In early August, the Zionist settler colonial entity known as ‘Israel” launched yet another round of attacks on the people of Gaza, already described by human rights observers as essentially an open-air prison, claiming to target a “terrorist.” The result, as usual, was death and destruction. Several dozen Palestinians were killed, including children. The depths of the Zionist state’s murderous depravity were once again shown to the world.
Periodic intensification of state violence and the disproportionate media coverage it garners can often obscure a fundamental reality: the existence of “Israel’’ itself, built on the dispossession and continued immiseration of the Palestinian people, is the problem. In short, Israel is an apartheid state acknowledged by the UN Rights Organi zation and Amnesty International. This truth is at the core of the North New Jersey DSA BDS and Palestine Solidar ity Working Group’s activity. As socialists, we are committed to internation alism, anti-imperialism, decolonialism, and opposition to all forms of oppression. Therefore, we are unequivocally and unapologetically anti-Zionist.
Our working group continues to move forward with our mission of contributing to the international movement for the liberation of Palestine.
We are organizing locally as part of the National BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group’s sustained food boycott campaign called “No Appetite for Apartheid.” This campaign has already resulted in only the third official apartheid-free store in the US in Broward County, Florida. Building on our recent canvassing in Elizabeth, the working group is organizing political education and canvasser trainings for this campaign in coalition with local organizations such as the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton.
As a partner in the new Jersey Coalition to Support Palestinian Liberation, the working group is planning political education events related to the Defund Racism campaign, an effort to revoke 501(c)(3) status from US-based organizations that fund settler efforts to further dispossess and displace Palestinians.
We have done great work in the few months we have been operating, and we look forward to increasing our external facing work in the months ahead, including No Appetite for Apartheid. In order to make our work even more impactful and grow the liberation movement in our area, we need to build greater capacity. That starts with YOU. If you are in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their heroic resilience and resistance, if you oppose settler colonialism and imperialism, if you abhor racism, if you demand justice in every corner of the globe, then the North New Jersey DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group is for you. We meet alternating Mondays at 8:00 PM ET and would love to see you there.
For more information, contact us at nnj.bds@dsanj.org.