Pacifica Fightback opposes the genocidal Israeli attacks on Gaza and the role of the US government in arming Israel to carry them out, as well as its military aid to reactionary militarist regimes such as that in Egypt, which has been enforcing the blockade on the millions of Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza.

Some in our ranks are committed to non-violence or pacifism; others respect the internationally recognized right of colonized and oppressed people to struggle for their liberation by all means at their disposal.

All of us are clear that the current bombings, forced displacement of Palestinians, and denial of water, food, medicine, electricity, fuel, and humanitarian aid being carried out by Israel are genocidal and must stop, and that all US military aid to Israel must end immediately. That the U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution on October 18 that would have paved the way to a ceasefire is disgraceful.

We call on Pacifica to schedule rapidly a 24-hour emergency national teach-in against this genocide, with participation and direction from Palestinian and Jewish voices against genocide, occupation and apartheid, and programmers who have been covering these issues at all five stations, with voices of activists and academics on the history and roots of the current crisis.

We also call on Pacifica stations and affiliates to air a daily report based on material from Electronic Intifada, (https://electronicintifada.net/) which features uncensored reports from on the ground, as an essential counter to the lies and distortions heard on corporate-dominated commercial and public media that fall in line with US government and other propaganda efforts justifying billions in weapons and war crimes.

The violence that has occurred and is occurring is the outcome of decades of imperialist domination and settler colonialism, aided and abetted by Arab reactionary forces. It is due in part to the false equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and to the effort to criminalize the non-violent international movement led by Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel around the demands for full equality and civil rights for Palestinians in Israel, an end to the occupation, and the right of return for the millions of Palestinians in refugee camps or imprisoned in Gaza and in the Palestinian diaspora.

But it is also in part a consequence of the weakness of anti-war and anti-imperialist movements in the US, Europe, Israel and elsewhere to organize an effective resistance to US militarism and Israeli occupation. Bureaucratic forces and undemocratic leadership in organized labor have allied the AFL-CIO with the exclusionary Histadrut organization in Israel that displaces Palestinian from both land and labor, and with US foreign policy, while trying to silence or marginalize rank and file efforts for labor solidarity with Palestine.

We call on Pacifica to live up to its mission and its express commitment to peace and justice by rising to this urgent occasion to prevent a new Nakba. We support the current upsurge in activism in solidarity with Palestine.

We salute the tens of thousands who have taken to the streets and to the halls of government, including the massive protests by young US Jews in unprecedented numbers in solidarity with Palestinian rights and survival, and against the U.S. government’s pro-war stance in Gaza and congressional members with cozy relationships with U.S. weapons industries. We urge Pacifica stations and affiliates to begin covering such protests live in the US, Europe and the Arab and Muslim world, to break the information blockade on truthful news and analysis in this country.