I want to share a story with you, John.
It’s a story about why the struggles for Black and Palestinian liberation are interconnected. Why it’s so important we rise up in solidarity together to oppose our money funding militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma.
When you’re finished reading this story, I hope you can chip in $5 or anything you can to support this fight so our children can grow up in a world free of the kind of violence we’re witnessing today.
When we were on the frontlines in Ferguson, I remember sitting in a circle with Palestinian activists who showed up in solidarity with our struggle for justice. I remember we sat on the grass near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered.
I remember them describing to us what to do when militarized law enforcement shot us with rubber bullets, or when they tear gassed us. I remember learning that the same equipment they use to brutalize us is the same equipment we send to the Israeli military to police and brutalize Palestinians.
Palestinians know what state violence, militarized policing, and occupation of their communities look like. They know what it’s like going through checkpoints while trying to live their lives. This is the reality so many of them have lived.
St. Louis elected me to save lives. So that means we oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, trauma, and systems of violent oppression. We are anti-war, anti-occupation, and anti-apartheid. Period. And we want our tax dollars to fund life—not destruction.
I stand in solidarity with Palestinians enduring the oppression that our government is funding, and in solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians alike who are resisting together and asking us to stop America’s role in funding the oppression inflicted by the Israeli military.
I take this struggle seriously, John.
We ran for Congress to save lives, and we won’t back down until justice prevails in all of our communities and all of our children are safe from this kind of state-sanctioned violence. If you support this work, make a donation today so we can continue organizing and legislating to end these interconnected crises.
Together,
Cori
