Dozens of National Movement Leaders Arrested in Capitol Rotunda Calling for Ceasefire and End of U.S. Funding for Weapons to Israel, Border Militarization - Action Center on Race and the Economy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

December 19, 2023

CONTACTS: 

Alia El Assar, Adalah Justice Project | alia@adalahjusticeproject.org

Jennifer K. Falcon, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights | jennifer@fossilfree.media

Craig Phelps | contact@craigphelps.com

Jesse Brooks, The Worker Agency | Jesse@theworkeragency.com

Eli Day, We The People Michigan | eli@wethepeoplemi.org

Dozens of National Movement Leaders Arrested in Capitol Rotunda Calling for Ceasefire and End of U.S. Funding for Weapons to Israel, Border Militarization

Washington, D.C. — Today, at least 50 national movement and organizational leaders were arrested while staging a protest in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and opposing the proposed U.S. supplemental package, which would send billions of dollars in weapons and military funding to Israel, U.S. southern border militarization, and immigration enforcement within the U.S. Leaders traveled from across the country to take the unprecedented action and make their demands of elected officials heard as Congress plans to wrap up for the holidays while bombs continue to rain down on Gaza.

They issued the following joint statement: 

We want Congress and President Biden to act on Permanent Ceasefire Now by stopping all military funding to Israel. We demand that the United States stop arming Israel and facilitating genocide in Gaza. We demand that there be no further border violence or genocide in our names, funded with our tax dollars. In short, we demand that our leaders divest from militarism, and invest in life!”

The diverse group of protestors was made up of leaders from Palestinian, Jewish, veteran, youth, immigrant, climate and racial and economic justice groups, and included constituents of critical states in the upcoming elections such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Florida.
(Full list of organizations represented below, with quotes from selected leaders.)

The latest version of the spending package introduced in the Senate would allocate $14.3 billion in military funding to Israel, and nearly $8 billion to border militarization and immigration enforcement agencies. Last week, Senate Republicans blocked the package in efforts to secure sweeping policy changes that would signal the return of the Trump-era asylum systems in the United States, expediting deportations, increasing immigrant detention, and even closing our southern border to migration altogether. The action comes as President Biden and Democratic members of Congress have publicly signaled that they will concede the human rights of immigrants to Republican lawmakers in order to push through funding for foreign militaries, disregarding the calls of immigrant communities to rescind requests for deadly enforcement funding and stand strong against these proposals.

Congress has spent $21 trillion the last 20 years on military and war. The calls for a ceasefire are accompanied by the demand for a divestment from death and investment in life and our communities at home, schools, health care, elders, young people, and workers instead. In specific, the $106 billion allocated to the supplemental spending package could:

  • Keep child care centers open to serve 3.2 million children now at risk of losing care ($16 billion)
  • Health care for all 5 million uninsured children in the US ($14 billion)
  • 6 million public housing units ($58 billion)
  • Resettle 1.4 million refugees ($7.8 billion)
  • Build solar power for 23.9 million homes ($9.6 billion)

As the year comes to an end and the bombs continue to fall on Gaza, killing an average of 280 people per day, leaders across movements implore President Biden to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and stop funding violence at our southern border in our communities.

Press kit is available at the following links and will be updated on an ongoing basis:
Photos are available here.
Videos are available here.

Sponsoring organizations: Action Center on Race and Economy, Adalah Justice Project, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

Participating organizations: 350.org; Amistad Law Project; Athena Coalition; CAIR Philadelphia; CAIR San Francisco Bay Area; Center for Popular Democracy; Climate Organizing Hub; Communities United for Status & Protection; Community Labor United; Detention Watch Network; Detroit Action; Fight for the Future; Florida Rising; Florida Palestine Network; Funding Freedom; Grassroots International; HEAL Food Alliance; Highlander Research & Education Center; Jewish Voice for Peace Action; Jews For Racial & Economic Justice; Justice Is Global; Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice; LeftRoots; MediaJustice; Minnesota Environmental Justice Table; Movement Law Lab; MPower Change; Muslim Counterpublics Lab; Muslims for Just Futures; Nasty Woman Cosmetics; Native Organizers Alliance; New Justice Project; New York Communities for Change; One Fair Wage; OPEIU Local 12; Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition; Political Research Associates; POWER Interfaith; Progressive Maryland; Puget Sound Sage; Reclaim Philadelphia; Resource Generation; Right to the City Alliance; Rising Majority; Showing Up for Racial Justice; State Power Caucus; Survivors Know; TakeAction Minnesota; The New Justice Project MN; The Organizing Center; Upturn; We the People Michigan.