Blockades and Direct Actions in Solidarity with Palestine Continue to Grow

As funding for war reaches new heights alongside growing inequality and declining conditions within the US amidst growing repression, the war and genocide against Palestinians continues within the occupied territories, as Israeli leaders push for full on ethnic cleansing.

As wrote in the Washington Post:

This week alone, a parliamentarian from Netanyahu’s Likud party went on television and said it was clear to most Israelis that “all the Gazans need to be destroyed.” Then, Israel’s ambassador in Britain told local radio that there was no other solution for her country than to level “every school, every mosque, every second house” in Gaza to degrade Hamas’s military infrastructure.

far-right figures like finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who do little to hide their vision of an ethnically-cleansed Gaza. “What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” Smotrich said in an interview Sunday with Israeli Army Radio. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different.” Ben Gvir separately called for the de facto forced migration of hundreds of thousands out of Gaza.

Netanyahu himself, according to my colleagues, tried to cajole Egypt and other Arab governments and states elsewhere into taking Gazan refugees — a non-starter for many in the Middle East, who fear further Palestinian dispossession of their lands.

In the face of this, across the US, demonstrations in solidarity with occupied Palestine have remained ongoing, with thousands continuing to take part in protests, targeted sabotage and direct action, disruptions, and blockades throughout December and into the new year.

What follows is our latest roundup of solidarity actions across the so-called US. We encourage people to write up report-backs, reflections, and analysis and contribute here.

Protests Shut Down Streets and Blockade Airports and Military Base

In late December, dozens of people were arrested for carrying out coordinated disruptions of major airports in New York and Los Angeles. According to a post from the Resistance News Network Telegram channel:

Pro-Palestinian protesters in the US succeeded in simultaneously blocking the entrances two of the largest airports in the country moments ago: LAX airport in Los Angeles, California, and JFK airport in New York.

Despite their small number, their actions effectively disrupted operations, declaring: no business as usual while a genocide and siege is ongoing. These protests highlight the effectiveness of strategic, direct action, showcasing how international allies can support Palestine.

Notably, the Los Angeles protest highlighted the ongoing displacement and genocide taking place in Palestine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a combined 16 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands killed. Further, aircraft manufacturer Boeing’s role in these genocides was noted: Boeing has received hundreds of billions from from US government contracts to provide products to the US Military, as well as sells its weapons and technology to the zionist entity and Saudi Arabia.

In New York, about 30 arrests were documented, and about 40 were documented in Los Angeles.

In Chicago:

[Protesters] also shut down I-90 and I-94 temporarily on Sunday…The USPCN held a similar protest on Dec. 23 when a nearly 100-car caravan temporarily shut down both sides of I-190 while calling for a ceasefire.

In the bay area of California:

Hundreds of people rallied on 12/28/23 against the transfer of military weapons from the Travis [Air Force Base] which is the largest US military transfer base in the United States. The base was blocked for several hours and the three entrances were shutdown.

Then on January 1st, as Democracy Now reported:

[A] caravan of cars with Palestinian flags blocked traffic headed to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday. Meanwhile, in Pasadena, California, protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza briefly halted the Rose Bowl Parade.

The action shows no signs of dissipating. In just the last two week, in New York, rowdy demonstrations snaked through streets as police attempted to control crowds, while in Oakland, people broke out windows to banks and spray-painted pro-Palestinian slogans, demonstrators disrupted a shopping district in San Francisco. protested outside of the homes of state officials in DC, and in Sacramento, hundreds shut down streets.

On January 3rd, hundreds of anti-Zionist Jews also shut down the first day of the California legislature, calling for a ceasefire and dropping banners from the capitol building.

In Durham, NC on January 4th, as CrimethInc. reported:

In Durham, North Carolina, which saw several protests against the bloodshed in Gaza throughout late 2023, the first explicitly autonomous and leaderless large-scale solidarity demonstration took place on January 4. As at previous demonstrations, hundreds of people gathered, took turns speaking, and marched through the city. This time, however, the march went to the jail, where participants shot fireworks at the building and projected “Free Palestine—Free prisoners” across its façade, connecting the struggle against ethnic cleansing in Palestine to the local struggle against police and prisons.

Days later, demonstrators in Seattle were able to shut down for hours the I-5 freeway, using stalled cars and protesters blocking oncoming traffic. Supporters also marched to support the blockade and took over nearby on-ramps, dropping banners in support of Palestinian prisoners and demanding a ceasefire.

Finally on January 8th, while some interpreted Biden’s speeeh in Charleston, NC, protesters shut down “the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and Holland Tunnel to demand an end to the ongoing American-funded, American-led genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” according to the Palestinian Youth Movement. “325 people were arrested by the Port Authority and New York Police Department at the four locations,” according to ABC News.

Wave of Targeted Vandalism and Direct Action Continues

New York has seen a wave of targeted vandalism and direct actions in solidarity with resistance to the occupation of Palestine. According to a post on the counter-info site Unravel:

[A]n autonomous group of anti-colonial anarchists redecorated Neue Galerie on 5th Avenue in NYC with blood red paint yesterday for its direct support of the IDF & its ties to Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems.

“In response to the call from Bethlehem for no celebration during genocide, and on one of the biggest days of the year for capitalist consumerism, an autonomous group of anti-colonial anarchists targeted Neue Galerie on 5th Avenue in New York City for its direct support of the IOF and its ties to Elbit Systems. The activists smeared paint as thick and red as blood across the outer walls and entrance gate.

They also wheatpasted flyers showing a tube of red lipstick superimposed over a military tank’s gun. With this intervention, the outsides of the Neue Galerie were made to match its insides. Like so many cultural institutions in the imperial core, this private museum abets the colonial war machine by art-washing genocide. Ronald S. Lauder is the Neue Galerie’s president and an heir to the Esteé Lauder fortune. He is also the president of the World Jewish Congress, and it was as such that he declared, on October 7, that it is imperative “to bolster the success of the IDF and the state of Israel.” His support of the ongoing Palestinian genocide could not be clearer.

The CEO of Esteé Lauder, Fabrizio Freda, sits on the Board of Blackrock, which is the largest investor of weapons manufacturing in the world and owns major shares in Elbit technology.

Elbit uses Palestinians as test subjects for its experimental weapons technologies, and thus has been the target of direct actions all over the world. These bold autonomous activists believe in a liberated Palestine and an end to the Israeli apartheid state.

Their action brings to mind the exhortations of Juliano Mer Khamis, founder of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, who said that the third intifada would be a cultural intifada. We join them in their cry: LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA!

In Brooklyn, New York, a recruiting station was covered in paint and a Chase Bank had its locks glued. A communique posted to Unravel read:

On Friday night 12/21, a Chase Bank located near Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn apartment was shut down with ample amounts of superglue in its door lock and card reader. Its windows and walls were redecorated with “Stop Cop City” and “Free Gaza.”

JP Morgan Chase is a funder of Atlanta’s Cop City, the genocidal regime in Israel, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, as well as numerous capitalist and imperialist projects destroying the earth and causing immense suffering. It must be stopped by any means necessary.
To Chase, we are the New York rats that can’t be poisoned. We are the cockroaches that won’t die. When you least expect it, we will crawl all over your fancy dinner. We will jump out from the darkest corners of your fears to bite you in the ass. Watch out.

In Kalamazoo, MI, a report posted to Unsalted Counter-Info wrote:

Early one December morning in so-called “Kalamazoo, Michigan,” four humans dressed in black crept under the light of golden arches, posters and spray paint in hand. They set out to disrupt people’s genocide-flavored morning coffee. Rollers oozing wheat paste, they splattered signs which read, “McDonald’s supports genocide”, “Free Gaza River to Sea”, “Hungry for Freedom”, and other messages onto the driveway menus, windows, and the speaker box. They also sprayed the word “BOYCOTT” onto the wall of the building in black paint, and quickly made their exit.

It was a monday morning. People would soon need their coffee to help them facilitate capitalism better, and McDonald’s would profit. The goal was to disrupt that as much as possible. While people in Kalamazoo enjoy a morning crappucino, people in Gaza don’t even have basic access to water – clean or dirty, thanks to corporations such as McDonald’s which directly support the Israeli bombings in Palestine. While people here can enjoy an egg mcmuffin and hashbrowns for breakfast, people in Gaza go hungry — 9 in 10 Gazans cannot eat everyday. If they do find food, it is likely moldly, expired, or otherwise unfit for consumption. While McDonald’s is hungry for profit, the world is hungry for freedom. The hope was to make the ongoing horrors in Palestine all too apparent to those who are complicit by supporting such businesses that aid in their continuation.

This action was executed with simple tools: paint rollers, wheat paste, handmade posters, and spray paint — accessible items anyone can get their hands on. The planning was simple– a drop off/pick up spot was designated, posters were put up within two minutes, and they were out. They wore indistinguishable black clothes to be changed out of after the action was completed. Posters were designed to be eye catching and legible, with simple messages. No one involved was there to see the impact in effect during operating hours. If one were to perform such an action again they could have planned ahead of time to send someone not associated through the drive thru to document the disruption. Although no one involved saw it, wheat paste and spray paint are notoriously difficult to remove, and thus time was necessarily wasted cleaning up and taking everything down, rather than serving up hot McWarCrimes.

Actions like these can be very simple, cheap, and safe with good planning and research. They scouted the area for cameras and planned a discrete route with minimal exposure. They wore masks and covered faces. They stuck towards the back of the building that wasn’t visible from the road for the majority of the action, and only spent about two minutes in danger of being seen/connected with the posters and paint.

Finally, in so-called Portland, Oregon, a communique took credit for an action against a Mercedes-Benz dealership. In a claim of responsibility posted on Unravel stated:

After weeks of indiscriminate bombing and a ground military invasion of Gaza, leveling homes, hospitals, and schools, the cost to human life has been over 18,800 deaths — 8000 of which are children — and over 51,000 injured. The bombings along with the ongoing Israeli blockage has created a humanitarian catastrophe leaving hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced with little to no access to food, clean water or medical care. This genocidal assault has also taken the form of intensified repression against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank — mass arrests, targeted military raids, and an escalation of settler violence. We are all too aware that this war waged by Israel is made possible in large part by weapons and equipment supplied by the United States and their allies. As anarchists living behind enemy lines, we refuse to sit by and watch yet another genocide unfold before our eyes.

So, in the early morning hours of 12/11, a fire was started at the Mercedes-Benz dealership in downtown Portland.  The blaze destroyed a delivery van and burned out the exterior of their ‘wholesale parts’ garage on SW Market St. This was done as an act of economic sabotage against a corporation that develops military vehicles for the Israel Defense Forces and profits from the dispossession and occupation of Palestinians.

Apart from selling luxury cars Mercedes-Benz also produces weapons of war—in the form of light infantry vehicles — for militaries across the world. In regards to Israeli, Mercedes-Benz has partnered with Israeli based military contractor Plasan to produce a light-infantry vehicle. The Plasan Hyrax — which utilizes the Mercedes-Benz G-wagon chassis — was developed to replace the IDF’s aging fleet of ‘David’ patrol vehicles. As of 2019 the Hyrax has been certified for use with the IDF

Mercedes-Benz’ sister company Daimler Trucks, and their subsidiaries — in which Mercedes-Benz owns a 30% share — has supplied transport vehicles to the IDF in the past. As recently as 2020 Daimler Trucks was awarded a contract to supply busses to Israeli based company Egged for inter-city bus transport. Egged provides transportation between Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. Egged busses use roads off limits to Palestinians and operates segregated busses. This racist apartheid system is a defining aspect of the Israeli settler colonial project, built on the displacement and denigration of Palestinians.

In the broader context of resistance throughout world against war and militarism — from the anti-war partisans in Belarus and Russia derailing trains of military cargo, to the Palestinian youth in the West Bank standing down tanks with a slingshot and stones — this action was our modest contribution to that struggle.

For a more dangerous solidarity

-some anarchists

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