Defend Palestine!
Defend Resistance! 

The US-Israel genocide has raged for more than a year. Every day we wake up to videos of more children murdered, to the reports of concentration camps where Palestinians are systematically tortured and sexually assaulted. Thousands of churches, schools, homes, and mosques have been annihilated; entire blood lines have been wiped out. In the US, business as usual continues. It should make everyone sick. People have marched, sat in, shut down roads, and blocked weapons manufactures. Yet the genocide hasn’t slowed. It’s only ramping up. The only moral and political imperative in the face of this unimaginable slaughter is a mass rebellion against US imperialism led by people who are determined to end US imperialism, not reform it. After the people of Palestine have sacrificed everything to defend their homeland, how dare people in the US make excuses for not doing what needs to be done. Over 100,000 people are dead, and millions more lives are on the line.

Whenever and wherever people have stood up for Palestine against this US sponsored holocaust, they have been met with severe repression. Protests for Palestine are surveilled and heavily policed, and protesters have been brutalized and imprisoned for standing up to genocide, especially those protesters willing to confront business as usual. Colleges and Universities, which were rocked by last springs student encampments, have responded with a McCarthyist crackdown on free speech and expression, banning SJP chapters and having their own students arrested. The federal government, under Genocide Joe, has unleashed lawfare against the most principled organizations standing for Palestine, including the banning of Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. 

Compounding this state of affairs is the widespread acquiescence of most protesters to this rotten state of affairs. Protesters who catch charges are encouraged to quietly take deals rather than politically fight their cases, organizations that call protests are disinterested in defending people who catch charges. Much of the Palestine protest movement has hampered and shackled itself through an obsession with safety, while the few people who do dare to escalate often stand alone to face the consequences. It’s an urgent task to reverse this state of affairs, to defend and give courage to the brave, buck up the people who want to do more, and isolate the cowards and opportunists. 

Whether it’s supporting the people in jail for Palestine protests, the fight to drop the charges against people protesting the DNC, defending Samidoun, or pushing back on campus crackdowns, it’s urgent that this repression be met by more resistance. Join Behind Enemy Lines in this campaign! 

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