SURJ Bay Area joins 500+ congregations and communities in pledge to become “Apartheid-Free”3/21/2025
Today, March 21st 2025, SURJ Bay Area joins with communities all over the world to mark an important milestone: over 500 congregations and organizations have taken a pledge declaring themselves “apartheid-free.” Pledge signers commit to cut ties with Israel’s apartheid regime against Palestinians and to oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression. These 500+ groups represent hundreds of thousands of constituents and include congregations, faith communities, solidarity organizations, non-profits, student organizations, veterans’ groups, businesses, and even municipalities. A map and full list of apartheid-free communities can be found here.
“We at SURJ Bay Area took the Apartheid-Free pledge because we stand unequivocally against racism in all its forms—including Israeli apartheid, military occupation, and settler colonialism. By taking the Apartheid-Free Pledge, we reaffirm our commitment to Palestinian freedom, recognizing that the struggle against oppression anywhere is a struggle for collective liberation everywhere.” For decades, the Palestinian people have faced Israeli occupation and systematic human rights abuses. Apartheid is defined under international law as a legally enforced system of separation and oppression based on race, creed, or ethnicity. Palestinian human rights groups have described Israel’s policies as apartheid for decades. Over the past few years, much of the international human rights community – including B’tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International – have also joined the call for an end to Israeli apartheid. The Apartheid-Free campaign originated in 2022 when an interdenominational coalition of faith groups in North America, convened by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), came together to organize the pledge. SURJ Bay Area joined this campaign in 2024. “The fact that more than 500 congregations, organizations, and businesses have come together to end Israeli apartheid fills me with hope,” said Noor Nabulsi, Apartheid-Free Communications Specialist for AFSC. “These groups represent hundreds of thousands of people from many different places, faiths, and walks of life. What we share is a belief that collectively we are growing the anti-apartheid movement and making it a 21st century issue.” Each community that signs the pledge commits to resisting apartheid and all forms of racism and discrimination, but this looks different in every community. It can include community education, political advocacy, divestment, protest, organizing ballot measures, or creative projects. For us at SURJ, that has looked like joining local divestment efforts here in the Bay Area, and talking to the public at Oakland Farmers Markets about taking action against Israeli apartheid. Learn more at https://apartheid-free.org/ Mass Deportation Is Unjust and Harmful to All Americans by Regie Stites  People hold up handmade signs reading, "Immigrants Make America Great" and "NO HATE NO FEAR / Refugees are welcome here!" - Photo by Nitish Meena In her first press conference, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, repeated a vicious lie to justify one of the cruelest presidential priorities in American history. She said millions of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. must be deported because they have all broken U.S. law and are therefore “criminals.” This is a lie.
An article on the press conference in Axios pointed out that violation of U.S. immigration policies is a civil, not a criminal offense. According to the article: “There is no law making it a crime to live in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant.” Words and photos by Anna Blackshaw As the eyes of the world have been on Gaza, violence in the West Bank has been escalating to near record levels. According to a report by the United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNWRA), 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been displaced by Israeli forces in just the first two months of 2025, making this the largest displacement of civilians since 1967. These forced removals occur alongside the highest rates of Israeli settler terrorism in the West Bank in over two decades. Palestinian shepherds are attacked while grazing their sheep, families are chased out of their homes at gunpoint, homes and cars are set on fire, sewage is dumped into wells and springs, olive trees are burned down (at a rate of 25,000 trees in 2024 alone), and rampages through villages keep families on alert day and night.  The olive tree is a powerful symbol of peace, resilience, and steadfastness for Palestinians. Its deep roots and ability to withstand harsh conditions reflect the endurance and perseverance of the Palestinian people. Cultivated in the region for thousands of years, olive trees are deeply embedded in Palestinian traditions, cuisine, and daily life, serving as a vital connection to heritage, resistance and identity. by Micki Luckey Microsoft has been a major partner in the genocide in Palestine, confirmed by documents leaked on January 23 that show it stepped up its supply of cloud support and AI for the Israeli military. U.S. tech’s support for Israel is nothing new. But a new application of tech came to public attention on September 17 last year with the simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers owned by Hezbollah fighters. They and the explosions in hand-held radios the next day were targeted by Israeli intelligence to decapitate Hezbollah, the only organized force that had defeated them in battle. Deployment of exploding personal communication devices can only be described as an act of terrorism.  AI generated photograph of a pager surrounded by flaming debris. By Paul Kivel In her book Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism Victoria Clark writes, “One has to look back as far as the Crusades to find another example of such a large group of outsiders involving themselves in the Middle East on a religious pretext….” Clark is describing the history and power of Christian Zionism. In the last two centuries, the creation of and continuing support for the state of Israel was substantially determined by ruling class Christian Zionists, first in Britain and more recently in the U.S. Today Christian Zionists lobby for pro-Israeli expansionist policies, provide a tremendous amount of direct financial support to Israel, coordinate a large pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian constituency, and give direct aid to illegal settlements in the West Bank.  Crusaders of the First Crusade (11th Century) on their way to Jerusalem are portrayed in a stained-glass window located in the cathedral of Brussels that was created in 1866. iStock photo by Jorisvo. By Micki Luckey Can you imagine living on 2-3 liters (roughly 2-3 quarts) of water a day? That was the average water consumed daily by a person living in Gaza before they were hit by even worse conditions under the on-going Israeli bombardments. During its 75 year long occupation of Palestine, Israel has used many different strategies to force the Palestinians from their land. Controlling the water supply throughout the area has been one specific and effective weapon Israel continues to use to bolster its own development and to displace Palestinians. Before October 7th, 2023, Gazans were spending a third of their income on water and regularly mixed the water from the tap with sea water to make it go farther. The lack of clean drinking water had already made 25% of children in Gaza susceptible to gastric ailments and other diseases. As part of their retaliation for October 7, Israeli forces increased their targeting of the water infrastructure in Gaza. By November 2023 Israeli attacks had disrupted the sources (desalination plants, pipelines and wells) of all but 5% of Gaza’s water. So now Gazans face “heightened health and environmental risks owing to limited access to clean water.” Today people in Gaza are forced to drink polluted seawater.  This booth appeared at a 2024 Palestinian solidarity gathering. A person wearing a Netanyahu mask was promoting GAZA SPRINGS Sewage and Seawater with the ad, “A Taste of Genocide”. https://gazasprings.com/ photo by author. By Eve Higby and Micki Luckey During the nine months of Israel’s unrelenting war, the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) has continued to deliver food to people in Gaza. To raise funds to support this work, MECA held its Third Annual Ride for Palestine this past Sunday, July 21st. The need for aid is especially urgent: Israeli bombardments have caused massive displacements, and the Israeli government has blocked the entry of food. Tens of thousands of Palestinian children suffer from severe malnutrition and medical supplies are practically nonexistent, according to a recent UNICEF report. A team of 16 SURJ Bay Area riders joined about fifty other teams in the Ride for Palestine to raise funds for MECA. The event was wildly successful, surpassing MECA’s goals by raising nearly $300,000, and bringing a few hundred people together for Palestinian food, music and dancing in a day of solidarity with Gaza.  Bicyclists ride on the Bay Trail to Richmond CA for the MECA Ride for Palestine. Photo: Team SURJ The recent violence outside the Los Angeles Adas Torah synagogue was immediately met with cries of antisemitism — from President Joe Biden to Governor Gavin Newsom to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and everyone in between. Why would pro-Palestinian activists protest outside of a synagogue? Most media outlets didn’t ask that question, merely reporting on the violence and thus insuring it would appear like protesters were simply targeting a house of worship. So why were the protesters there?  Image of a sign at a Palestine protest in the shape of a watermelon that reads when you bomb a watermelon, you spread its seeds. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa. Reviewed by Micki Luckey. In her beautiful but emotionally challenging novel, Against the Loveless World, Susan Abulhawa captures the insecurity and lack of place experienced by Palestinians in the diaspora and then the building of community and resistance to the occupation inside Palestine. With exquisite descriptions of place, food, events, and people, we follow Yaqoot (also called Nahr) as she moves from Kuwait to Jordan to Palestine.  A panoramic view of the Ramallah hills. Photo by Fjmustak, 2016, Creative Commons By Felicia Gustin “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” –Frantz Fanon (1925 - 1961), philosopher, revolutionary, author, and pre-eminent thinker on the issue of decolonization  Several camping-style tents cover the lawn in front of a UC Berkeley building as part of the "Free Palestine" encampment. Photo by author. |
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