Last Tuesday, on the second night of Passover, an affinity group of SURJ-NYC members participated in an “Emergency Seder in the Streets” organized by Jewish Voice for Peace-NYC. With 2,000 others, we sat outside Senator Schumer’s home in Brooklyn in dissent as he shepherded the approval of a $95 billion aid package with military funding for Israel. Speakers at the Seder included Jewish faith leaders and Palestinian organizers alike, carrying on a ritual and proclaiming this a Passover like no other.
At the end of the Seder, 250 of us participated in an act of civil disobedience, blocking traffic in the street, demanding that there can be no business as usual during a genocide. Mass arrests by the NYPD included four members of our SURJ affinity group. We sang of freedom and resistance on the buses while waiting to be transported to 1 Police Plaza as the MTA bus drivers of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 refused to be complicit in the arrests and walked off.
Are you ready to join us?
We encourage everyone to rise to the maximum courage of your convictions. Fill out this form to take action in the streets for Palestinian solidarity with SURJ NYC. If you’ve filled out the form previously but are reconsidering the level of risk you’re able to take, please fill out the form again. We are also connecting anyone who fills out the form to ways to support the NY-area campus encampments!
Same struggle, different frontline
The very same night some of us were at the Seder in the Streets of Brooklyn, other SURJ organizers were in Pittsburgh in support of Rep. Summer Lee’s reelection. It is essential we not concede the electoral frontline to rightwing authoritarians or the centrists we cannot count on to stand up to them. Lee has been one of the earliest, strongest, and most consistent supporters of a permanent ceasefire and cutting military aid to Israel. We knocked on doors, talked to people at the polls, and eventually celebrated Summer’s landslide win over her opponent, who was recruited and funded by wealthy, powerful rightwingers hell bent on punishing the members of the Squad who have stood with Palestine.
This is a watershed moment
People are rising up to demand an end to this genocide. At Columbia University, after the school suspended students active in the university encampment, students occupied Hamilton Hall, which was then stormed by the NYPD. Across the country, students and faculty are building encampments on university campuses (follow updates on the telegram app)! We’re demanding our elected officials take a stand and promising consequences if they don’t. At SURJ, we’re taking the lessons and skills we learned from Black organizers during the uprisings of 2020 following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and continuing to fight. This struggle for racial justice is local, national, and international, and we know there is no collective liberation without Palestinian liberation.
Show up for Racial Justice. Show up for Palestine. Show up for Jamaal Bowman
The next battle in the fight to Defend The Squad is Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s NY-16 US congressional primary on June 25th. Since his first election in 2020, Rep. Bowman has been a leader on issues like public education, reproductive rights, Medicare for All, and climate justice. SURJ will engage in a few ways, launching with two key online events:
Wednesday, May 8th, join SURJ in conversation with Rep. Jamaal Bowman to hear about why this race matters and why we need white people across the country to show up. This webinar will highlight all aspects of the national SURJ-for-Bowman campaign, including phone banking.
Thursday, May 9th, 6:30pm - 8:00pm: SURJ NYC Chapter Meeting: All Out for Bowman! SURJ NYC is teaming up with SURJ Westchester to door-knock to re-elect Jamaal Bowman! Knocking doors is pound-for-pound the most effective way to move voters, and it’s the priority ask of all of us in the NY metropolitan area.
By taking action in the streets and on our campuses, by showing up for and re-electing Jamaal Bowman and our bravest members of Congress, we can change the political calculus on Palestine and a broad progressive agenda. We are determined to send a powerful message to the President, the Democratic-controlled Congress, and those who aspire to join them, that supporting Israel’s war crimes is morally indefensible and a political liability. All of our efforts are important, and there is no hierarchy of roles in this movement! We hope you’ll continue to join in this fight for justice. Let us know if you’re interested in future civil disobedience actions, and join us next Thursday at Chapter.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC