We, Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity, hear the Palestinian demands for freedom. As we continue to struggle for and demand an end to the criminalization and occupation of the Black community in our city and an end to the militarization of our city streets, we send our heartfelt support and love to the Palestinians who have resisted the institutional violence of occupation, displacement, and racism for decades.
We recognize the current acts of violence being committed against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government as a form of collective punishment, terror, and a tactic for entrenching the occupation. To the current generation of Palestinians rising up against 67 years of brutal settler-colonialism and state terror in your homeland: your struggle is just.
We know that your struggle for justice, equality, and freedom is our struggle. We know that the tactics of oppression in Palestine/Israel, such as mass incarceration and intensified surveillance, are directly linked to and replicated in Baltimore. We know that Israel’s power to silence Palestinian voices and amplify their own narrative in the American media directly contributes to the legitimizing of Islamophobia in and around Baltimore City. We know that our city and our state support the ongoing Israeli occupation in Palestine and siege of Gaza through economic, military, political, and symbolic means. We therefore, extend our solidarity from a place of shared struggle and resistance as well as from a place of responsibility.
We understand that the violence and the loss of lives will not end until the occupation ends and the occupation will not end until the U.S. stops funding Israel’s human rights abuses. It is with these understandings in mind that we call on our city to stop enabling Israeli Apartheid through programs like the the Ashkelon-Baltimore SisterCity Program, the well documented tactical training and exchange programs between local police departments and the Israeli Occupation Forces, and other initiatives that fund and support the Israeli military and security industrial-complex. We condemn local and state officials, such as Senator Cardin, for their unwavering support of the Israeli occupation and their failure to acknowledge the Palestinian struggle for freedom.
We add our voices to the demand that the Israeli occupation of Palestine end; we affirm our solidarity with Palestinian popular resistance; and we assert that the future of equality and freedom we struggle towards in Baltimore includes the equality and freedom of the Palestinian people.
In struggle and with love,
Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity
and Jewish Voice for Peace – Baltimore Chapter
Baltimore Palestine Solidarity 