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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">There is nothing we can do
about Israel other than everything</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Stephanie
Guilloud</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">March 20,
2024<br>
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<p>The Israeli and U.S.-funded genocide of Palestinians
has catalyzed a moment of global reckoning. This
moment is an echo of 2020 when the racial justice
uprisings following George Floyd’s murder offered a
moment of reckoning in the United States.</p>
<p>The horror that Palestinians are enduring is beyond
comprehension. As the world witnesses the genocide in
Gaza unfolding in real-time on social media, many of
us who are watching are saying – there is no coming
back from this. The experiment of the Israeli state is
over. Israel is showing the world that Zionism is an
undistilled form of Western imperialism that requires
this level of slaughter to maintain itself.</p>
<p>Police murdering Black people with impunity was not
new or unique within the U.S., nor is Israel’s
intentional destruction and ethnic cleansing new or
unique to Palestine. Genocide is fundamental to how
the West holds power, and the brutal strategy is
repeated, seen and unseen all over the world. </p>
<p>The war on Palestine opens a stark faultline where
more people see what many people around the world have
always known: the power systems that dominate our
daily lives – capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism
– require immense violence and brutality to keep
going. People who have survived and continue to live
through the worst of the West’s imperialist projects
to displace people, steal land, and control
populations know this. They stand with Palestine
because they know these systems, and their struggles
for liberation are connected. The current genocide in
Gaza is exposing these truths to multitudes, who may
or may not have experienced colonialism. In order to
dismantle and transform these violent systems, we need
strong social movements.</p>
<h2><strong>There is a rift</strong></h2>
<p>In this moment, after 75 years of brutal occupation,
Zionism is showing the world what is necessary to
continue its project: complete annihilation of the
Palestinian people. The Zionist system requires white
supremacy, direct violence, and monetary and political
support from the United States. In this moment, we are
all implicated, and there is a rift and an opportunity
in that. People of conscience, particularly those of
us in the United States have a dual responsibility: to
do everything we can to stop the genocide <em>and</em>
to develop a longer-term strategy that contends with
the most fundamental questions of the U.S. state,
capitalism, Zionism, and rising fascism. The truth is
we cannot do one without the other.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People of conscience, particularly those of us in
the United States have a dual responsibility: to do
everything we can to stop the genocide <em>and</em>
to develop a longer-term strategy that contends with
the most fundamental questions of the U.S. state,
capitalism, Zionism, and rising fascism. The truth
is we cannot do one without the other.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Every moment in history includes particular details
that create different opportunities. In this moment,
opportunities surface that could advance a clear
vision and pathway to either fundamental liberation,
as we call for a Free Palestine in the streets, or the
systems could fall towards a more consolidated and
insidious control of public and social life in every
state on the planet. Both are already playing out,
whether we recognize it or not.</p>
<p>A key to charting our course forward is studying our
own history. There have been other rifts, other
opportunities for global solidarity and action. 9/11
in 2001 was such a rift. It was not the beginning or
end of empire, but the U.S. and its allies used that
moment to launch two wars – one on Iraq and one called
the War on Terror, a permanent war that has morphed to
justify imperial attacks all over the world, domestic
surveillance in the U.S, and a legal and social
framework <a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/opposition-to-palestinian-rights-shaped-u-s-anti-terror-laws/"
moz-do-not-send="true">informed by Zionism and
Zionist racism</a> against Palestinians.</p>
<p>We protested then. Over<a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_protests"
moz-do-not-send="true"> 10 million people in 600
cities demonstrated on February 15, 2003</a>. These
unprecedented global protests were coordinated and
instigated by a call from thousands of people at the
Social Movement Assembly at the second World Social
Forum in Brazil. People understood that there was a
rift and a danger, and we acted to prevent an imperial
war for control of land and resources justified by a
lie of U.S. victimhood.</p>
<p>More recent history includes the rift of 2020. A
public health crisis compounded by white supremacist
violence that showed itself in an eight-minute video
of George Floyd’s murder. That moment catalyzed months
of uprisings all across the United States. Young
people were brave, beautiful, creative, and powerful,
calling out the whole system of racism and brutality.
We named the horror of police murders while also
naming the purpose and function of police to protect
capital. Many demanded the elimination of a system
designed to incarcerate and brutalize people,
particularly Black people. But there was not a full
reckoning. We opened up the ground, but we were not
able to undermine the state and stop police murders
that continue to happen on a daily basis.</p>
<p><strong>Today, we are witnessing another, potentially
deeper rift.</strong></p>
<p>October 7 exposed not only Israel and Zionism but the
Western colonial imperialist project as a whole. The
rift is a recognition that countries like the U.S. and
UK’s continued efforts to exploit, control, oppress,
and occupy many parts of the world, from Africa to
Asia to South America, are linked and require a
genocidal, authoritarian fascism to continue. Zionism,
often misunderstood as a religious framework, is
actually a colonial, legal, and social framework that
asserts Israel’s right to exist at the expense of the
Palestinian people and their land. Massive numbers
have mobilized in streets around the world in the last
five months in response to the Israeli attacks as
movements have mobilized in support of Palestine since
1948. But the forces aligned with Zionism and fascism
are also exploiting this moment and using it to expand
the police state in direct response to the movement
energy that is on the rise.</p>
<p>We are, again, protesting and mobilizing and
disrupting and refusing to be a part of this brutal
slaughter, misnamed as a conflict. We understand that
this situation is a continuation of colonial genocide
for control of land and resources rooted in the lie of
Israeli victimhood. We are naming the role of the
U.S., misnamed as “complicity,” and understand that
Israel requires direct and unconditional support from
the U.S. to continue its bombardment. At the same
time, we are recognizing the power of global
solidarity as we witness South Africa’s bold charge of
genocide at the International Court of Justice.</p>
<p>Civil society is splitting along lines made more
explicit by Israel’s genocidal war. In<a
href="https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/questioning-our-solidarities/ar-scath-a-cheile-a-mhaireann-na-daoine-under-the-shelter-of-each-other-people-survive"
moz-do-not-send="true"> North Ireland, Palestinian
flags are still flying in Catholic neighborhoods</a>,
and Israeli flags fly beside the British as signs of
clear allegiance – occupied standing with occupied,
occupier with occupier. In the U.S. South, we see good
old boys flying the Israeli and Confederate flags side
by side on their trucks, making a clear connection
between white supremacy and Zionism. At the same time,
an Atlanta<a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/at-a-megachurch-christmas-eve-service-outside-atlanta-a-call-for-a-ceasefire/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Black church dedicated their
Christmas Eve service to Palestine</a>, their pastor
wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. In a profound
act of solidarity and humanity,<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/us/politics/black-pastors-biden-gaza-israel.html#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20pastors%20signed%20open,hostages%20being%20held%20in%20Gaza."
moz-do-not-send="true"> thousands of Black pastors
signed a letter demanding a ceasefire</a> and
challenging the Biden administration. </p>
<p>For the last 166 days, people have resisted in the
millions across every border, race, and language.
There is an opportunity for U.S. social movements to
go big and go global. Not only is Israel’s war being
challenged by hundreds of non-Western nations and
previously colonized peoples, but the United States
and the entire arrangement of Western imperial and
colonial power are being directly confronted. As Tony
Karon <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/south-africa-icj-israel-genocide/"
moz-do-not-send="true">explained</a> in<em> The
Nation</em> in January: “Standing up for Palestine
has become shorthand for that global struggle to
change how the world is ruled.”</p>
<p>The forces standing with Palestine are potential
global allies to a stronger U.S social movement, and
if we are going to contend with impending fascism, we
have to move beyond protest towards more strategic
action that dismantles Zionism, truly aligns with
Palestinian and global liberation movements, and
crafts a powerful position to counter and rearrange
the established order.</p>
<h2><strong>We are at a crossroads</strong></h2>
<p>In the wake of the racial justice uprisings of 2020,
organizers asked similar questions that we ask in this
moment. Abolition of police and prisons surfaced more
widely as a strategic framework because of the decades
of groundwork laid by organizers and strategists who
refused to compromise or find a liberal stopgap out of
the fundamental crisis of state violence. Similar to
contending with the entrenched reality of Israeli
occupation, the work to abolish prison systems and
police is not a reformist endeavor. Social control
mechanisms are embedded in all parts of the current
power arrangement in Israel and in the U.S. Like one
of the abolition movement leaders,<a
href="https://www.documentjournal.com/2023/04/ruth-wilson-gilmore-abolition-geography-politics-literature-prison-reform-blm-tyre-nichols/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Ruth Wilson Gilmore</a>,
says, <em>“Abolition requires that we change one
thing: everything.”</em></p>
<p>Within an abolitionist framework, contending with the
inherent violence and social control of the state
requires completely abolishing systems of prisons,
police, and surveillance. Though there are tactical
reforms that relieve conditions, the primary strategy
of abolition is to end that system and build something
else. Similarly, there is no reformist alternative to
Zionism as a tool of Western power. And the corporate
and political actors within empire know it: “This is
not a small issue. From my perspective it’s not just
about Israel,” the CEO of Palantir, Alexander Karp, <a
href="https://fortune.com/2024/03/14/palantir-alex-karp-lose-staff-israel-stance/"
moz-do-not-send="true">told a reporter</a> on March
14: “Do you believe in the West? Do you believe that
the West has created a superior way of living. Are you
willing to admit you believe that?”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Contending with Zionism requires a break with
empire. In short: there is nothing we can do about
Israel, other than everything. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Contending with Zionism requires a break with empire.
In short: there is nothing we can do about Israel,
other than everything. </p>
<p>The opportunity within this moment is to develop a
sharper strategy that activates the millions of people
who see the faultlines and feel the rift. </p>
<h2><strong>Zionism is a unifying force opening pathways
for fascism</strong></h2>
<p>Israel is a fascist state, and its relentless
genocide is blasting open more pathways for global
fascism to establish itself. A growing number of
fundamentalists and authoritarians entrenched in white
supremacy and Islamophobia have been setting course
across the globe over the last few years. Most
recently, Argentina voted in a<a
href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/after-electing-right-wing-populist-milei-as-president-argentina-faces-uncharted-path"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Trump-like right-wing
president in November 2023</a> who is a strong
supporter of Israel,<a
href="https://www.trtworld.com/latin-america/fanatic-of-israel-what-is-driving-argentinas-president-elect-javier-mileis-obsession-15943848"
moz-do-not-send="true"> pushing a Zionist agenda</a>,
waving the Israeli flag at his rallies in October, and
making Israel one of his first trips as president. In
January, as Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza,
India’s fundamentalist authoritarian Modi celebrated
the<a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/22/indias-modi-opens-ram-temple-built-on-site-of-demolished-mosque-in-ayodhya"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Hindu temple on the razed
grounds of the Ayodhya mosque</a> in January, and
Italy’s government<a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/19/europe/italy-fascist-salute-legal-court-intl/index.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"> passed laws to protect
public expressions of fascis</a>m.<a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/9/protesters-and-security-forces-clash-in-senegal-over-election-delay"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Senegal’s president
postponed elections</a>, jailed movement leaders,
and sparked massive protests. These moves point
towards a growing fascist consolidation. Israel’s
attacks are emboldened, not just in Gaza but in the
military and social violence against Palestinians in
the West Bank. The U.S.’s brutal attacks on Yemen in
response to their economic blockades in defense of
Palestinians show what the empire is willing to do to
protect itself, even in the face of global
condemnation.</p>
<p>The conditions are set for Zionism to fuel fascism on
a global level and prevent social movements from
rising in the United States. <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2024/02/21/adl-palestine-terrorism-legislation/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Zionism and anti-Palestinian
racism have been fundamental to the “war on terror”</a>
that started 20 years ago when 9/11 was used as a
pretext for permanent war. The U.S. created<a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-terror-continues-target-palestine-activists"
moz-do-not-send="true"> legal and social frameworks
of “terrorism”</a> to undermine global resistance
and to counter dissent, public speech, and organizing
in the United States. Zionism and the War on Terror
have been tools used to protect capital and also to
attack resistance and liberation movements,
particularly those led by Black, Palestinian, Muslim,
and immigrant communities. Globally, the U.S. uses the
threat of “terrorism” to expand military outposts in
every corner of the world, and here, the<a
href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/29/fbi-surveillance-black-activists/#:~:text=The%20latest%20batch%20of%20FBI,the%20activities%20of%20individuals%20and"
moz-do-not-send="true"> FBI uses expanded
surveillance to track Black anti-police protesters</a>,
and Zionism becomes a tool to turn protest into
terrorism.</p>
<h2><strong>Zionism fuels state repression in the U.S.</strong></h2>
<p>Zionism is a perfect vehicle for the expansion of the
police state in the United States. Both liberals and
the extreme right in the United States are using
Zionism to advance a strategy that expands a<a
href="https://lrna.org/taking-the-offensive-to-defeat-fascism/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> social base for fascism</a>,
deepens control of public institutions, and sets the
stage for consolidation at the federal level,
protected by the police state with support from
financial institutions, media, and higher education.
Today, legislation<a
href="https://msmagazine.com/2024/02/04/the-politics-of-defining-anti-semitism/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> weaponizing the definition
of antisemitism</a> to equate it with anti-Zionism
and stifle pro-Palestinian actions is passing with
bipartisan support. These attacks allow increased
constriction of public discourse and dissent, which
will be legislated at school board, university, city,
state, and federal levels.</p>
<p>Beyond the explicit attacks against Palestinians and
Palestine supporters in the U.S., Zionism is also
being used to roll back any of the gains made from
racial and social justice movements over the last
decade. In 2020, during the racial justice uprisings,
the national conversation about race and police was
forced into a broader arena. Some workplaces,
universities, and organizations were pressured to
institute training or make concessionary changes in
the form of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
programs. That small gain (and weak response) to
structural and institutional racism in the U.S. has
been undone in a larger offensive right-wing play to
control public discourse and education. The
rightwing’s first hit in this era was K-12 social
studies and U.S. history classes, using “Critical Race
Theory” as the weapon. As students and teachers
challenge Zionism in this moment, the same Manhattan
Institute operators like<a
href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-01-07/harvard-claudine-gay-christopher-rufo-diversity-equity-inclusion"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Chris Rufo are weaponizing
Zionism to undo DEI</a> and basic structural and
constitutional protections throughout <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/us/alabama-bill-bans-dei-public-universities-reaj/index.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">higher education systems</a>,
taking down Black leadership as they do it.</p>
<p>The university’s answer to the challenge of systemic
racism is looking more and more like intimidation and
censorship. The state’s answer to systemic racism and
growing economic distress in the U.S. is police
expansions like Cop City combined with new forms of
state repression, which also has ties to Zionism. </p>
<p>Last summer, thousands of people in Atlanta organized
to stop Cop City, a $100 million police training
facility set to be built on public land and a fragile
ecosystem. The decision to build Cop City was a direct
response to the racial justice uprisings in 2020. A
way for Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to “boost the
morale” of a police force that was being challenged
for murder, brutality, and aggression that kills Black
people without consequences. Community organizations
like Project South and many others, engaged people on
every block in our neighborhood, and there was very
little confusion as to why the city of Atlanta had
decided to build the largest urban warfare training
compound in the country. Organizers provided
additional information about who was paying for it –
mostly us, with our public taxes. We informed people
that Home Depot, Wells Fargo, and other corporations
were putting up the other millions through the Atlanta
Police Foundation. We asked – <em>Why do you think
that the banks are funding a police training center
that includes bombing facilities and fake apartment
buildings to practice raids in our neighborhoods?</em>
They answered – <em>Well, they’re preparing for
something. Sounds like they’re preparing for martial
law. </em></p>
<p>Beyond the direct brutality of the police, the
boundaries of state repression are being tested in
many Southern political spheres, and they are using
Zionism and the current rift to do it. In Georgia, we
are witnessing the unique consolidation of a
Republican supermajority at the state level and a
predominantly Black Democratic Atlanta City Council
working in lockstep to expand the police state. During
this legislative session, the state is passing
multiple laws to criminalize protest while the city
uses public funds to build Cop City. On January 22, as
the Atlanta city council voted again to shut down a
legitimate referendum process to put Cop City on the
ballot, the Republican congress, in session not even a
block away, passed a<a
href="https://projectsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/HB-30-Fact-Sheet1.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true"> bill that redefines
antisemitism to criminalize protest against Zionism</a>
and<a href="https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/SB359/2023"
moz-do-not-send="true"> dropped a bill to expand
RICO laws to criminalize actions based on political
affiliation and belief</a>. The same body is hoping
to<a
href="https://www.acluga.org/en/press-releases/press-release-aclu-urges-georgia-lawmakers-reject-unnecessary-bill-expanding-georgias"
moz-do-not-send="true"> expand</a> the definition of
“terrorism” to include basic forms of protest. </p>
<p>When these laws go into effect – in addition to the
anti-trans laws, anti-abortion laws, and cash bail
laws being passed across the South and the U.S. – they
will harm real people and reduce an already decimated
public infrastructure for health, education, and
survival to a minimal thread. </p>
<p>We are witnessing a consolidation of the ruling
liberal and conservative ideologies within U.S. power
against the backdrop of Zionism. That consolidation
represents a threat as global fascism rises, but it
also creates an opportunity for social movements to
challenge the whole setup. What if our U.S.-based
movements aligned more strategically with the global
upswell for Palestine?</p>
<h2><strong>Palestine is a call for fundamental
transformation</strong></h2>
<p>The Palestinian struggle against Zionism reflects a
challenge to the Western world order. The Palestinians
are located at a particular nexus of colonialism and
imperialism fueled by the guilt of the Western world
in the 20<sup>th</sup> century and distilled by white
supremacy and compounded by Islamophobia in a post
9-11 21<sup>st</sup> century world. To be in alignment
with Palestine directly implicates and upends that
arrangement.</p>
<p>World nations are splitting along this rift and
frontline: one set of mostly Western nations in line
with the U.S. supporting and funding genocide and the
other challenging Israel, Zionism, and Western empire
and standing in solidarity with Palestine.<a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240219-brazil-recalls-ambassador-to-israel-in-row-over-lulas-gaza-comments/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Brazil recalled its
ambassador</a> to Israel in the last few weeks after
President Lula called out Israel’s genocide at the
African Union Summit. Bolivia severed diplomatic
relations with Israel early in October, and Chile and
Colombia recalled their ambassadors and criticized
Israel’s actions as war crimes, crimes against
humanity.<a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/20/israels-apartheid-must-end-south-africa-says-at-icj-hearing"
moz-do-not-send="true"> South Africa’s case against
Israel at the International Court of Justice</a> was
rooted in a broader history and analysis of their own
apartheid regime and the global solidarity that
supported its end. Global social movements from Congo
to Senegal to Kenya to New Zealand to Ireland are
connecting Palestinian freedom and the end to Israeli
occupation to a broader call for liberation.</p>
<p>The decades-long history of U.S.-based movement in
solidarity with Palestine creates the conditions for
more meaningful possibilities in this moment,
exemplified by the overwhelming numbers of people
showing up in the streets, walking out of schools,
disrupting political and business gatherings, and
divesting from Israeli products. <a
href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/policy-statements/palestine/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Historic movements like SNCC
in the U.S. South</a> in the 1960s to the newer
generation of<a
href="https://ndncollective.org/right-of-return-is-landback/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> indigenous social movements</a>
and <a href="https://www.blackforpalestine.com/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Black liberation movements</a>
recognize the significance of the Palestinian
resistance to Zionism and Western power. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Social movements in the U.S. have a responsibility
to deepen people’s understanding of our collective
stake in Palestinian liberation in the context of
all people’s liberation. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Social movements in the U.S. have a responsibility to
deepen people’s understanding of our collective stake
in Palestinian liberation in the context of all
people’s liberation. There is an opportunity to
connect the resistance to a broader power analysis
because of the unique position of Palestine and our
unique position within the United States. Nylah
Burton, a young Black journalist, writes that<a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/palestine-awakens-the-revolution/"
moz-do-not-send="true"> “bearing witness to Israel’s
genocide in Palestine has changed people forever”</a>
and is leading to a generation of people rejecting the
West as a whole. </p>
<p>We could lose that opportunity if we do not connect
people to meaningful long-term actions. Many in the
U.S. are new to this fight, coming to consciousness at
a moment when multiple crises are compounding in
catastrophic ways on every level: ecological,
economic, and social. What might be possible if we
organized that base beyond mobilizations?</p>
<p>Additionally, we will have to build more creative
strategies and sets of tactics to contend with the
2024 elections. The <a
href="https://apnews.com/article/uncommitted-biden-trump-war-15f96be36b4d5ac167c7ceda72fe65d1"
moz-do-not-send="true">hundreds of thousands of
protest votes of “uncommitted”</a> is a show of
force and politicizes our refusal to accept the binary
of the terrible and not <em>as</em> terrible. But we
will have to work hard and strategically to make that
count and build a stronger position <em>after </em>the
elections, no matter what happens. The Democrats look
set to lose in a moment when it is also becoming more
and more clear to more and more people that no one is
truly safer if they win.</p>
<h2><strong>We are up against a global order, what if we
acted like it? </strong></h2>
<p>Israel cannot be reformed. Genocide is required to
continue the Zionist project. Fundamental
transformation of the system is necessary to stop it.
That will require more than protest. </p>
<p>Global social movements and the Palestinian
liberation movement will determine their courses of
action based on their specific sets of conditions and
visions. This moment requires the strategic and active
solidarity of U.S.-based movements, and we need to
recognize our position. Israel’s strength is unique in
the world because of its proximity and total reliance
on the United States. <em>What is our unique
leverage?</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Genocide is required to continue the Zionist
project. Fundamental transformation of the system is
necessary to stop it. That will require more than
protest. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>We absolutely need convergences of public resistance
where<a
href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654576"
moz-do-not-send="true"> hundreds of thousands of
people</a> gather in DC, Houston, Chicago, and
Atlanta. We need demonstrations where we see ourselves
as agents of power in a time of intimidation. Our
ability to organize to shut down bridges in New York
City, ports in Oakland, and freeways in Chicago,
Durham, San Francisco, and many small towns shows us
that we are not alone and demonstrates our disgust and
resistance from within the center of the empire. But
mass mobilizations, though they show us our numbers,
our courage, and our connections, are not sufficient
to counter what is happening.</p>
<p>In the U.S., we have a responsibility to sharpen our
tactics in line with bigger global strategies and in
opposition to the simultaneous rise of the police
state. Zionism is being used to fuel the expansion of
the police state in the United States through pushing
state repression and anti-protest laws. Is there a
strategic defense to the rise of fascism in the U.S.
that also divests from Zionism on a global scale? </p>
<p>Let’s expose the players who are invested in a
growing police state, let’s reveal and dismantle the
global deadly police exchange programs like the <a
href="https://prismreports.org/2023/11/14/stop-cop-city-gilee-palestinian-genocide/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Georgia International Law
Enforcement Exchange</a> (GILEE) that trains U.S.
police in Israel. Let’s shut down Atlanta’s video
surveillance system, which is one of the largest in
the world, using Israeli technology and connect that
work to challenging laws that turn our protests into
felonies. Let’s dismantle the <a
href="https://twitter.com/NationalSJP/status/1767762403117207782?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet"
moz-do-not-send="true">Cop Cities </a>of this
country with an eye toward building a powerful social
movement with a clear-eyed view of the stakes and
analysis of how local, regional, national, and global
systems operate. </p>
<p>There is an incredible opportunity to turn the eyes
of the U.S. to the imperial and occupation projects in
Haiti, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and at our
own borders. Our actions should connect to existing
decolonization movements like Landback and Indigenous
movements in the U.S. and Canada to Puerto Rico,
Hawai’i and beyond. We have an opportunity to see
ourselves in a broader context of the past decades of
resistance that got us to this moment and the current
reality of compounded crises across many global
fields. We need to build out our base by inviting
people into generative processes to learn, prepare,
and take action within a coordinated plan. </p>
<p>What if every Free Palestine protest, city council
ordinance, and freeway block was coordinated to a
broader divestment strategy? What if a broad campaign
to end Israeli occupation was connected to protecting
public space and defeating the expansion of using RICO
laws to intimidate organizers? </p>
<p>Public space is being eroded, and Zionism is the tool
that is speeding it up.<a
href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/us-campus-crackdown-pro-palestine-activism"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Universities are once again
sites of struggle</a> where students are
criminalized and <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/26/palestinian-students-shot-wounded-vermont"
moz-do-not-send="true">targeted by violence</a>, and
faculty are fired or intimidated from teaching
history. Let’s mobilize our numbers to hold and assert
our authority in public space through <a
href="https://www.instagram.com/familiesforceasefirephilly/"
moz-do-not-send="true">families and children</a>
calling for ceasefire with kite flights, ignoring flag
bans on <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2023/11/2/celtic-fans-green-brigade-palestine-support-israel-war-on-gaza"
moz-do-not-send="true">soccer matches</a>, and
organizing across university spaces to challenge and
re-arrange the structures that suppress freedom of
speech, thought, and learning. </p>
<p>We need more than static town halls, we need ongoing
assemblies where community members analyze the
situations we face and make decisions about how to
protect our schools, neighborhoods, and organizations.
Let’s build social movements rooted in our history and
driven by a younger generation that is showing itself
to be rigorous, brave, and forward looking.</p>
<h2><strong>We are not just protesters. We are building
a different world.</strong></h2>
<p>We have an opportunity to reimagine a future of how
the world works. Millions have mobilized over these
past five months to demonstrate a tremendous
expression of dissent to this current genocide for
control of land and resources justified by the lie of
Israeli victimhood, a parallel of the lie of U.S.
victimhood after 9/11. And just like in 2003, when our
massive, global protests did not prevent the Iraq war,
our massive, global protests are not stopping this
genocide. To be effective in engaging this moment, we
need to connect our mass mobilizations to organizing
infrastructure that can contend for power. </p>
<p>To be clear, the public expression of dissent and
being able to see our own power in our numbers is
necessary and significant. We just have to be more
strategic. And we have to be more intentionally
global. </p>
<p>There is a rift. This call to action and strategy is
a hopeful intervention to come up with better moves.
To build stronger, faster and more sustained movement
actions informed by the larger context and our
long-term vision. Let us be smart, which means seeing
the path behind us and the 20, 30 years of brave
resistance that led to this moment. And let us see 20,
30 years ahead, so that we imagine beyond the 2024
elections and toward our own liberation.</p>
<p>Let’s build up U.S. social movement forces in order
to align with global movements. Let’s follow the
leadership of people in the <a
href="https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/about"
moz-do-not-send="true">Palestinian Youth Movement</a>
and Black young people who have been sharpening their
practices for the last ten years in the streets. Let
the courage of <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/16/everybodys-fight-palestinians-hail-the-sacrifice-of-corrie-bushnell"
moz-do-not-send="true">Rachel Corrie in 2013</a>,
the woman in Atlanta who set herself on fire wrapped
in a Palestinian flag, and the blazing death of Aaron
Bushnell, an Air Force man from San Antonio calling
for a Free Palestine, embolden us to take bigger
risks. </p>
<p>Let us assemble and decide to do more that connects
our solutions to the actual threat, to the fundamental
arrangement of Western empire and the fascist forces
rising to protect it. Let us see our path in alignment
with the rest of the globe. With those who are already
fighting these repressions and horrors. Let us hear
the call that Mohammed El Kurd in his recent article “<a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/are-we-indeed-all-palestinians/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Are we indeed all
Palestinians?</a>” implores us to contend with: <em>What
are the pretenses that absolve us from participating
in history? . . . Because Gaza cannot fight the
empire on its own.</em></p>
<p>Let us use our leverage to stop this death march.
Let’s show ourselves who we are, what we really want,
and what we’re willing to do to get it.</p>
<p>This is about rearranging the world. It’s our only
way through. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Stephanie Guilloud</strong><br>
Stephanie Guilloud is the Movement Organizing Senior
Strategist at <a href="https://projectsouth.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Project South: Institute for
the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide</a>based in
Atlanta, Georgia. Guilloud brings close to three
decades of organizing experience and leadership in
Southern movement and global justice work. Stephanie
co-created the <a
href="https://www.shutdownwto20.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Organizers’ History site</a>
related to her direct action organizing in 1999 to
shut down the World Trade Organization, and edited
Project South’s People’s Movement Assembly Organizing
Handbook.</p>
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