Showing solidarity with Palestine isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s tactically smart for all justice and liberation movements.
Showing solidarity with Palestine isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s tactically smart.
A solidarity demonstration in support of Palestine held in front of the New York Public Library ahead of the Labor Day March in New York on September 7, 2024.
(Selcuk Acar / Anadolu via Getty Images)
On June 1, the Freedom Flotilla’s ship Madleen set sail from Sicily, carrying a crew of activists, including Greta Thunberg, known for her climate-justice campaigning, and Rima Hassan, a French Palestinian member of European Parliament. They were attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver aid, including baby formula and prosthetics.
Their mission was a dangerous one. Israel has attacked previous flotillas. In 2010, Israel killed 10 passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, and a month before the Madleen’s voyage, drones attacked another Freedom Flotilla boat, the Conscience. Since 2010, no boats have reached Gaza, despite the efforts of people like Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and author Alice Walker, who set sail but were quickly intercepted.
Thunberg’s participation in the most recent flotilla journey garnered international attention and may have ensured the relative safety of the passengers—although Israel detained some members of the kidnapped crew for much longer when they refused to sign papers inaccurately stating that they entered Israel illegally. Hassan and another activist, Thiago Ávila, went on hunger strike after Israel put them in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, thousands of activists—from unions, human rights organizations, and aid groups—are marching toward Gaza by land to demand the opening of the Rafah border crossing and the lifting of the blockade. The Egyptian and Libyan governments have tried to block the march, detaining and deporting participants, but more activists continue to join.
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These efforts—and Thunberg’s support—have attracted condemnation and scorn from many defenders of Israel. “Greta Thunberg should thank Israel for intercepting her Gaza selfie ship,” ran one Spectator headline. In 2023, after Thunberg had begun speaking out in solidarity with Palestine, the German news magazine Der Spiegel ran a story titled “An Idol Loses Her Way: Has Greta Thunberg Betrayed the Climate Movement?” The New York Post ran a roundup of vitriolic commentary—“Let’s hope it’s a one-way voyage”—while Ben Shapiro attacked her journey as “performative.”
Many of those urging Thunberg to “focus on climate” while decrying her human rights advocacy have no sincere interest in environmental justice. They are merely repeating hasbara, or Israeli propaganda: The Spectator article quotes Israeli military communications as legitimate sources, while the Spiegel piece conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, a common tactic to silence pro-Palestine advocates.
There are, however, other activists who do sincerely believe that Palestine is too divisive a topic, or who want to separate their particular cause from other struggles. Recently, Unite All Workers for Democracy, the caucus of the United Auto Workers that has pushed for democratic reforms including one member one vote, voted to dissolve itself, citing “internal divisions.” One of these divisions appears to have been many members’ advocacy for the union to take a stronger position on Palestine, which others within the group viewed as a detriment to organizing new members and retaining existing supporters.
My experience indicates the opposite: Solidarity isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also tactically smart.
In October 2023, I posted a “Solidarity with Palestine” tweet on the Starbucks Workers United account. Starbucks workers overwhelmingly supported taking that stance: After union leadership ordered the initial tweet’s deletion, the rank and file voted by 97 percent to release a stronger statement. Initially, many people—from top union leaders to supporters of the campaign—accused me of using the union’s platform to advance personal political beliefs or told me that supporting Palestine was a liability for the union effort. Starbucks reacted intensely, suing the union and publicizing a list of union stores in order to direct angry messages toward unionized baristas. This very response prompted a global boycott, significantly dropping Starbucks sales. The company lost $11 billion in market value over 12 days, and the boycott has continued long after that. That pressure brought the company to the bargaining table.
As a brand-new activist in Mississippi, I asked one of my friends and comrades which cause was his favorite, knowing he’d supported a range of issues, from civil rights to labor to Palestine to closing the School of the Americas to abortion rights. He laughed: “I don’t have a favorite. There’s only one cause.”
I was surprised by this response. At the time, I was conflicted about which issues to focus my efforts on, but I’ve since realized how true his statement was.
Struggles do not exist in a vacuum and cannot be siloed. Deported from Israel, Thunberg spoke to journalists in the Paris airport who asked why so many governments around the world are ignoring what’s happening in Gaza. “Because of racism,” Thunberg responded, before adding, “desperately trying to defend a destructive, deadly system that systematically puts short-term economic profit and to maximize geopolitical power over the well-being of humans and the planet.”
From Palestine to Los Angeles—where ICE is abducting people and police, many of whom train in Israel, are brutalizing protesters—to Standing Rock to Ferguson, Missouri, those responsible for oppression and injustice are closely linked. (Recognizing the interconnectedness of their struggles, Palestinians gave protesters in Ferguson advice on dealing with tear gas and police repression after the murder of Michael Brown.) Francesca Albanese, the brilliant human rights scholar who serves as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, calls it “colonial racial capitalism,” a term reflecting the ways that capitalism’s colonial extraction relies not just on racialized labor but also on changing human relationships with land itself and turning land into a commodity.
Those who are profiting from suffering, who stand to gain from war, and who are trying to roll back human rights standards understand that their fights are fundamentally the same. Capital and government are organized and work together to expand their power and control over people around the world. They don’t see one issue as separate from another, and—now more than ever—the lines between business and government are blurry. The US government has tapped Palantir— the software company founded by Peter Thiel, a mentor of JD Vance’s and close associate of Elon Musk—to create personal profiles of US residents using the data DOGE scraped from government agencies. Palantir was just awarded an even larger contract with ICE, and it provides the Israeli military with surveillance technology.
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There are countless other examples. The same governments and companies that have a vested interest in war are also destroying the climate: The environmental impact of Israel’s genocide has been immense. The same religious fundamentalists who overturned abortion access and are stripping away queer and trans rights are also often Christian Zionists—far-right evangelicals whose antisemitic views do not prevent them from supporting the Israeli state, which they consider a precondition for a biblical Armageddon.
Companies like Amazon and Google—known for their union busting—have also donated to and are profiting from the United States’ descent into fascism. Likewise, they’re also complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with a joint billion-dollar contract, “Project Nimbus,” to provide cloud services to the Israeli military. When Google workers, members of the “No Tech for Apartheid” movement, spoke out against the company’s involvement, they were fired. Presented with a choice between ethics or profits, the company that had once used the slogan “Don’t Be Evil” doubled down on being evil. (Google previously fired workers who called out the company’s collaboration with ICE and customs and border patrol during the first Trump administration.)
Our enemies understand that there’s only one cause. We must, too. Intersectionality isn’t a quid pro quo: We should not enter a “you support my cause, I’ll support yours” relationship. True solidarity is the only way to overcome the combined forces of corporations and governments bent on extracting resources and profits, destroying human rights, and razing the earth. Our survival depends on linking our resistance efforts and securing collective liberation. As the Mississippi civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
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Felecia Phillips Ollie DD (h.c.) is the inspiring leader and founder of The Equality Network LLC (TEN). With a background in coaching, travel, and a career in news, Felecia brings a unique perspective to promoting diversity and inclusion. Holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Communications, she is passionate about creating a more inclusive future. From graduating from Mississippi Valley State University to leading initiatives like the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Equal Employment Opportunity Program, Felecia is dedicated to making a positive impact. Join her journey on our blog as she shares insights and leads the charge for equity through The Equality Network.
