International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
06 May 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Worldwide
Student encampment in support of Gaza at City College of New York campus. Credit: David Dee Delgado/Reuters.
From Palestine to the Freedom Flotilla to College Encampments, Resistance is Growing: An ISM Communique
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Human rights defender, Bassam Tamini, has been issued another six-month administrative detention, joining hundreds of Palestinians being held indefinitely without charges. Tamini and his daughter, Ahed, have been strong critics of settler violence in the West Bank. This recent extension is just another tactic to quell dissent and silence Bassam’s advocacy for Palestinians in the occupied territories.
As we look to how brutally police responded to the college encampments, we are reminded that repression is everywhere. And as we are watching Palestinian activists like the Tamini family endure, Palestinians are cheering on young people from the other side of the world who are calling out their government’s complicity in genocide and their college’s refusal to join the BDS movement to divest from Israel.
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) stands with these students risking their academic future, and sometimes their lives, to demand a free Palestine.
Just as we stand with the Freedom Flotilla’s righteous efforts to bring hundreds of doctors, teachers, lawyers, and international human rights advocates from over 40 countries to break the siege of Gaza by sailing across the Mediterranean with 5500 tons of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
We have the right to stand with Palestinians resisting extinction by Land and by Sea.
The International Solidarity Movement continues to host activists in the occupied territories to serve as a protective presence–as advocates and witnesses– against the violence of settler colonialism. Because of this work, we are often deemed incendiary. Similarly, President Biden released a statement claiming the student encampments are violent and destructive and Israeli newspapers published the names of Flotilla participants, painting them as terrorists. But we come together through a diversity of tactics grounded in freedom and resilience reaching across continents and international waters for the sake of our humanity.. and yours.
Consider this a formal invitation to students involved in the encampments, the hundreds of flotilla activists setting sail, and everyone working towards a just peace in Palestine. We are all in this together and there’s nothing quite like being here on the ground, so, come summer, consider spending some time in the West Bank with us. We promise it’s an education you won’t get on campus.
