I was fined by the courts for non-violently resisting US complicity in Israeli’s war crimes against the Palestinians

On November 7th, I and two of my fellow resisters, went to Rep. Scholten’s office in the Gerald R. Ford Federal building to demand that the Congresswoman call for an immediate ceasefire with in Gaza and vote no of any future US military aid to Israel. ($3.8 billion annually).

The three of us were arrested and charged with trespassing. I have been posting updates of my court case on social media, where our three cases have been separated, even though we originally wanted to be tried in court together. Despite our desires to be tried collectively, the court decided to deal with me separately and had me attend a settlement proceedings on December 27th, followed by another court appearance this morning. 

Since the court would not allow me to enter a motion for consolidation of our cases, and because I did not want to seek a jury trial alone, I plead guilty this morning to the trespass charge.

The Judge ruled that I am to pay a fine of $375. Therefore, I have to pay $375 because I sat in Rep. Scholten’s office, had a conversation with her staff about the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, then refused to leave because she would not meet out demands. Rep. Scholten’s failure to meet our demands means that she is complicit in Israel’s war crimes, since she has repeatedly refused to call for an immediate ceasefire and will not opposed any future US military aid to Israel. The killing of civilians is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

There is a certain sense of irony, where I get arrested and then have to pay a fine for simply trying to prevent Israeli war crimes, which Rep. Scholten has repeatedly supported. Trying to stop the killing of civilians, including children, is a crime, while providing diplomatic and military support for Israel’s war crimes are protected within the US legal system. 

Of course, none of this is surprising, since the US was founded on genocidal policies against Indigenous people, which included the theft of their land, along with the other foundational piece upon which this country was founded, chattel slavery. I mean, I was arrested in the Gerald R. Ford Federal building and Gerald R. Ford was complicit in numerous war crimes as a member of Congress, as the Vice President and as President – Vietnam, Chile, Cambodia, Argentina and East Timor, just to name a few.

Therefore, we should not be surprised by these facts, but we sure as hell need to start acknowledging them, and then resisting the perpetuation of US Imperialism and its commitment to Neoliberal Capitalism and White Supremacy. The system is working exactly the way it was designed to. #ceasefirenow #freepalestine