Rising Majority calls on people of conscience and all progressive movements to stand with Palestine in this critical moment and demand CEASE FIRE and STOP THE GENOCIDE being led by the Israeli apartheid state and funded by the United States Government.

We join the thousands¹ who have been in the streets across the world to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are facing the worst bombardment in their history. We are outraged by this violence and condemn the Israeli apartheid state that is currently doubling down on collective punishment of the Palestinians and tightening its nearly 17-year siege of Gaza. This includes the prevention of any electricity, food, water and fuel to enter Gaza. And over the past few days, in addition to physical violence and attacks, we have witnessed the racist denigration of Palestinians as “barbaric” and “human animals” (in the words of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant). We will continue to strengthen our efforts for a Free Palestine and the pursuit of liberation, justice, and freedom for all oppressed people everywhere. 

The developments of recent days must be placed in the context of Israel’s colonization of Palestine, which began in 1948. For 75 years, the military occupation and apartheid regime has only intensified²: violently displacing hundreds of thousands of Indigenous Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and launching large-scale military offensives against the predominantly refugee population in Gaza who are trapped in an open-air prison with no means of escape. 

It is critical in this moment to bring attention to U.S. government’s role in aiding apartheid and war crimes, with Israel as its largest recipient of foreign assistance at $3.8 Billion a year and totals more than $260 Billion³. With this aid, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian Territory (West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza) are living under military occupation with profound restrictions on freedom of movement. In Gaza, Israel has subjected 2 million Palestinians to a brutal siege for over 16 years, where Israel can deny all access to basic necessities like food and clean water, and has created an uninhabitable situation⁴. Across historic Palestine, Palestinians, including women, children, and the elderly, live as second and third class citizens in an apartheid regime These are taxpayer dollars going to occupation, apartheid, war crimes, and genocide. On October 10, President Biden promised to send even more weapons and military funding to Israel. This course of action by the U.S. should be alarming to any of us who are concerned about the growing threats of authoritarianism and fascism in the U.S. and around the world, as the actions of the Israeli apartheid state bolster these efforts to target oppressed people with impunity. Support for Israeli apartheid and genocide against Palestinians is a threat to all of our struggles for multi-racial democracy. 

WHAT WE CAN DO:

• Individuals and progressive organizations are called to endorse this letter, share it broadly, and encourage more endorsements from grassroots organizations, faith leaders and places of worship, unions, scholars, and all people of conscience. 
• Plan or attend a local demonstration to express your community’s solidarity with Palestine and call for de-escalation, no more weapons to Israel, and an end to U.S. military and financial aid.
• Make a call to your congressional representatives and demand de-escalation by the U.S. congress immediately.
• Send an email to your congressional representatives to demand an end to U.S. military funding to Israel.
• Join the movement for Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which is inspired by the anti-apartheid movements in South Africa. 
• Connect with a local or national organization organizing for Palestine year-round to lend your time and resources. 
• Where possible, partner with progressive electeds to advance resolutions in your city calling for the end of U.S. financial and military aid to Israel. 

For people of conscience and progressive movements in the United States, we see many similarities between the resistance movement of Palestinians to military occupation and the movements we are part of here to end racist policing, incarceration, occupation of Indigenous territories, and white supremacist, Christian fundamentalism targeting Black people, people of color, immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, and the poor and working class. We see our struggles for a true, working class democracy and an economy that functions for the many and not the few reflected in the struggles of the Palestinians to determine their own future, control their own destinies, and to work, play, learn, and have families without the constant threats of displacement, dispossession, and death. We remember the solidarity expressed by the Palestinians during the uprisings after the police killing of Mike Brown: instructions on how to deal with tear gas, the weapon produced by the same manufacturer and deployed in Ferguson and Palestine. We call each other to action because our struggles are inextricably linked. 

The deaths of at least 2,500 Palestinians and Israelis since October 8, is an unnecessary demonstration that Israel’s military occupation of Palestine does not protect human life. It does not protect the interests or lives of all peace and justice loving people, whether in Palestine or the world over. We hope that it can be recognized now that the only way for anyone of any ethnic or religious background living Occupied Palestine to be free is for the end of the Israeli apartheid state. 

Our organizations below, representing broad sectors of movement and society, have endorsed this letter and call to action because of our belief not only in the right of oppressed people to resist but because of our belief that a different world is possible. A world in which the values of love, justice, dignity, solidarity, and care are central to our society, democracies, and economies. A world in which all human life is truly sacred.

ENDORSED ORGANIZATIONS/INDIVIDUALS:

Individual and organizational sign ons can be added here. This list will be updated daily.

1. Palestinian supporters rally outside of consulate in San Francisco: NBC Bay Area
2. Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Report by Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
3. How Much Aid Does the U.S. Give to Israel?: USA Today
4. Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories 2022: Report by Amnesty International