 2022
This is a global embarrassment.

“It is not Russia that threatens the United States so much as Mississippi…[I]nternal injustice done to one’s brothers is far more dangerous than the aggression of strangers from abroad.” — W.E.B. DuBois (1947)
United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has consistently objected to recognizing the right to safe drinking water and sanitation as basic human right that creates obligations to work towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all.
Last year Biden admin told the UN:

“We do not believe that a State’s duty to protect the right to life by law would extend to addressing general conditions in society or nature that may eventually threaten life or prevent individuals from enjoying an adequate standard of living”
Read 4 tweets
Jun 15, 2022
New report by @ACLU and the Int’l Human Rights Clinic at the @UChicagoLaw investigates the use of prison labor throughout state and federal prisons in the United States and finds widespread coercion and exploitation of incarcerated workers nationwide. THREAD Image
The report calls for far-reaching reforms to ensure prison labor is truly voluntary and that incarcerated workers are paid fairly, properly trained and able to gain transferable skills. 2/
The report highlights how incarcerated labor helps maintain prisons and provides vital public services. But the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows prisons to force people to work for pennies or less. 3/
Read 15 tweets
Sep 27, 2020
My first experience doing legal research for a court case was while I was a law student in Israel. I was helping my brother-in-law who was among the lawyers to petition Israel’s Supreme Court in December 1992 about Rabin’s decision to deport 415 Palestinians to south Lebanon. 1/
Rabin decided to retaliate against Hamas for the kidnapping and killing of 6 Israeli soldiers by instituting an overnight mass deportation of 415 Palestinians to a no-man's land in south Lebanon. The mass deportation was gaged at the order of Israel’s military censor. 2/
A majority of the deportees were non-combatants and many of them were already in detention for their association with Hamas. The mass deportation was a form of collective punishment in violation of int’l humanitarian law and was even condemned by the UN Security Council. 3/
Read 11 tweets
Sep 22, 2020
Trump Administration’s report to the UN Human Rights Council was posted online. This report is one of the worst attempts to cover up U.S. human rights violations since the Civil Rights Movement. 1/ ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UP… Image
The report is full of misinformation, misrepresentations and even outright lies.

The report dismisses the well-documented systemic racism in American policing and makes no mention of the U.S. government's violent crackdown on protesters, ... 2/
... failure to take the risks of COVID-19 seriously, immoral separation of immigrant families, dismantling of the asylum system, or disastrous Muslim ban and many more human rights violation. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Sep 13, 2020
Israel's normalization deals with the UAE and Bahrain will not bring peace to the Middle East. If anything, they will only embolden oppressive regimes and encourage abuses of international law. 1/
Israel and UAE/Bahrain were never in a state of war to begin with- both countries are not even officially declared enemy states under Israeli law. 2/
Despite these agreements, Israel will continue to breach int'l law as an illegitimate occupying power denying millions of Palestinians their basic human rights. If not a U.S. ally, it would likely have been subject to economic sanctions and arms embargo. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Aug 26, 2020
There is nothing that annoys the Trump administration more than asserting reproductive rights, including abortion rights, are human rights.
Trump's State Department is up in arms about a letter by U.N. human rights experts raising very legitimate and serious concerns that some U.S. states limited access to abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic. reuters.com/article/us-usa… @StephNebehay
Note how @usmissiongeneva tweet mischaracterizes UN Secretary General @antonioguterres position on abortion. He never said there is no int'l human right to abortion. He reiterated that the UN "does not promote, much less impose, abortion on anyone, nor is it intended to do so."
Read 4 tweets

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