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arab resource organizing center
The Fight for Palestine Is the Fight Against Fascism
We must understand that to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, we must also develop a longer-term strategy that contends with the growing power of far-right forces here in the U.S.
Jan 09, 2025
It has been over 450 days since Israel began its genocide and military invasion of Gaza and then Lebanon, Iran, and Syria. With the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president, the American government will continue and increase support for Israel’s all out war against Palestinian people.
For the past year, students have rallied and protested to demand divestment from Israel and its apartheid regime. Heated protests have erupted across the country, including in San Francisco where students planned walk outs and took over quads with encampments and teach-ins.
Alongside these students, parents from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) communities went up against San Francisco’s school board to insist that their children cannot be censored for supporting Palestinian people. Many of these parents are Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) members, so I joined a meeting between these parents and the superintendent. When the superintendent would not bring up pressing issues around how students were being impacted by the ongoing genocide, parents disrupted the meeting and demanded their kids’ rights to speak up.
Through organizing, we build trust and are able to inoculate the harmful disinformation coming from white Christian nationalists and other right-wing forces.
However, not too long ago, I saw these same parents swayed by white Christian nationalists who were mobilizing Arab and Muslim parents around transphobia and homophobia. By circulating hateful rhetoric and drumming up fears about the “influence” of LGBTQ+ acceptance, white Christian nationalists convinced Arab and Muslim parents to pull their children out of public schools in the Bay Area. This is a trend we have seen across the country as Christian nationalist groups like Moms for Liberty recruit conservative Asian faith-based groups to rally against curricula portraying LGBTQ+ families and themes.
What happened? How did these parents go from being swayed by one fascist force to vehemently countering another fascist force? What can we learn as organizers from this moment?
The fight for a free Palestine is deeply ingrained into the many other fights against rising facism in the United States and abroad. We must understand that to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, we must also develop a longer-term strategy that contends with the growing power of far-right forces here in the U.S. We cannot do one without the other.
What does this take? First, we must be clear about who we’re up against and what strategies they are using. After 75 years of occupation and a year of military invasion, Zionism has made clear their strategy: complete annihilation of Palestine and its people. To do this, the Zionist system requires the support of other right-wing forces for monetary, political, and narrative power.
One formidable partnership is between white Christian nationalists and Zionists. Nationally, the largest Zionist organization in the United States is Christians United for Israel, which funnels millions of dollars into the Israel lobby every year. Project 2025, the 900-plus-page policy document spearheaded by the far-right Heritage Foundation, lays out far-right forces’ plan to transform the United States into a Christian nationalist theocracy that would sustain Israel’s military expansion. Locally, in San Francisco, when AROC campaigned with parents and students for the addition of Eid as holidays on the school calendar, Christian nationalists and Zionists allied to threaten the school board and halt the decision.
This issue of transphobia is a longer-term struggle that we will continue to face. We have not resolved it with our members, and there is no success story. However, we are helping our members to understand the contradictions of right-wing forces in order to move our communities on various contentious issues.
For years, Christian nationalists have made inroads into organizing Muslim and Arab parents in the Bay Area by manufacturing fear and outrage around queer and trans “influences” in schools. In the past year, as AROC has mobilized thousands of people to call for a permanent cease-fire and an arms embargo on Israel, we have also been engaging in deep political education and long conversations with our communities to point out the connections between various right-wing, fascist forces.
This past year has politicized many to call for Palestinian liberation. It has especially mobilized the SWANA families in AROC’s membership, many of whom have direct connections to the region that Israel is devastating. This past year has reemphasized that we need to deeply invest in grassroots organizing and basebuilding. This allows organizers and working-class people to work together to protect our communities from right-wing disinformation and come up with real solutions that can transform lives.
When the attacks on Gaza began last October, AROC was able to provide the space and container for our parents, youth, and activists to identify key issues and leverage our power locally. We got the cities of San Francisco and Oakland to adopt resolutions for an immediate and sustained cease-fire. Through those processes, we saw our community really engage with democratic processes and understand the power of civic engagement. Through organizing, we build trust and are able to inoculate the harmful disinformation coming from white Christian nationalists and other right-wing forces. This is key to winning our communities away from right-wing influences and building a stronger anti-fascist movement.
Grassroots organizing is how we build the power of our movement! Power means we can shift conditions in society and in our own lives. Power means we can end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and block the rise of far-right fascism.
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'No More Genocide in Gaza!': 50+ Arrested Blocking Bay Bridge
"We refuse to stand by as our elected officials pay for and cheer on the genocide of Palestinians," said one protester. "Biden must call for a cease-fire now."
Nov 16, 2023
Dozens of demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in Israel's war on Gaza were arrested Thursday after protesters blocked San Francisco-bound traffic on the Bay Bridge during morning rush hour and the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
Members of activist groups including Palestinian Youth Movement, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Bay Area, and others blocked westbound lanes of the bridge with their vehicles before getting out of their cars and unfurling banners reading "Stop the Genocide" and "No U.S. Military Aid to Israel."
“We are beyond grief watching thousands of our loved ones murdered by the Israeli military. There is a genocide happening in Gaza, and President [Joe] Biden is hosting cocktail parties in San Francisco right now," Palestinian Youth Movement's Aisha Nizar said in a statement.
"We refuse to stand by as our elected officials pay for and cheer on the genocide of Palestinians. Biden must call for a cease-fire now," Nizar added.
Many protesters held signs or wore banners reading "The People Demand a Cease-Fire." Some staged a "die-in" on the roadway, while others locked themselves together and through open vehicle windows in what's known as a "sleeping dragon" maneuver as traffic on Interstate 80 and other area freeways stayed snarled for hours.
JVP said "at least" 50 people were arrested, a number corroborated by the California Highway Patrol.
"The Bay Area will not stop shutting things down until there is an immediate END to the bombing in Gaza," JVP Bay Area said on social media.
Ariel Koren, a leader of the #NoTechForApartheid movement, posted that "Biden will not get away with genocide, Biden will not get away with staying in San Francisco without EVERYONE knowing he is supporting the slaughter in Gaza."
Several protests against Israel's war on Gaza have taken place in the Bay Area in recent weeks, including marches and a Jewish-led takeover of a federal building in Oakland on Monday.
Multiple people detained by police said they had nothing to do with the demonstration. Among those claiming wrongful arrests were Stanford University physics professor Lauren Tompkins and Masoud Barukzai, a worker at San Francisco International Airport.
"As a citizen, this is absolutely disgusting, to be stripped of my rights," Barukzai—who says he believes he was arrested due to his appearance—toldThe San Francisco Chronicle.
Israel's relentless assault on Gaza has killed, maimed, or displaced nearly 40,000 Palestinians, with over 2,700 others missing—many of them presumed dead under the rubble. Half the homes in the besieged strip have been damaged or destroyed, while as many as 1.7 million people—around 70% of Gaza's population—have been forcibly displaced.
Biden—who spoke at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader's Meeting in San Francisco Thursday morning—has rejected calls for a cease-fire while requesting $14.3 billion in additional military aid for Israel, atop the nearly $4 billion it already gets each year.
Biden—who has proclaimed his "unwavering" support for Israel—has also been accused of genocide denial for casting aspersions on Palestinian officials' Gaza casualty reports, even though his own administration has cited figures from the same agencies in recent reports.
A similar protest took place Thursday morning in Massachusetts, where the Jewish-led group IfNotNow Boston spearheaded a rush-hour blockage of Boston University Bridge.
"Every day brings more death, more starvation, more children losing limbs, more babies becoming orphans," the group said in an open letter demanding a Gaza cease-fire. "It is unbearable, our souls cry out against it."
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