Resolution: OPEIU 153 in Solidarity with the People of Gaza & the Right of Peaceful Protest

The following resolution was drafted by the OPEIU 153 membership and voted into effect by the Executive Board on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

WHEREAS the Palestinian people of Gaza are now facing an unimaginable human catastrophe as the Israeli military, one of the most powerful in the world, imposes a brutal blockade on Gaza and forced displacement, while heavily bombing the territory; and

WHEREAS, the intensifying of the blockade and the bombing of Gaza began after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on October 9, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly”; and

WHEREAS, in the six days after Gallant’s declaration, the Israeli military dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza—an area less than half the size of New York City, and containing 2.3 million Palestinians; and

WHEREAS, as a result of that bombing, as of April 29th, 2024 the Israeli government has begun bloody attacks, with at least 34,979 Palestinians killed in thirteen weeks of strikes, including 14,500 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, and with at least 77,643 injured and more than 8,000 people across Gaza believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead; and

WHEREAS, during that same period, the Israeli military has killed more than 491 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including 124 children, and with at least 4,800 injured; and

WHEREAS, the Israeli state’s brutal assault on the people of Gaza comes in the wake of the staggering loss of civilian lives by the brutal October 7 attack by Hamas, with 1,200 Israelis dead, 3,500 wounded, and another 200 taken as hostages; and

WHEREAS, as groups around the world have recognized, including leading Palestinian organizations, Hamas’s act was a war crime, the largest mass killing of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, and also killed numerous Arab-Israelis, including members of Bedouin communities; and

WHEREAS, while the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination, and people living under occupation have the right to resist and to defend themselves with force, attacks on civilians such as this do not further the safety or liberation of the Palestinian people, but instead, undermine it by providing a pretext for disproportionate retaliation by the Israeli state and deepening divisions between ordinary Israelis and Palestinians; and

WHEREAS, due to the horrific approach of collective punishment by the Israeli state, Palestinians are rapidly running out of food, water, medical supplies, electricity, fuel, and other humanitarian aid, with the most vulnerable people suffering the most, for example with 50,000 pregnant Gaza women unable to access even basic care and with thousands more mothers with newborns placed in similar dire circumstances; and

WHEREAS, the Israeli government has cut off the sole water pipeline to Gaza, along with the fuel and electricity that power water and sewage plants, and the United Nations refugee agency reported on October 17th that Gaza’s last seawater desalination plant had shut down, bringing the risk of further deaths and waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery; and

WHEREAS, while Israeli citizens have the right to defend themselves against all forms of violence, the Israeli state’s violent policies of occupation and apartheid are root causes of the current crisis; the Israeli government’s response has been completely disproportionate, racist, and dehumanizing of the Palestinian people; and

WHEREAS, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari made the admission that “hundreds of tons of bombs” had already been dropped on Gaza, adding that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy,” and Giora Eiland, a major-general in the Israeli military, wrote that “Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieve the goal” and that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist;” and

WHEREAS, Israeli Knesset member Ariel Kallner, called for a second Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), stating, “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of ’48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join! Their Nakba, because like then in 1948, the alternative is clear”; and

WHEREAS, in calling for another Nakba, Kallner and other Israeli leaders are referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in 1948 by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948, resulting in the killing of thousands of Palestinians, the destruction of their villages, and the forcible expulsion of 80 percent of the Palestinian population from their homeland, with many of the descendents of the Nakba living today in Gaza; and

WHEREAS, even while mourning the deaths of Jewish Israelis, many ordinary Israelis as well as Jewish people along with many other people around the world are outraged at the Israeli government’s violent retaliation, as for example, Noy Katsman, whose brother Hayim Katsman was killed by Hamas, told CNN that Israeli military retaliation “never brings us better lives, it just brings us more and more terror”; and

WHEREAS, this is yet another chapter in the decades-long conflict between the Israeli state and the Palestinian people, beginning with the Nakba in 1948 and the subsequent expansion into Palestinian lands by the Israeli state; and

WHEREAS, the Israeli state’s occupation of the Palestinian people has been with the full support of the capitalist regimes of the United States and other Western imperialist nations, with the Congressional Research Service reporting more than $114 billion in U.S. military funding for Israel since 1946; and

WHEREAS, Andrew Dinkelaker, the general secretary treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, has noted that this massive US military support “is pouring gasoline onto a fire. It encourages that there be military solutions, and military solutions will get more people killed;” and

WHEREAS, the root of the crisis is the enforcement of the existing order in which Israeli capitalism, with the strongest military power in the region, violently imposes occupation and annexation and denies millions of Palestinian people their basic rights, including the right to self-determination; and

WHEREAS, a growing number of labor movements worldwide recognize that the occupation is at the center of the conflict, as for example noted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) that “ending the root cause of the violence means ending 75 years of occupation and Apartheid;” and

WHEREAS, in recent days a growing number of North American unions, including the American Postal Workers Union, the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Rutgers University Faculty union, SEIU 1021, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Ontario Federation of Labor, Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, have adopted resolutions and issued public statements in support of a cease fire, hostage exchange and humanitarian aid, with some resolutions also calling for an end to military aid to the Israeli government and an end to the occupation; and

WHEREAS, these union calls join an earlier sign-on statement, endorsed by more than a dozen unions, including UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America), the American Federation of Teachers - Oregon, the Chicago Teachers Union, IBEW Local 520, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council, Pride at Work/Eastern Massachusetts, San Antonio Alliance of Teachers & Support Personnel NEA/AFT Local 67, UAW Region 6, UAW Region 9A, and UFCW 3000, demanding an immediate cease fire and humanitarian aid; and

WHEREAS, the subjugation of Palestinians by Israelis has included the super exploitation of Palestinian workers, including blacklisting of worker-activists, suppression of strikes, work restrictions, union-busting, and physical attacks by Israeli forces and even Jewish Israeli settlers; and

WHEREAS, the declaration of war by the Israeli government and the spreading of military escalation to the Israel-Lebanon border pose a significant threat of wider regional conflict, particularly in the context of heightened tensions and polarization globally due to the New Cold War between the United States and China, which has already escalated the scale and duration of war in Ukraine; and

WHEREAS, union members and Jewish and Palestinian community members, along with many other community members, have joined in peaceful protests in cities worldwide in calling for an immediate cease-fire, aid to the people of Gaza, a halt to US military aid to Israel, and an end to the Israeli occupation of and control over Palestinian territories; and

WHEREAS, in recent days, students, workers, and community members across the country and the world have stood in solidarity with Palestinian people in peaceful protests at college campuses in nearly 100 student protest encampments from coast to coast; and

WHEREAS, students, workers, and community members across the country and the world have faced police violence for peacefully protesting on campus in over 100 , including over 100 arrests at Columbia University on April 18 and over 1600 arrests across the U.S; and

WHEREAS on the night of Tuesday, April 30, hundreds of NYPD officers in full riot gear stormed Columbia University’s campus and by the end of the night, 282 were arrested at Columbia and nearby CCNY; and

WHEREAS, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, comprising 31 unions in West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza have called on “our counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes—most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research. The time for action is now—Palestinian lives hang in the balance”; and

WHEREAS, our union, OPEIU 153, includes members whose families have been impacted by the latest round of violence, with victims in Israel, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank; and

WHEREAS, our union, OPEIU 153, recognizing that “An Injury to One is an Injury to All,” stands in solidarity with the members of the Palestinian labor movement, with all Gazans facing brutal assault and deprivation, and with all working people in Israeli, the West Bank, and Gaza who have suffered and are suffering; and

WHEREAS, our union, OPEIU 153, includes Higher Education workers and students who have peacefully protested on college campuses and have faced police violence and arrest and also retaliation for activism.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that our union, OPEIU 153, reaffirms its commitment to combat Islamophobia and antisemitism in all of their forms, and furthermore reaffirms its support for both the people of Israel and the Palestinian people to live in peace and security; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that our union, OPEIU 153, demonstrating its solidarity with the people of Gaza, joins the growing worldwide call for an immediate cease-fire, humanitarian aid to help Gazans recover, an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, the release of all hostages on both sides, and an end to the Israeli occupation and subjugation of Palestinian lands; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that our union, OPEIU 153, commits to join the growing international anti-war movement and to mobilize its members to participate in collective action to demonstrate our opposition to the war on the people of Gaza; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that our union, OPEIU 153, will sign the Solidarity Ask From UAW 2710- Against the Repression of Protest, in solidarity with the Student Workers of Columbia; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that our union, OPEIU 153, commits to use our collective labor power and work with unions and allies domestically and worldwide to organize collective action, participate in international and national days of collective action, and provide both financial and public support to striking workers calling for a ceasefire to bring maximum power to enforce our just and humane demands.