Resisting US Complicity in Israel’s assault on Gaza and building a movement of Solidarity with the Palestinian people

On Monday, Electronic Intifada posted a story about the death toll of Palestinians since October 7:

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that more than 8,000 Palestinians in the territory had been killed since 7 October, including more than 3,300 children. The actual death toll is likely much higher as many people remain under the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes.

What is currently happening in Gaza and the other Israeli occupied territories needs to be resisted. These are war crimes, and since the US government is fully endorsing the Israeli assault on Gaza and provides more military aid to Israel than any other country, it means that we are either complicit in the brutalizing of Palestinians or we can chose to be part of the resistance to US Policy.

Resisting with tactics and strategy

The question in anti-war movements, or in this case anti-Imperialist/anti-colonial movements is what does it mean to resist?

Too often people either feel the need to or are encouraged by others to simply communicate how one feels with Elected officials. While this can be a cathartic and instructive exercise, when it comes to US relations with Israel, it is almost unanimously in support of Israel. This is in large part because of the vast amounts of money from Pro-Israeli groups going to candidates at the federal level. According to OpenSecrets.org, since 1990, pro-Israel groups have contributed $227,209,019.00, with more than half of that money going to Democrats. 

A more effective strategy is marches and rallies. Marches and rallies can often assist in energizing movements, letting you know that you are not alone in how you feel about US complicity in Israeli war crimes. Marches and rallies can also be ways for people to stay connect toad informed by movements.

However, marches and rallies should not repeat themselves or become predictable, which often can lead to making it easy for state repression. Ultimately marches/rallies need to disrupt business as usual and need to escalate. While Palestinians are being brutally assaulted and killed by the Israeli military (often by weapons provided by the US), we need to be bold, which means that marches should always be public, in the street or in places where we can impact public opinion. 

We also need to be creative about marches, like going to malls, to bus stations, the Downtown Market, during other public events, anything that can disrupt and confront the public with how the US government, using our tax dollars are being used to kill Palestinian civilians and children. 

Confronting Elected Officials

Once we realize that all the letters in the world will not change where elected officials stand on issues like the Israeli assault on Gaza, we then need to think about other ways to confront those who either initiate policy or give their consent to policies like funding the Israeli military.

We need to confront elected officials in their offices, during town hall meetings, when they are out and about in the district. Sit-ins can be an important escalating tactic, which can also move others to be willing to risk arrest and depending on numbers can create problems for the system. Of course, we always need jail support, legal support, people to post bond, etc, all of which is necessary, and all of which is important for people to participate in, since it exposes how the so-called justice system functions.

Confronting elected officials can also be creative, like making wanted posters, doing street theater, creating digital depictions of Congressional complicity in war crimes and the murder of civilians. There can be die-ins, visiting the homes of elected officials, and threatening to never vote for them again as long as they support war crimes and murder. In fact, anti-war, anti-imperialist/anti-colonialist movements need to leverage these tactics, especially when it comes to elected officials. This could involve getting as many grassroots groups, unions and religious institutions to demand a ceasefire now. 

Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions

I have been seeing lots of people posting lists of products that we can boycott, which can be useful. However, boycotts are only effective if they are targeted campaigns. This is why the BDS Campaign is so important, because they have been targeting specific corporations, banks and other financial institutions. 

People should check out the Palestinian-led BDS Campaign, which has great information on companies to target, but also lots of strategies that are effective in the effort to pressure companies or other entities to divest funds from the Israeli occupation/Israeli Apartheid policies.  

For instance, if you are a member of a union you can investigate where the union has investments and then potentially divest. If you work at a university, the same thing can happen, along with other civic entities that can pressure boycotts and divestment.

There was an effort to get the City of Grand Rapids to Divest from companies profiting off of Israeli Apartheid policies back in late 2015, but the effort to divest lost momentum because of the 2016 election cycle and the eventual election of Donald Trump.

Confronting the Military Industrial Complex in West Michigan

Another strategy would be to expose and resist weapons manufacturers in West Michigan. This would require some research and investigation, but there are definitely weapons manufacturers in the area, even if they are just making components for weapons systems.

Then there are business associations and businesses in West Michigan that are either Israeli or are recruiting Israeli weapons companies. For instance, in 2015, GRIID wrote about the role that the Right Place Inc. played in using public tax dollars to recruit an Israeli military contractor to West Michigan.

Plasan North America, which has a factory in Walker, Michigan. Is a subsidiary of Plasan Sasa Ltd., which is an Israeli corporation. Thus we have military assault vehicles being manufactured right here in West Michigan, vehicles that are integral to the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land. 

End US Military Aid to Israel, fund our communities community

We should be demanding an end to US Military Aid to Israel, which currently is $3.8 Billion a year. According to the fabulous tool that the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights has created, which allows you to type in your city or state, which provides an amount of the $3.8 billion annually in US military aid to Israel that could stay in your community. On top of that, this tool provides an example of how the money that leaves Michigan or Grand Rapids on an annual basis, how that money could be used in our communities.

Currently, $2,815,720.00 of the $3.8 billion in US military aid to Israel could stay in our community. That is almost 1 million more than is currently being used for the Grand Rapids Participatory Budgeting project ($2 million). Again, this tool provides a breakdown of how $2,815,720.00 could be used in Grand Rapids:

• 334 Households with public housing for a year.
• 979 children could receive free or low-cost healthcare.
• It would cover the salary for 30 elementary school teachers.
• 8,016 households could be powered with solar electricity for a year.
• 74 students could have their loan debt cancelled.
• 2,448,452 N95 respirators masks could be provided for the community.

We can not only make sure that we are not funding Israeli War Crimes in Gaza, we can demand that the money stay in our communities to support real needs here in Grand Rapids.

These are just some of the ways that we can strategically target systems of power and oppression in West Michigan, systems that are directly involved in and/or complicit in the current Israeli assault on Gaza and the larger Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. We need to build this movement!!!