7 victories against a rampaging Israel.
The United Auto Workers divests from Israel Bonds
At the United Auto Workers labor union’s Constitutional Convention on Thursday, around 1,000 delegates voted in favor of divestment of all UAW funds from Israel Bonds. With over 400,000 union members, the UAW will be the first major national labor union to divest — from an estimated $400,000 in holdings.
“It’s an incredible time to be part of the UAW,” member of UAW 2325 Brian Sullivan told the Wire. “People have been organizing around this for years,” he said, and when the resolution passed, “a friend of mine was in tears… It was an electrifying moment.”
The UAW is the first union to join the tide of divestment, but it’s already proven to be a standard-bearer in U.S. labor organizing for Palestine. In 2023, the UAW was the first major union to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and organizers have been relentless since in pushing the union to take further steps to divest from Israel’s genocide.
Sullivan emphasized that UAW divestment from Israel Bonds is “the culmination of a big sea change happening around Palestine nationally,” and credited Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestine solidarity movement for helping make this divestment win possible. “All the groundwork that JVP is doing helped change the national consensus around this,” Sullivan said. That work to shift the conversation about Palestine “put the wind at our backs… I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say it might not have happened without that.”
Sullivan linked this divestment win to a tradition of international solidarity in the UAW, including UAW divestment from apartheid South Africa in 1978, as well as a long history of UAW members pushing for union solidarity with Palestine. This win also comes out of decades of UAW organizing for Palestine in particular: In the 1970s, UAW members in the Arab Workers Caucus confronted the UAW about its investments in Israel, even holding a wildcat (unapproved by union officials) strike in 1973. At the time, these efforts were unsuccessful — but they laid the groundwork for UAW advocacy for Palestinian rights when UAW members once again began organizing in earnest in October 2023. UAW rank-and-file members, including member caucuses Unite All Workers for Democracy and UAW Labor for Palestine, were central to organizing for this historic win.
The divestment resolution itself drew a clear connection between the needs of UAW members as workers in the U.S. and challenging the U.S.’s support for Israeli genocide, stating that “the billionaire class that profits from war ensures that public money is funneled into militarism rather than the healthcare, housing and education working people need.” The resolution also positioned UAW divestment within the context of growing labor solidarity with Palestine across the world, recognizing workers “in Belgium, France, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and beyond” who have stood in solidarity with Palestinians by refusing to load Israel-bound weapons and cargo.
Across the U.S., momentum to divest from Israel Bonds, direct investments in the Israeli government, has been rapidly growing. Only a few weeks ago, the state of Maryland divested more than $60 million in Israel Bonds holdings following a divestment campaign organized by Break the Bonds MD.
Israel remains committed to death and destruction
Despite two “ceasefire” agreements in both Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli government remains committed to sowing death and destruction throughout the region.
In Gaza, the “ceasefire” period has become another phase of Israel’s genocide. Since a ceasefire was declared last October, Israel has killed over 1,000 Palestinians, including a child every day, in Gaza, while continually moving the “yellow line” of Israeli occupation further into Gaza. Ongoing airstrikes target Palestinians in their homes: Last weekend, a father and his four- and fourteen-year-old daughters were among 10 people killed in Israeli strikes. Their relatives said they received no warning before being bombed in their apartment in the middle of the night.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military has killed more than 4,100 people, and displaced over a million, since it began attacking the country in March. After the most recent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was reached on Friday night, Israel continued its airstrikes on southern Lebanon, killing more than 80 people, including acclaimed turtle conservationist Mona Khalil in her home.
The Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon is critical to the success of any lasting U.S.-Iran deal — a deal which the Israeli government is ardently opposed to, since it hampers its ability to continue its wars and territorial expansion throughout the region. Using the cover of “ceasefire” agreements, in Gaza and now Lebanon, the Israeli government has sought to continue its genocide of Palestinians and its decimation of Lebanon, as well as prolong the broader regional war against Iran, while dialing down the international outcry over Israeli atrocities.
In a way, this strategy has succeeded: The corporate media has largely turned away from Gaza, and consistently failed to cover the extent of Israeli military’s atrocities in Lebanon. But the people remain with Palestine — and momentum growing to divest from Israeli genocide is proof of that.
A massive victory for the pro-Palestine slate in NYC.
On Tuesday night, pro-Palestine champions dominated in NYC elections. Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, both endorsed by JVP Action and Mayor Mamdani, won their congressional primaries in upset victories.
Both campaigns were fueled by a massive ground game from our movements. JVP Action members came out across NYC to engage tens of thousands of neighbors about the issues that unite us — taxing the rich, abolishing ICE, and fighting for an end to genocide and for a free Palestine.
And that’s not all — even more JVP Action-endorsed candidates won their races. In the New York state legislature, Aber Kawas will be the first Palestinian American in the NYC State Senate; and pro-Palestine candidates David Orkin, Samantha Kattan, and Diana Moreno will all be going to the NY State Assembly.
Before last night, the JVP Action congressional slate had already won big with Reverend Frederick Haynes III’s landslide in Dallas, Rep. Chris Rabb’s defeat of the establishment in Philadelphia, and Dr. Adam Hamawy’s victory in New Jersey.
These insurgent campaigns, for people over war profiteers, are fueled by the power of our movements, and they’re putting the Democratic establishment on notice. While the Israeli government is hell-bent on death and destruction in order to maximize its regional control and expansion, our movements are building power and hitting back: breaking the links of complicity between our communities and Israeli genocide, and sending people to Congress who won’t vote for another dime to Israel.
Join the movement: JVP Action Mass Call.
Join us for a mass call to talk about the pro-Palestine, JVP Action-endorsed candidates who have won in the midterms so far, and the fights still to come.
In Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and now in New York, candidates have run and won on platforms calling for an end to military funding and an arms embargo on Israel. We are showing, right now, that organized people can beat AIPAC money.
Act now: Reject U.S-Israeli military cooperation.
While Israel sows death and destruction, Congress is quietly attempting to massively expand U.S. cooperation with the Israeli military, making it a core, legally-binding aspect of U.S. defense policy.
Email your congresspeople now and demand they REJECT legislation that would expand U.S. cooperation with the genocidal Israeli military.
What we’re listening to: “The performative ceasefire”
For the Intercept Briefing, Al-Shabaka fellow Tariq Kenney-Shawa provides an in-depth analysis on the supposed “ceasefire” period in Gaza, describing how the fight for Palestinian liberation must focus on arms embargoes and sanctions on the Israeli government — especially in light of new moves to integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries even further.
What we’re listening to: First America
Native people have been written out of the American story. This summer, as the U.S. celebrates its 250-year anniversary, the new podcast First America will tell the true story of how the United States came to be — and how our current political moment is 250 years in the making.
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