⚫ Last week, activists held actions and strikes across more than 100 ports in at least 22 countries, demanding an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the “US-Israeli wars of aggression in the Middle East and against Iran.”
“The imperialist war in the Middle East is spreading,” reads a joint statement from dockworkers unions. “The genocide of the Palestinian people by the murderer-state of Israel continues with the support of the USA, NATO and the EU. The US-Israeli attack against Iran, the war flare-up in the Strait of Hormuz, the attacks on ships, the blockades, the militarization of maritime passages, all show that peoples and workers are being pushed deeper into the abyss of war.”
“Our ports themselves are on the front line of this conflict,” it continues. “They want our hands to load weapons, to serve their armies. They want the infrastructures built with the sweat of workers to become bases for interventions, blockades, genocides and attacks against peoples.”
“Weapons need transport, infrastructure, and workers’ hands to reach their destination,” Markos Bekris, leader of the Greek dockworkers’ union, ENEDEP, told Al Jazeera. “That is where our power lies.”
There were multiple protests across the West Coast of the United States, but the only one on the East Coast, which took place at the Port of Elizabeth in New Jersey.
“It is shameful that no dockworkers’ union on the East Coast has chosen to stand with their fellow port workers of the world,” said a spokesperson from the demonstration. “We know that, regardless of what union leadership may decide, workers everywhere stand in solidarity with Palestine. We will be out there on Friday to show them that they are part of this movement too. Workers have the power to stop the war machine.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed support for the protesters on social media.
“Dockworkers went on strike across 113 ports in 22 countries to disrupt the transport of weapons of war, in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” he tweeted. “New Yorkers stand with them. When working people unite in their power, we build a better world. Dockworkers do not work for war.”
The Palestinian labor movement is calling for a Day of Solidarity on November 29.
⚫ If Providence voters approve Question 7 in today’s election, it will become the largest city with legislation meant to divest from Israel.
From Haaretz:
Providence’s vote represents the latest and most forceful effort to put Israel on the ballot at a time when sympathy for Israel is in freefall. Some efforts have been stymied before reaching the ballot, while a resolution endorsed by voters last year in Somerville, Massachusetts, 50 miles to the north, was non-binding and remains mired in litigation.
Question 7, on the other hand, would be binding for Providence, home to just under 200,000 people who are on average younger and more left-leaning than in most American cities. A steady supply of Brown University students and graduates has long powered progressive politics. The City Council voted in 2006 to divest from Sudan over the government’s genocide in Darfur, and in 2013, it voted to divest from fossil fuels.
⚫ This week, the city council of Cambridge, Massachusetts, voted to divest from businesses that are profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. The 5-4 vote came days after a six-hour public comment session, in which nearly 300 residents spoke on two orders to boycott and divest from the companies.
The city’s pension fund has roughly $2.6 million invested in Palantir and over $18 million invested in weapons manufacturers, including Elbit.
The original bill, which was introduced by Councilors Ayah A. Al-Zubi and Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler, specifically cited an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) list of companies that have contributed to the “genocide, apartheid, and occupation of Palestinians.”
That order was amended to name the companies specifically, without any mention of the AFSC list. There was also a clause added affirming that the resolution did not endorse the BDS movement.
“We are grateful and honored for the leadership and partnership of Cambridge for Palestine, whose brilliant and tireless organizing made this historic win possible,” said Cambridge DSA, which organized in support of the legislation, in a statement. “And we owe a special shout out to all the DSA members — including City Councillors Ayah Al-Zubi and Jivan Sobrinho Wheeler — who’ve contributed countless hours to this victory, from the streets of Cambridge to the chambers of City Hall.”
“Our work is far from done,” it continued. “We have to make sure the City Manager follows through on implementing the divestment order. And we intend to carry on our fight for a full city boycott of complicit companies.”
⚫ A new policy brief from the Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) shows how the government’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism suppressing criticism of Israel.
“In recent years, Canadians have witnessed intensifying debate about how best to address rising hate and racism, and about how that effort relates to political debate over human rights crises abroad,” it explains. “In debates over Israel’s actions in Gaza, for example, Israel’s supporters have argued that pro-Palestinian advocacy is driving a rise in antisemitism, and that anti-Zionism should even be viewed as synonymous with it. Regrettably, Canada’s efforts to combat antisemitism have largely adopted this faulty position. Canada is now in the process of effectively penalizing the basic historical narratives of Palestinians: not by making them criminal, but by treating them as presumptively antisemitic and exposing those who voice them to investigation and sanction. This has significant negative implications for civil liberties, academic freedom, and human rights advocacy in Canada.”
“Canadians have every right to criticize a state and the ideology behind it, and Palestinians have every right to describe their own history in their own terms. Falsely labelling that speech antisemitic does nothing to make Jewish communities safer,” said Michael Bueckert, Vice President of the CJPME Foundation.
⚫ The GOP-led House Education and Workforce Committee is accusing the American Psychological Association of perpetuating antisemitism.
“Over several years, radical activist-academics have successfully co-opted the APA to politicize the association and promote ideology that demonizes Israel, minimizes Hamas terrorism, and portrays Jews as white oppressors,” claims a report from committee staff. “Meanwhile, APA leaders have repeatedly failed to confront antisemitism within their own organization.”
The report repeatedly conflates criticisms of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism.
