“In Grief and Solidarity”: A Statement of Solidarity With Palestine

Late last week, my friends Juliana Pino and Tanuja Devi Jagernauth reached out about the idea of crafting a statement of solidarity with Palestine that organizers across our movements could sign. The following message is about grief and galvanization. Above all, it is a call to action. If you would like to co-sign the statement, you will find instructions below. As of now, over 300 organizers have signed this statement.

As activists and organizers building movements for power in the United States, we strongly condemn and decry the 75-year-old settler-colonial occupation of Palestine, ongoing apartheid toward Palestinians, and the active campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinian people being carried out by the government of Israel with the support of its backers in the United States government and other nations.

As we bear witness and collectively mourn, we refuse to be silent in light of these atrocities, and we believe that organizers and social justice organizations have a special responsibility to use our power to take action, name what is happening, and call for an end to Israeli apartheid, the colonial theft of lands, the genocidal violence Israel is presently enacting, and the United States’ financial support of Israeli aggression and apartheid.

We are organizers on many fronts. Our work addresses the horrors of the prison industrial complex, the police state, bordering, and the imperial war machine. We organize for labor justice, environmental justice, reproductive justice, disability justice, and beyond. In Palestinian struggle, we see iterations of all of these struggles. The fight for a free Palestine is a fight for a freer world, where colonial logics of who is worthy of life, freedom, and land are upended. In the occupation of Palestine, we see the violence of incarceration, policing, borders, and war. We see environmental racism, gender-based violence, reproductive violence, and ableism.

Palestine has served as a laboratory for Israel’s violent technologies of war-making, surveillance, and policing. Israel has exported those technologies, along with its ethno-nationalist, authoritarian worldview to countries around the world. As Antony Loewenstein has written, Israel is making despotism “shareable with compact technology.” When we say that our liberation is inextricably linked to the liberation of the Palestinian people, we are not only recognizing our shared humanity, but also alluding to the realities of settler colonialism and imperialism, in which frameworks and technologies of oppression are imported and exported globally.

In addition to land theft and long-term resource deprivation as key features of Israel’s settler-colonial violations toward Palestinians, it is crucial to note that the Israeli government has now also chosen to weaponize deprivation of water, energy, food, fuel, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid against over two million Palestinians in Gaza. These are genocidal actions that violate all standards of human decency.

To rain down bombardment upon a population trapped in a concentration camp with no means of escape, in addition to hospitals and other infrastructure crucial to life, crushes life and destroys the potential for a future alike.

The Israeli government has ordered over a million people to immediately vacate their homes and move southward while continuing to ensure deprivation and enacting thorough human and ecological death. The Israeli government has instructed medical facilities to rapidly relocate operations, patients, and staff, and Amnesty International and other health and medical aid organizations have noted that this is virtually impossible: with no transportation access or access to fuel, children, sick, elderly, pregnant people, and disabled people cannot make this journey. These directives were followed by a wretched escalation in attacks on escape routes and hospital facilities alike. Each and all of these actions violate every form of social justice.

We denounce settler-colonial violence in all its forms. This violence must stop. Palestinians have the right to demand their liberation and access to that which will enable them to thrive.

We denounce the existence of and increase of anti-Palestinian, anti-Islamic, and anti-Arab violence everywhere, including verbal and physical attacks, dehumanization of any form, hateful and racist statements, and tacit or explicit encouragement of further violence—rhetoric and actions that have already had an impact on Chicagoland communities with the horrifying murder of six-year-old Palestinian child Wadea Al-Fayoume and attack on his mother in Plainfield by their landlord this past weekend.

We denounce the existence of and increase of antisemitic violence and hate, including harassment and attacks against anti-Zionist Jewish friends and comrades. We cannot and must not continue to allow the conflation of Jewish identity with the Israeli state and Zionism. This conflation only enables Zionism to flourish and fuels the violence of white supremacists.

We denounce the practice of workers, artists, and community organizations being punished for supporting Palestinian liberation. We refuse to accept a world in which our safety and economic survival is predicated on the tacit alignment with genocide and oppression.

We call upon other organizers and organizations to join us in strongly condemning the violent dehumanization and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and demanding both a ceasefire and a permanent end to settler-colonial occupation. Together we must take action against this violence.

We call on our communities to answer the call of Palestinian activists and thinkers like Rasha Abdulhadi, who has stated, “Wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. If it's a handful, throw it. If it's a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw.”

We call upon other organizers and social justice organizations to uplift additional demands from Palestinian organizers, shaping what solidarity is needed now and into the future, including in continuing boycott, divest, and sanctions campaigns and actions to delegitimize Zionism and Zionist colonialism.

We call upon other organizers and social justice organizations to resist the isolation and fear that Zionist oppression perpetuates and embrace this moment to collectively and publicly grieve. In lifting our voices, let us create a collective space to metabolize the grief and pain we are witnessing and channel it into acts of love and solidarity.

As Rabbi Brant Rosen wrote on Yom Kippur this year in a sermon about Jewish anti-Zionism, "Let us find the courage to speak the words that must be spoken. Let our words kindle sparks of possibility, and may they inspire us all to create the world we know is possible."

If you wish to cosign this statement, you can do so by contacting the organizers at palestinesolidaritystatement@gmail.com.

In solidarity and grief,

Juliana Pino Alcaraz

Kelly Hayes

Tanuja Devi Jagernauth

Maya Schenwar
Monica Trinidad

Priya Shah

Ashon Crawley
Kara Rodriguez

Aly Wane/ Immigrant Justice Network

Kristina Tendilla

David Kaib

Adaku Utah

Aaron Goggans

Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle

Timmy Châu

Benji Hart

Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha

Andrea J. Ritchie

Shira Hassan

Lisa Fithian

Pam Tau Lee

Darakshan Raja

Dan Berger
Nadine Naber, Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS)

Chinyere Tutashinda

Rabbi Brant Rosen

Rachael Perrotta

Rafa Kidvai

Amisha Patel

Bettina Johnson

Gail Smith

Joy Messinger

Ricardo Gamboa, Artist, Activist & Creator of The Hoodoisie

Kim Kelly
Keisa Reynolds
The Rev. Elle Dowd
Chris Geovanis
Leslie Mac

Jonathan Stegall

Ann-Meredith Wootton, Deep Down Roots Project

Erin Tinnon

Lauren Vallone

Robin Berryman
Kelsey Atkinson

Kimberly Wasserman

Antonio Lopez

Olga Bautista

carrie kaufman, disabled jewish writer

Shenaaz Janmohamed / executive director Queer Crescent

Ayesha Atique

Dr. Tulia Rubero, DC, LAc

Edith Tovar

Tony Alvarado-Rivera

Andrea Ortiz

Nateo Carreño

Ann Russo

Rachel Williams

Professor Laila Farah Depaul University

Crystal Sanchez

shane bernardo

Whine Club

Shruthi Kannan

Heather Milton-Lightening, Just Transition Institute, Treaty4 Rights & Title holder

Sonia Guiñansaca - ARTIST

Afiya Sajwani

Aqdas Aftab

Cori Nakamura Lin

Hana Worku

Jillian Westerfield

Jennie Situ

Sunjay Kumar

mai c. doan

Kim Christoffel, LICSW

Tara Branham

Marissa Fenley

Danielle Mkali

Lara Honey-Brooks

Chiara Francesca Galimberti LAc

Steph Barkan

Freddy Martinez, Lucy Parsons Labs

Harsh J. Gagoomal

Brenda Santoyo

Óscar Gabriel Sánchez

Xanat Sobrevilla

Claudia Leung

Nancy Meza

JJ Ueunten, Nikkei Uprising

Brit Cooper Robinson

Stephanie Roades

Casey Wright

Eugenia Huang

Blake Nemec

Kelly Knabb

Amita Swadhin & Jaden Fields, Co-Directors of Mirror Memoirs

melisa stephen

Heather Sweeney

Shabana Mir, Associate Professor, American Islamic College, Chicago

Shweta Moorthy

Anna Piela / Northwestern University

Stephanie Skora | Girl I Guess Progressive Voter Guide

The Support Ho(s)e Collective

Rachel Wallis

Katrina Dion

Emi Kane

Lafemmebear stand with Palestine 🇵🇸

Christina Armstrong

Rev. Alicia Crosby Mack

Jose Acosta, Environmental Justice Advocate

Enrique Pinedo

edxi betts/ artist at awQward Talent

Josh Honn

Jung Yoon, campaign director Grassroots Collaborative

Marya Spont-Lemus

Stephanie Camba, Artist & Founder of SHHAA

Darek Lau

Becca Greenstein

Jared Honn, Organizer, Chicago United Solidarity Project

Wendy Layco, DJ Wenluv

Anjali Misra

tai simpson, Nimiipuu/Black, organizer/advocate/activist/Storyteller

Elon Sloan

Sparrow Aubry

Ruth Campos

Hamzeh, Research Lead and Resource Mobilizer, Queer Crescent

Jihan Ramroop

Pamela Ortiz

Santera Matthews

Yana Calou, Director of Advocacy at Trans Lifeline

Vanessa Dominguez

Jane Baron

Assata de la Cruz, Executive Director - Savage Daughters

Ezak Perez, Executive Director, Gender Justice LA

Zitlali Adame

Esmeralda Montesinos

Jeanette Martin

Bunny Morgan-Brown, Artist, Writer & Spiritual Director, We Make The Path CIC Board Member

H Kapp-Klote

Rachel Lyons, Co-Executive Director, Chicago Community Bond Fund

Rose Haley

Bethany Dean

Sergio, Food Justice Organizer

Jonny Chang • FREE PALESTINE

Rebecca Zorach

Valerie Jean

Scott Mechanic

Juliste Gogolinski

Grace Needlman

Jayeesha Dutta, Eyewitness Palestine, Board Co-Chair

Dash Gealbhan - Chicago Community Bond Fund and Chicago Community Jail Support

Gregory Victor Norris

Kurt Kiswaled, LSW

Jes Favers du Shine, Praxis

Reece Chenault

James Brady

Artis Burney Director of Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary

Chris Kim

Madeline Coates

Gary Dorr, Nimiipuu, (Nez Perce People)

champoy

Lydia Dana, Policing in Chicago Research Group

Aaron McManus

Prerna Abbi-Scanlon

Chicago Community Bond Fund

Kristine Mayle

Avi Bowie

Bazz Bazzetta

Liz Appel

Criage Althage

Chanelle Helm

Sean Larson

Gemini Bhalsod

Viveka Ray-Mazumder

Michelle Zacarias/Journalist

Brittany Ferrell Young

Andy Bishop

Lynn Gonzalez

Lanita Briggs coordinator Environmentalist Activist Micha 6:8/ A Better Bayou Habitat Recovery Project

Feliciano Ocegueda

Liz Latty

Rye Ellis Katz

Kim Marks

Ebony Harper (Mirror Memoirs - Co-chair)

Caitlyn E. Verduzco

August Hupp (Final 5 Campaign)

Kee Taylor (Final 5 Campaign)

Adam Gottlieb, Cantorial Soloist at Tzedek Chicago

David Orlikoff - 14th District Council Member

Jax Witzig

Erin Vogel, 9th Police District Councilor

Liz Dumler

Trevolta Karran

Matt Rundquist

alicia sanchez gill

Laura McTighe

Jesse “Tenny” McAdoo - Chicago Teachers Union

Gerardo Marciano

Benjamin Balthaser, Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago

Sarah Fonseca / Arts Worker, Writer

Claire Passey

C Stonebraker-Martinez, co-coordinator InterReligious Task Force

Georgette Kirkendall

Frank Bergh

Nazneen Patel, NYC Public Elementary School Leader

Ilā Ravichandran, university of Illinois at chicago

Dana Blanchard

Stavroula Harissis

Codi Schei, We Are Dancers USA

Salome Chasnoff

October Gunawan

Sarah Jane Rhee

Ronak K. Kapadia

Erin Obradovich

Svati Shah

Nisha Atalie

Genevieve Fleming

Margo Stebbing

Xavier MaatRa

Eva Cardenas

Ash Williams - Mountain Area Abortion Doula Collective

Ashley Bohrer, Jewish Voice for Peace

Nico Cavalucci

Angelica Razack-Francis

Mankwe Ndosi

Pramila Vasudevan

Mustafa Anwar and No Affiliation

Rebeca Velasquez

Mary Zerkel (PO Box Collective + AFSC)

Brook Celeste

Atena O. Danner

Sharlyn Grace

brian bean, Rampant Magazine, Tempest Collective

Erin Glasco, Interrupting Criminalization

prabhdeep singh kehal, Postdoctoral Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Julie Wernick/Hebrew School Teacher/Organizer at Nikkei Uprising

Maren Miriam Spolum

Jess X Snow - justseeds

Tiffany Wong / Community Art + Healing Facilitator

Taij Kumarie Moteelall

Aiyana Leigh

Sayge Carroll

Sadaf Syed

Fernando Contreras

Anurag Ansari-Lahiri

Nadia Sol Ireri Unzueta Carrasco

Yulissa Arce Mendez

JPP

Rebecca Clough

Oakland County Mutual Aid

Sarah Acosta Ahmad

Quenna Barrett

Hyunhee Shin, Board Member, Mirror Memoirs

Mia Combs (Nikkei Uprising)

Reshmi Hazra Rustebakke

Leslie Youth Organizer

Antonio Cosme organizer with Black to the Land, land stewardship manager with Friends of Rouge Park

Emily Casselbury, Family Nurse Practitioner

Halle Quezada

Cristobal Van Breen

Mayra Galvez

Masanari Kawahara

Mayadet Patitucci Cruz

Mai-Anh Pham

Mariposa Tejada

Susan Park

Sebastián Villa Rodriguez
Carson Wang

Angélica Cházaro

Melissa Gruver, Organizing Director, Indiana Task FORCE

Miranda R. Deebrah, LMSW

Emily Rames, Creative Director of Younger Women's Task Force

Katie Dufault, Indiana Task Force

Jessica Joneson/Indiana Task Force

Lacey Davidson, Indiana Task FORCE

Lillian Cartwright

Rev. Shawna Bowman

Ketki Tamhankar, Indiana Task FORCE

Yvonne Yen Liu, Co-Director of Solidarity Research Center

Vanessa Pacheco, Director of Policy, Indiana Task Force

Haley Sumner

Arissa Beck/ Indiana Task Force

Denise Rodriguez

Megan Groves

Isra Daraiseh

Damneet Kaur

Keisha Farmer-Smith

Savannah O’Neill

Diana Seales

Strela Cervas

Michelle Martinez, Detroit organizer

Rev. Jason Lydon

B.B. Cooper Browne

Mr. Raymond Rivera

Marc Kaplan

Cherri Foytlin, Executive Director/ Movement Training Network

tae min suh

Victor Motherwell, Director of Training, The Care Plan

manmit singh, Halemi Lehar

Athna Dene

Jessica Hubner

Laura Mintz

Ben Ishibashi

Arti Walker-Peddakotla

Lourdes Torres

Cyatharine Alias, Chicago Asian Americans for Environmental Justice

Cori Blum

E Armea-Warren

Elise Gerhart

Cori Blum

E Armea-Warren

Elise Gerhart

Duncan Nakajima

Laura Sofia Cardozo/ Head of Strategy/ Breakout

Viva Ruiz,  Thank God for Abortion

Olan Mijana, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression

Avi Rudnick

Chez Rumpf

Taylor D. Mason

Ray Sukin Klauber

Lisa Kosowski - JVP, AJP, Tzedek Chicago

Linda Kateeb

Donald Wagner

Lesley Williams

Camille Odeh

ethan ucker

Diana Yung

Loren

Scout Bratt

Danbee Kim

Julie Kosowski

Elizabeth Scrafford

Emylee Licona

Jeff Tangel

Mo Weeks

Lingling Liu

Sara Buck, RN, MSN/MPH

Chris Inserra

Tena Haile

Barbara Engel/ Jewish Voice for Peace

Prexy Nesbitt

Tasasha Henderson

Deana Lewis, Survived & Punished

Hannah Flath, Sierra Club Illinois

Myrna Salgado-Romo

Diana Luz

Dominic Ryaddigan LCSW

Jorge Santana

Molly Greenberg, MSW, MPhil

Kiana Shelton

Peter Blackmer

Rev. Dennis M Oglesby Jr. Pastor, Camphor Memorial UMC

Kelly Meunier, Esq.

Cassie Armea-Warren, MSc

Jennifer Perrone

Carmen Krieger, RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Republic of Georgia 2014-2016)

Jason Guthartz

ShelLynn Beasley

Sean Estelle; former member of National Political Committee member of DSA and Steering Committee of National Students For Justice In Palestine

Almendra Rodriguez

Karen Sonilal

Shaina Warfield

Kennedy Healy, Founder, Crip Crap

Kathy Osberger

Rabbi Max Reynolds

Liz Sauer

Free Palestine/ Solidarity With Palestine

Kristin Millikan

(M)Olly Costello

Geoff Guy, Tempest Collective

Fahd Ahmed

Melissa Norman

Adeel Siddiqui, M.D.

David Gebhart / Rogers Park Food Not Bombshell

Ald. Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez

Aleen Olivares Office assistant LVEJO

Simon Swartzman

Gina M. Olson

Fatimah Ayyeh

Iliana Figueroa

Jesse Connor, 33rd Ward Working Families

Christine Dussault

Harleen Kaur

N. Li

Eva Nagao, Creative Director of Interrupting Criminalization

Mandy Medley

Kenneth Barrios, 33rd Ward Working Families

Viviana Moreno

Karina Mireya

Stefanie Lyn Kaufman Mthimkhulu, Director of Project LETS

Kay Whitlock

Rachel Caïdor - Love&Protect, Just Practice Collaborative

Irina Zadov / Artist & Educator

Mariame Kaba

Luz Calvo

Miracle Jones, Esq. MSW

Laura Mandelberg

jaboa lake

Anna Guevarra, Co-founder, Dis/Placements: A People’s History of Uptown, Chicago Project

Gayatri Reddy, Co-founder, Dis/Placements: A People's History of Uptown, Chicago Project

Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel, Journalist

Nazly Sobhi Damasio

Alicia Lochard

sophie lipman

Damon Williams

Brett Jelinek

Helen Guzmán

Heather Lynn

Jo Chernow, Survivors Know

tara rodriguez besosa, el departamento de la comida de puerto rico

Lisa Schergen

Andrea Chu

Charlene A. Carruthers

Karla Estela Rivera

Kate Vander Tuig, Mirror Memoirs Leadership Council

Tiffany Wang, Interrupting Criminalization

Dustin McDaniel

Nune/Gigirassy/ZineSnail (psuedonym)

Shawn Fleek

Tomo Estavillo Shibata/ Nikkei Uprising

Maureen Silverman

Leah Ida Harris

Leslie St Dre (formerly Dreyer), Organizer for Land and Housing Justice

Annie Raccuglia

Deepa Iyer

Interrupting Criminalization

Emily Thuma

sarah e. philips, organizer from texas

Mandy Kirkwood

UyenThi Tran Myhre

Cedar Larson

Seri Lee

Saba Taj, Queer Crescent

Marcelyn Cole

ed vogel

Barbara Schulman

Zitlalli Paez

Benji Brubaker

Brenda Becerra

Anne Marie Hertl

Ahmina Maxey

Mustafa M. Anwar

Yves Tong Nguyen

MAJIC

Ngozi Alston

Michelle Uzeta

Juan Jhong-Chung

Meera Ghani

Paloma Campillo

Steve Kennedy

Justin Schwartz

Gene Combs/author and family therapist

John Cruz-Barcenas

Rachel Bean

Kyle Tran Myhre

Sania N. Ahmed

Alex Zucker

Friday Faraday

Eric Ramos

Mal Burns

Ramla Bile

Lani Tica

Eliya Stone

Angel Piedra

Andrea Faye Hart

Bere Cruz

Aaron Cynic

Rev Jonathan Rogers

Dera Driscoll (They/She)

Eleanor Venditti

Rachel Bean

Christopher Ott

Kristin Lueke

Ana Enriquez

Amelia E Duran, Ex.Director, Garage Cultural (SWDetroit)

Bianca Williams