Solidarity Wins: Jury finds Eugene, OR Protesters Against the Genocide in Palestine Innocent

Report on end of trials of protesters in Eugene, WA arrested for protesting against the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

On April 15th, 2024 thousands of people around the world participated in an autonomously organized and coordinated economic blockade to free Palestine. “There is a sense in the streets,” the proposal for the action stated, “in this recent and unprecedented movement for Palestine that escalation has become necessary: there is a need to shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy.” In 82 cities, 19 countries, actions blockaded ports, airports, highways, city squares, and weapons manufacturers, seeing potentially millions of dollars in unrealized profits and over 400 arrests.

62 of those arrests were in Eugene, Oregon, where Interstate 5 was blockaded by cars and protestors for about an hour before over 100 police from state, county, and city departments cleared the highway. Those arrested were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the second degree. The majority of the defendants were offered diversion “plea deals,” while the state singled out three protestors to whom they refused to offer deals, including a Palestinian student organizer. The defendants organized over the following months intentionally to engage in collective defense, hoping that threatening to take 62 cases to trial would be leverage enough to force the state to offer everyone equal treatment or even to drop the charges.

The state refused every attempt at negotiation after rallies, letters, phone zaps, and meetings between the DA and public defenders and movement lawyers. As time went on, and defendants felt the mounting impact of the arrests and pending charges on their housing, jobs, health, and broader lives, more and more defendants accepted the plea deals. Many still intended to take their cases to trial in solidarity with their comrades facing more serious repression. 11 trials occurred between October 2024 and January 2025, with 11 guilty verdicts returned. Defendants attempted to put the US government’s unwavering support of genocide on trial, using pre-trial ‘choice of evils’ hearings to bring in experts to testify about Palestine and direct action, such as a UN special rapporteur, and taking the stand themselves to explain their actions.

The state attempted at every avenue to de-politicize the action, framing it as a case about “selfishness,” and judges frequently denied defendants’ ability to even talk about Palestine on the stand, while also rejecting expert testimony or defense strategies that could bring the US funding of genocide into view. When it came time for the Palestinian student activist to go to trial along with their Lebanese co-defendant, it seemed like all strategies of collective defense had failed. The “choice of evils” pre-trial hearing ended with the judge refusing multiple expert witnesses the ability to testify in front of the jury about US complicity in the genocide in Palestine.

Yet, at the end of the trial, the jury returned a “not guilty” verdict, acquitting both defendants. Was it jury nullification? Was it simply that the state’s clear political repression of Palestine solidarity was more evident than “evidence” of crime? Was it the defendant’s powerful testimony on their personal relationship to the land, people, and resistance in Palestine and Lebanon? All we know is that the state failed in all regards –especially in its attempt to repress Palestine solidarity actions, collective solidarity, and the individual Palestinian activist they singled out, and we know that together we are stronger than the state’s best efforts to repress us.

Our hearts are bursting with love and rage for those behind the closed doors of the jury deliberation room who remained steadfast in their determination not to participate in the state’s repression of Palestine solidarity!

The following is a statement from the A15 Eugene for a Free Palestine Instagram:

Our two dear Palestinian & Lebanese A15 co-defendants were unanimously acquitted today! Despite state repression that sought to divide us in its attempt to criminalize Palestinian solidarity, we stood strong in collective defense, demanding the state to treat us all equally & to drop the charges against our Palestinian comrade. Of course the state refused to negotiate and 12 of our courageous comrades went to trial in solidarity with those not offered plea deals, all so far receiving guilty verdicts. Today, however, we demonstrated the power of collective solidarity. We did not back down despite the threats of jail time, punitive fines, & probation.

We stood strong for our comrades who told the jury exactly why direct action against the US facilitation of genocide is not only necessary but right—& the jury did the right thing. They found our comrades not guilty. We fight for the liberation of Palestine, we fight against american imperialism, & we fight the arbitrary & punitive power of state repression!

Solidarity is the only fucking thing we have.

From the defendants:

Today, we witnessed something none of us thought could happen. In a place where justice and humanity is actively repressed and punished, we collectively triumphed over it. We showed the state and the imperial core that we are stronger than their attempts to repress us. Solidarity and truth won in a place, and against a system, that actively preys on it. With love and rage. Free Palestine.

– Our Palestinian comrade, Salem

This victory wasn’t won through the court system, it was won through uncompromising solidarity and love. I don’t believe this would have happened if it weren’t for the support of our co-defendants and comrades.

Throughout my whole life, I have struggled to find a place in this world that seems so hell bent on destruction—but I have found community in others who realize that if there is no place for us in this world, we’ll have to build a new one, a world that recognises that to be alive on this earth is a sacred and beautiful thing. This new world lives in the action in solidarity with Gaza on April 15, in the solidarity we’ve shown each other throughout the legal process, in the streets, in resistance everywhere.

My co-defendants who were convicted for their actions on April 15th were found guilty of ‘inconvenience.’ Tens of thousands of lives have been cut short in Gaza in the last year alone. Resistance against genocide is a matter of life and death, not convenience. We owe it to the people of Gaza to stop this genocide—we also owe it to ourselves. The land we stand on today is shaped by ongoing colonial violence. We are tasked with remaking the world, and this will not be convenient.

Thank you to all my co-defendants and co-conspirators. FREE PALESTINE.

– Our Lebanese comrade, K

Thank you to the CLDC and public defenders for having our backs—& for refusing to leave Palestine out of the courtroom.

Thank you to the jury who didn’t waver.

Thank you to all the comrades in Eugene for showing us what solidarity looks like.

Free Palestine! From the River to the Sea!