Pittsburgh DSA expresses our continued full and unequivocal support for the Palestinian struggle for freedom. We mourn the loss of life across the region which is a direct result of over 75 years of brutal occupation and apartheid including 17 years of a blockade and siege on Gaza, funded and backed by our own government.
Living deep in the belly of the US Empire, we must do all we can to address our own capitalist government’s attacks on the working class and oppressed peoples both here and abroad. To secure the socialist future, we fight for democracy, and demand that democracy bloom and expand in all areas of life and all corners of the earth.
That flower cannot bloom in Palestine while the IDF carries on a daily campaign of terror and oppression against the Palestinian people, while Gaza is kept under siege, while settlements in the West Bank continue to displace and attack Palestinians, and while Palestinians are subjected to daily violations of their basic democratic rights at the hands of the IDF and the rest of the Israeli state apparatus, including the encouragement of reactionary opposition to justify further atrocities. All the while, the deadly exchange of police and military training between the US and Israel continues to intensify tactics of repression and surveillance in both countries.
Violent opposition is the inevitable response to the conditions imposed by Israeli occupation. The conflict can only end if the apartheid regime is lifted from the river to the sea. Our goal as socialists and internationalists is liberation for all oppressed peoples, especially those oppressed by the largest recipient of United States foreign aid. Our desire for peace goes much further than the cessation of active warfare, and must include active reversal of over 75 years of systematic violence and oppression.
In accordance with DSA’s national political platform, we continue to support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement, and we continue to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the end of all US military aid to Israel and all military cooperation with Israel, an end to all training exchanges between US police forces and police and military in Israel, the closure of all US military bases on foreign soil, and the immediate withdrawal of the US from NATO. We also call on members and non-members alike to consider the action list from Jewish Voice for Peace and to get involved in Palestinian solidarity actions as this situation develops.
-Pittsburgh DSA Coordinating Committee