Campaigns
160 Organizations Demand Congress Stop Funding Israel’s Massacres
160+ organizations representing Palestinian communities, Palestinian solidarity organizations, and the racial justice movement have signed on to the new joint statement “Stop Funding Israel’s Massacres,” calling out the U.S. government’s complicity and racist dehumanization of Palestinian life. Read the statement below:
Israel’s horrific murder of 10 Palestinians in Jenin, unprecedented for two decades in the West Bank, demands action
After Israeli forces massacred at least 10 Palestinian people in Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, Jan. 26, leaving dozens of injuries and destruction in their wake, Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti called the Palestinian reality under Israeli military occupation a “slaughterhouse.”
While most U.S. politicians and media focused attention on a shooting by a Palestinian individual in an illegal Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem that followed, they remained silent on Israeli forces killing Palestinians in the Jenin massacre. This silence continued following the Israeli government’s moves to institutionalize their collective punishment and retribution responses to the shooting, including expediting gun permits for Israelis and punishing family members of Palestinian attackers by demolishing their homes and revoking social security benefits. This dehumanizing disparity reinforces the racist devaluation of Palestinian life. Peace is not possible without justice, which begins with an end to Israel’s military occupation, theft of Palestinian land, and attacks on Palestinian lives.
When this context is explained, it is clear all this violence is rooted in Israel’s brutality against the Palestinian people. The Jenin massacre was the bloodiest in the West Bank in about two decades, in one of the deadliest months: Israeli forces killed 35 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 so far, killing on average at least one Palestinian person each day. This Israeli violence marks an acceleration since 2022, when Israel killed 146 Palestinians in the West Bank, including killing Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was reporting in Jenin. And in Gaza, Palestinians living trapped under Israeli blockade endure structural violence each day, and have endured multiple Israeli bombing massacres over the last two decades, which have killed thousands of Palestinians including 49 people in August 2022.
This week, Secretary of State Blinken is meeting with the new increasingly fascist, far-right Israeli government. Blinken’s statements said nothing about the Israeli government’s plan to entrench illegal settlements, reaffirming the U.S. refusal to even recognize the context of Israel’s military occupation. We will not accept his politics-as-usual of words of concern without U.S. policy change, which gives Israel a free pass to keep massacring the Palestinian people. The images coming out of Jenin—an elderly woman killed by Israeli sniper bullets, hospital patients suffocating with Israeli tear gas, and ambulances denied access to the wounded by Israeli forces—are part of apartheid Israel’s greater systematic violence, which our government has chosen to fund with $3.8+ billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars a year.
The Palestinian people’s ongoing demands for freedom in their homeland and basic human rights must be met by people around the world rising up with them. We demand Members of Congress take immediate policy action towards accountability: Stop arming Israel’s massacres against the Palestinian people by ending U.S. military funding to Israel. Real justice will not begin until we do.
National Organizations:
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
ActionAid USA
Adalah Justice Project
American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine (AFRP)
American Muslim Bar Association
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action)
Catalyst Project
Center for Constitutional Rights
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Episcopal Peace Fellowship – Palestine Israel Network
Eyewitness Palestine
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Health Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace
IfNotNow Movement
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA (ICAHD-USA)
Jetpac Resource Center
Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action)
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Kairos USA
MADRE
Media Education Foundation
Methodist Federation for Social Action
Middle East Children’s Alliance
Movement for Black Lives
MPower Change
Muslim Peace Fellowship
Muslims for Just Futures
National Arab American Women’s Association (NAAWA)
National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)
Palestine Legal
Palestinian American Organizations Network (PAON)
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace (PCAP)
Project South
Promoting Enduring Peace
Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
Rethinking Foreign Policy
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East
United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network
United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)
US Boats to Gaza
US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
USA Palestine Mental Health Network
Veterans for Peace
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, US
Local or State-Based Organizations:
Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights
Arab American Caucus of California Democratic Party
Arab American Civic Council
Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in the Middle East
Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC)
Brooklyn For Peace
Bryn Mawr Peace Coalition
California Scholars for Academic Freedom
Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy
Christian-Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Corvallis Palestine Solidarity
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – Washington
Dallas Palestine Coalition
DC Statehood Green Party
Delawareans for Palestinians Human Rights
Dream Defenders
Episcopal Bishop’s Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land, Diocese of Olympia
Friends of Palestine Wisconsin
Friends of Sabeel – Colorado
Greater Lansing Peace Education Center
Green Mountain Solidarity With Palestine
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Human Rights Awareness: Palestine Israel/MA 3rd CD (HRA:PI/CD3)
Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – Bay Area
Jewish Voice for Peace – Austin
Jewish Voice for Peace – Bay Area
Jewish Voice for Peace – Boston
Jewish Voice for Peace – Central Ohio
Jewish Voice for Peace – Chicago
Jewish Voice for Peace – Cleveland
Jewish Voice for Peace – Detroit
Jewish Voice for Peace – Hudson Valley
Jewish Voice for Peace – Los Angeles
Jewish Voice for Peace – Madison
Jewish Voice for Peace – New Haven
Jewish Voice for Peace – New York City
Jewish Voice for Peace – Pittsburgh
Jewish Voice for Peace – Sacramento
Jewish Voice for Peace – Seattle
Jewish Voice for Peace – South Bay
Jewish Voice for Peace – Tacoma Washington
Jewish Voice for Peace – Tucson
Jewish Voice for Peace – UCLA
Jews Say No!
Justice for Palestine – Syracuse
Kairos Puget Sound Coalition
LA Jews for Peace
Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
Marin for Palestine
Massachusetts Peace Action
Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)
Mid-Missourians for Justice in Palestine
Middle East Crisis Committee – Connecticut
Minnesota BDS Community
Monterey Peace and Justice Center
Muslim Students’ Association at University of Michigan
Nevada Green Party USA
No Rights/No Aid
Northfielders for Justice in Palestine/Israel
Olive Branch Fair Trade Inc.
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace
Pacific Green Party
Palestine Solidarity Committee at University of San Diego
Palestinian American Community Center of New Jersey (PACC NJ)
Palestinian Rights Committee of New York’s Capital Region
Partners for Palestine
Peace & Justice Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago
Peace & Planet News
Peace Action New York State
Peace Action of San Mateo County
Peace Education Center
People for Palestinian-Israeli Justice – Long Beach, CA
Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee
Progressive Jews of St. Louis (ProJoSTL)
Quakers Palestine Israel Network
Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!)
Rochester Witness for Palestine
Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights
San Antonio for Justice in Palestine
Shomeret Shalom
Social Justice at Trinity Episcopal Church Asbury Park
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Social Justice Committee
Students for Justice in Palestine – Berkeley Law
Students for Justice in Palestine – Butler University
Students for Justice in Palestine – Rutgers New Brunswick (SJP-NB)
Students for Justice in Palestine – UVA
Texas Arab American Democrats
The Whatcom Peace and Justice Center
Tzedek Chicago
Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East – Ann Arbor
Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East MA Chapter
Universal Construction
Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land
Valley View Church
Vancouver for Peace and Justice – Vancouver, WA
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
Veterans For Peace – Linus Pauling Chapter 132
Veterans for Peace – New Hampshire Chapter
Veterans For Peace – NYC
Veterans for Peace – Rachel Corrie Chapter
Veterans For Peace – Santa Fe Chapter
Veterans For Peace – Spokane Chapter #35
Virginia Coalition for Human Rights
Voices for Middle East Peace
Washington Advocates for Palestinian Rights
Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment
Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom – St. Louis chaper
Yemeni Liberation Movement
The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club’s National Political Committee is engaged in supporting the Carolina Federation’s campaign to Help Turn North Carolina Blue. The Carolina Federation team tells you in their own words, what they want to achieve and how they will achieve that goal in this video.
“One thing that we learned in addition to organizing is that actually having really strong candidates and in particular strong candidates who come from the multi-racial working class of this state and who can speak to the base of folks who haven’t been given a reason to vote. That actually having really strong candidates can be a deciding factor and so we’ve been doing that hard work to recruit working-class folks, folks from our membership, folks from union membership around the state to run for office.” — Gabe Gold Hodgkin, Movement Politics Director
More information about the Federation is available here.
Help us help the Carolina Federation by joining our organizing campaign.
Stop Talking about Looting
Got your attention, eh? So am I pro-looting or anti? Is that a stupid question or what–no, I’m not pro- looting. Having run my own shop and have worked with store owners who actually “put their business in the street,” by putting their trust and life savings out there, no. Yeah, and most of them are not covered for broken windows, have deductibles, etc.
The pandemic proves we need single payer, Medicare for All
It is often said that events like the COVID19 pandemic open minds to bold ideas previously not accepted. We can see this every day — with both immediate and longer term solutions coming into clearer and clearer focus. We are also learning more about the crisis before the crisis — in the hospitals, nursing homes, working class communities, and especially among oppressed people.
Pandemic: A Nation and a World Tested
This from The New York Times: Many Americans have demonstrated heroic strength during the coronavirus pandemic, but the society itself has revealed profound weaknesses. Widening gaps in income, wealth and opportunity in the years before the virus hit left everyone more vulnerable to the disease. It undermined the nation’s defenses and weakened its response. Yet the devastation of the pandemic has also created an opportunity to begin to put things right, to ensure that the America that ultimately emerges is more just, more free and less fragile. Through this initiative, Times Opinion is exploring, and seeking to answer, basic questions about what the government owes its citizens, what corporations owe their employees and what we all owe each other. America was ailing long before the coronavirus reached its shores. Now we have the chance to make it better.
NY Times articles on diverse dimensions of the current crisis are listed here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/opinion/america-inequality-coronavirus.html
Looking for more ways to get involved?
Are you looking for ways to get more involved in local voter engagement groups? Look no further! We have three great options for you: Becca Freed, Indivisible Berkeley – They’re working on texting to flip Virginia and canvassing for CD-10. Andrea MacRae, East Bay Activist Alliance – They work to help elect Democrats all over the US, especially at the state level, particularly in areas that can flip red to blue. The East Bay Activist Alliance is an affiliate of the Sister District Project. Debbie Raucher: Swing Left – They organize activities for volunteers from the San Francisco East Bay area including Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and other nearby cities.
Contact Gov. Newsom: Sign SB1!
Governor Newsom has indicated that he may veto SB1, the legislation that can protect California against Trump’s undermining of environmental protection laws. SB1 passed the Assembly and the Seante. Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has an EDITORIAL urging him to sign. This is a BIG ONE. Please DO IT. You can contact Governor Newsom via https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/ and urge him to sign the bill. The link also gives the Governor’s phone number. You can both call and write.
