Palestine Solidarity Campaign

SURJ Bay Area, as an anti-racist organization, supports the continued struggle of the Palestinian people. We believe that as U.S.-based movements, we play an essential role in fighting alongside Palestinians for their dignity and freedom. SURJ Bay Area works to support Palestinians’ continued struggle for land, life, and liberation, with a particular focus on bringing more white people into the solidarity movement.

What We Do

Photograph of several white people sitting by and standing around a table at an active farmers market. A banner above the table states

Education Through In-Person and Virtual Events

We educate our communities on what is at stake in the struggle for Palestinian liberation: how we got here and where we must go to insure that the Palestinian people attain their full human rights. For example, we take our message to local farmers’ markets where we engage with our neighbors and offer immediate actions they can take to support this struggle.

Photograph of a smiling white person wearing a watermelon hat and sunglasses sitting behind a table covered in printed materials with visible text of “Apartheid-Free Community - We’ve joined the movement to oppose apartheid”. Some of the materials are sticker sized, and some are larger with images of poppies on them.

Apartheid-Free Communities Campaign

We encourage nonprofits, unions, businesses, faith communities, and other organizations to take the Pledge to become an Apartheid-Free Community, committing to resist racism and apartheid and withdrawing all support to Israel. We are part of a global effort and here locally, have been organizing canvass days of Oakland businesses in recent months with great success.

Oakland People’s Arms Embargo

SURJ is a member of this Palestinian-led coalition which aims to end the shipment of war materials to Israel through Oakland International Airport. Working alongside labor unions, progressive organizations, faith communities, and peace groups, our goal is to stop Oakland’s complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people and the wars waged against people in Iran, Lebanon, and across the globe.

A photograph of a dozen or so people, many of them wearing bike helmets, posing for the camera in front of a commercial building entrance, with a handful of bikes in the frame. One of the bikes has a pannier bag with a slice of watermelon on it. In the background, over the doors to the building, is a poster with the words “Ride for Palestine” visible.

Fundraising to Support Aid and Solidarity Efforts

We raise money to support our partner, AROC, as well as other groups that we collaborate with. For example, a SURJ Bay Area team takes part in MECA’s annual “Ride for Palestine” to raise funds to deliver food, water, medicines, and other necessities to people in Gaza. In 2025, we raised over $23,000 to support MECA's crucial programs serving children and families in Gaza and the West Bank.

Advocacy and Legislative Work

Our members are part of the California Palestine Solidarity Coalition and several national coalitions working to block the billions of dollars our government sends annually to Israel. This means lobbying state and national legislators to support bills that block sending bombs to Israel which they use against Palestinians in Gaza. We host action hours to collectively call and send emails to our elected representatives and organize phone banking.

Photograph of two white people wearing N95 masks standing over streetcar tracks and holding a large banner between them that reads “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” “SURJ Bay Area Showing Up for Racial Justice”. In the background are other people, other signs, and a Palestinian flag.

Protests and Support for Students and Workers

We join our partners in the streets at mobilizations against the U.S./Israeli war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We also show up to support and defend those under attack, like pro-Palestine students and tech workers resisting their companies’ programs that use technology to support Israeli genocide—companies like Palentir, Google, IBM, and Amazon.

SURJ Bay Area’s primary partner in this work is the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), which organizes for racial and economic justice and the dignity and liberation of Arab and Muslim communities under attack in Palestine and across the entire South West Asia and North African region, as well as here in the U.S.

Other groups we collaborate with include:
• Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area
• Middle East Children’s Alliance
• American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
• Palestine Youth Movement
• Bay Area Divest
• Bay Resistance

Read SURJ's 2022 Justice for
Palestine Solidarity Statement

Learn how you can get involved with SURJ Bay Area.