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<h1 class="entry-title">Embargo movement exposes Oakland airport\u2019s role in weapons shipments to Israel</h1><div class="gmail-mh-meta entry-meta">
<span class="entry-meta-date gmail-updated"><a href="https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2025/12/">December 20, 2025</a></span>
<span class="entry-meta-author gmail-author gmail-vcard"><a class="gmail-fn" href="https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/guest-author/lallan_schoenstein/">Lallan Schoenstein</a> - </span><font size="1"><a href="https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2025/12/20/embargo-movement-exposes-oakland-airports-role-in-weapons-shipments-to-israel/">https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2025/12/20/embargo-movement-exposes-oakland-airports-role-in-weapons-shipments-to-israel/</a></font></div>
<div class="entry-content gmail-clearfix gmail-gsp_dc gmail-gsp_c_el_10000 gmail-gsp_content_wrapper_set gmail-gsp_block_wrp_ssblock_68866 gmail-gsp_pr__h gmail-gsp_htm_processed_ssblock_68866"><div class="gmail-ssblock gmail-ssblock-touch-0 gmail-ssblock-wrp-0 gmail-gsp_processed gmail-lde_PgEVDSim"></div></div><div class="gmail-ssblock gmail-ssblock-touch-0 gmail-ssblock-wrp-0 gmail-gsp_processed gmail-lde_PgEVDSim"></div><a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.struggle-la-lucha.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Oaklandembargo_160-1024x683-1.jpg?quality=89&ssl=1"><img class="gmail-wp-image-83519" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.struggle-la-lucha.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Oaklandembargo_160-1024x683-1.jpg?resize=678%2C452&quality=89&ssl=1" alt="Oaklandembargo 160 1024x683" width="521" height="347" style="margin-right: 25px;"></a>Port of Oakland, Dec. 18 \u2013 Union and other activists protested against the shipment of weapons to Israel.
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Unions and community organizations
demonstrated at the Port of Oakland on Dec. 18 as part of an ongoing
campaign to demand an embargo on the shipment of weapons to Israel from
both the city\u2019s sea port and air port (OAK).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), in coordination with The People\u2019s Embargo for Palestine (PEP), released a report titled \u201c<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6892773634f0fe2a947a7f89/t/68af2b618b32ba25e7b347c1/1756332887757/Exposing-Oakland-Airports-Military-Cargo-Shipments-to-Israel.pdf">Exposing Oakland\u2019s Military Cargo Shipments to Israel</a>\u201d
last August. They were horrified to discover that Oakland, California, a
city with a progressive history of solidarity with Palestine, had
become one of the most frequent departure points for shipping F-35
bomber components to Israel.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The report details FedEx\u2019s routine
shipments of components for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet to
Israel\u2019s Nevatim Air Base. It describes OAK as a \u201cdependable conduit for
critical military technologies,\u201d concluding \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt
that military cargo being shipped out of OAK has been used by the
Israeli Air Force to carry out airstrikes and commit genocide in Gaza.\u201d</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">\u201cAt the same airport where we pick up
and send off our loved ones, bomb droppers and surveillance systems for
the lethal F-35 jet are being loaded and transported to Israel,\u201d said
Aisha Nizar of the Palestinian Youth Movement. \u201cOakland\u2019s central role
in the global F-35 supply chain was concealed from its union members,
educators, city officials, and residents, and is now indisputable.
Serving as a hub for military cargo to Israel is an attack on everything
this city stands for.\u201d</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">According to their research, the
shipments included bomb release units for 2,000-pound bunker-busters,
guidance systems, and targeting components \u2014 all transported through
civilian infrastructure. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The revelation was particularly
shocking because Oakland passed one of the first ceasefire resolutions
in November 2023, and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Local 10 has long refused to handle Israeli military cargo at the
maritime port.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Clarence Thomas, a lifelong resident
of Oakland and a retired member of the ILWU Local 10, said at the Dec.
18 protest: \u201cFor three generations, my family has made their living
working the docks at the Port of Oakland. As an executive board member
of the ILWU San Francisco Pensioners, I am here today, speaking in
support of the Oakland People\u2019s Arms Embargo to demand that the port of
Oakland halt the transportation of military materials to Israel,
facilitating the genocide, displacement, and human suffering of the
Palestinian population in Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">\u201cILWU Local 10 has a long history of
taking solidarity actions in support of workers and people fighting
against oppression. Nelson Mandela, speaking at the Oakland Coliseum in
1990 before 60 thousand people, acknowledged that Local 10 refused to
unload South African cargo for 11 days in 1984, contributing to the
success of the anti-apartheid struggle.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">\u201cThis history has served as the
foundation for Local 10\u2019s Palestinian solidarity actions for \u2018Block the
Boat\u2019 by not crossing picket lines of AROC and the Palestinian Youth
Movement protesting ZIM shipping lines.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">\u201cAs a radical trade unionist, I
believe that \u2018Peace is Union Business,\u2019 which is why I\u2019m lending my
voice to stopping the Port\u2019s complicity in genocide. That makes the
Port of Oakland junior partners, with the defense contractors, who are
benefiting from the killing of our sisters and brothers in Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">\u201cThese defense contractors include:
Lockheed Martin, which Supplies F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, Hellfire
missiles, and components for other systems used in airstrikes; Boeing,
which provides F-15 fighter jets, Apache helicopters; General Dynamics,
which produces metal bodies for MK-80 series bombs and artillery shells
used in Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">\u201cThis explains why the Port wanted to
keep the supply chain deal for the Oakland Airport transporting weapons
of war materials to Israel hidden from the public. No transparency, no
democracy, just complete the blood money deal. No one has to know. Well,
guess what? Now we know and we want it to stop!! STOP the Genocide!
FREE FREE PALESTINE!\u201d</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The People\u2019s Embargo for Palestine
has built strong roots in the Oakland labor movement, where, along with
the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, others
have pledged support, including: UNITE HERE Local 2; United Auto Workers
Region 6; Oakland Education Association; California Faculty Assoc.-San
Francisco State University, SEIU Local 1938; National Organization of
Legal Service Workers, UAW Local 2320; Adjuncts Come Together \u2013 United
Auto Workers, Local 7902; Bay Area Legal Aid Workers, UAW Local 2320;
Inlandboatmen\u2019s Union of the Pacific \u2013 San Francisco region; California
Nurses Association; Service Employees International Union (SEIU) LOCAL
1021; Berkley Federation of Teachers; Greenliners United \u2013 UAW; Local
2103; UAW Local 2350; United Educators of San Francisco (UESF); Labor
for Palestine National Network; Trabajadores Unidos Workers United;
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees \u2014 Local
3299</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Contact The People\u2019s Embargo for Palestine (PEP): </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400"><a href="mailto:oakland@armsembargonow.com">oakland@armsembargonow.com</a></span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.embargoforpalestine.com"><span style="font-weight:400">https://www.embargoforpalestine.com</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6892773634f0fe2a947a7f89/t/68af2b618b32ba25e7b347c1/1756332887757/Exposing-Oakland-Airports-Military-Cargo-Shipments-to-Israel.pdf" rel=""><img class="gmail-alignnone gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-83520" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.struggle-la-lucha.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Oaklandwmbartgoreport-1.jpg?resize=612%2C792&quality=89&ssl=1" alt="Exposing Oakland Airports Military Cargo Shipments to Israel.pdf" width="403" height="521" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p>
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