The following is a talk prepared for the “Stop Trump and for Mutual Aid  Rally”, put on by  Evergreen Resistance, part of 50501, by Peter Bohmer, a member of Palestine Action of South Sound (PASS), on April 19. 2025, Olympia, WA.

Calls and action for cutting off all U.S. aid and military sales to Israel need to be a demand of every group, institution–—church, workplace, union, college, neighborhood association, 50501, Indivisible, etc. 

It is important to never ignore what is going on in Gaza.  It is a central issue of our time, one that we cannot be silent on.  There is the ongoing Israeli destruction of Gaza, the blocking of food entering Gaza causing severe hunger and malnutrition, the stopping of medicine and other necessary goods from getting in, the destruction of hospitals, homes, schools, the water supply, the killing of journalists and hospital workers, making Gaza unlivable. Over 50,000 have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military. This is equivalent to 8 million killed in the U.S. per capita. The Israeli goal with total U.S. support is to remove most Palestinians from Gaza, permanently occupy part of it, and an increased war against the Palestinians of the West Bank. Occupying more of and possibly annexing the West Bank, the bombing of and occupation of parts of Lebanon and Syria and threatening Iran with the overall objective of a U.S. and Israel dominated and controlled Middle East. 

Israel mass displacement of Palestinians goes back to before 1948 and intensified in 1948 when Israel declared itself a state and continues every day.  This is the context for understanding the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Understanding the history of Israeli oppression and dispossession of Palestinians is the context for the Hamas led attack of October 7. Understanding the context does not mean supporting the death of Israeli civilians. 

To be human, to value all human life equally, we must do what we can individually and collectively to stop this Israeli destruction of the Palestinian people. It is an Israeli and U.S. war against the people of Palestine, much more just than a war against Hamas.  

Working closely with Israel is an integral part of the Trump agenda, including silencing pro Palestine voices in the U.S.  Its pressure and threats on universities to conform ideologically and to oppose racial justice is part of this dangerous agenda. So are the deportations.  Antisemitism is real and wrong but those in power are using antisemitism as a smoke screen for their authoritarianism and moving towards a dictatorship. Sadly, supporting Israel has been the rule for both Democrats and Republican administrations and for Congress. 

We want unity against Trump but not by throwing Palestinians under the bus nor by not taking a position.  

For both moral and strategic reasons we need to oppose all U.S. military aid and sales to Israel. Israel could not continue this war of destruction without US weapons and support. It is also a U.S. war against Palestinians because of its many levels of strong support for Israel including more than weapons: military intelligence, at the UN and other international institutions. 

Let us demand that Israel and the U.S. end this one-sided war and for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Let me go back in history. During the Vietnam War, an analogous position to today was that calling for the immediate withdrawal of the U.S from Vietnam divides us. Let us unite on other issues: the War on Poverty, civil rights, the Great Society policies.  Many people and organizations in the U.S. supported the Vietnam war, or said not to take a position, or at least not a strong one; that it would divide labor unions, liberals, etc. They urged Martin Luther King to not oppose the U.S. involvement in Vietnam because that would end President’s Johnson support for the civil rights movement. Fortunately, MLK did not listen as evidenced by his powerful 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence”.  Today 50 years later there is general recognition of how horrible what the U.S. did in Indochina:  two to three million Vietnamese killed and 55,000 U.S. soldiers. 

30 years from now, I hope and believe the Israel-U.S. war on Palestine will also be seen as totally criminal, immoral and your children and grandchildren, future generations will ask, “Did you take a stand and act against the U.S. and Israel, or did you support them in this war against the people of Palestine or did you not pay attention?  Hopefully, you will be able to truthfully answer that you stood up for Palestine.

To oppose Trump and Trumpism, we don’t have to agree on everything.  For example, I strongly believe that capitalism is a major cause of most economic and social problems facing us, —the inequality of income and wealth, poverty, alienating jobs, climate change, the environmental crisis, racism, mass incarceration, U.S., militarism, individualism, women’s oppression, homophobia, deportations, etc.  Yet, we need to build a broad social movement against fascism that doesn’t require anti-capitalism although we should allow this important position to be included and also alternatives to capitalism.  

On the other hand, lowest common denominator unity, a unity that doesn’t include being principled on Palestine is horrendous.  On a practical level, Trump can easily weaken this weak unity by falsely claiming it is antisemitic unless we address justice for Palestine; and respectfully explaining that being pro Palestine is not antisemitic, that anti-Zionism does not equal antisemitism.  We can’t effectively fight the anti-immigrant offensive and deportations unless we support Palestine and those speaking up for it on campuses and beyond such as the Columbia University students, Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, and many more. 

We need to have integrity. A coalition group that doesn’t take a position against the U.S.-Israel War against the Palestinian people does not have integrity or a moral leg to stand on.  I support and thank 50501 in Olympia, the Evergreen Resistance that supports justice for Palestine, and I urge the Statewide and National 50501 to do the same. 

The Palestinian people haven’t given up, their resilience is inspiring. Let us not give up. The majority of people in the US do not support the U.S. arming Israel and the ongoing U.S-Israeli mass murder and ethnic cleansing.  Let us turn this into more than a silent majority but rather into an active majority in opposition by demanding justice for Palestine, by learning the history of Palestine, Israel and the imperialist U.S. role in the Middle East, and educating each other, and talking to friends, family, neighbors and coworkers and not avoiding the horrific conditions for Palestinians.  Let us get every institution to do whatever it takes to not let this war continue. Boycott Chevron and corporations profiting from Israeli apartheid! Demand the end of Israeli occupation, and an immediate cease-fire; and demand the end of US weapons sales and military aid to Israel!  Free the Israeli Hostages and the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons!   Let us act against deportations and detention of immigrants and connect that to Palestine solidarity and anti-Trumpism. Close the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington owned by the Geo Group.

Let us support in our actions: self-determination for Palestine and the equality of all people on that land, Palestinian and Jewish, but not Jewish domination.

Join Palestine Action of South Sound (PASS) sign-up at Passoly.org.  We meet the first Monday of every month at 7 PM at the YWCA, 220 Union SE, Olympia. The next meeting is Monday, May 5^th. 

Join us., It Is All of our Fight. Free Palestine !

Postscript:  3500 to 4000 people rallied on April 19^th  in Olympia against Trumpism. It was a very spirited gathering. The main organizer was the Evergreen Resistance.

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