Yesterday, Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) concluded its 12th annual Palestine Advocacy Days (PAD). Hundreds of advocates across 26 states took part in over 100 congressional meetings demanding an end to U.S. partnership in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, apartheid, and occupation of the Palestinian people.
During their meetings with lawmakers, advocates demanded legislative support for H.R. 3565, the Block the Bombs Act, which would prohibit the transfer of certain offensive weapons to Israel; support for Senators Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine, and Bernie Sanders’ Section 502B resolution seeking accountability for the killing of American citizens in the occupied West Bank; opposition to provisions in the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) expanding military assistance to Israel and U.S.-Israeli defense technology cooperation; and amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to prevent the use of its foreign-policy grounds for inadmissibility and deportability to punish non-citizens for exercising their right to free speech.
Additionally, AJP Action hosted a press conference featuring speakers like Salah Sarsour and Leqaa Kordia, who spoke about the hardships they have endured from the Trump administration’s McCarthyistic targeting of pro-Palestine activists. The full press conference can be viewed here.
Like Salah, Leqaa, and several other individuals and organizations, AJP Action has faced relentless attacks from pro-Israel lobbies and institutions for our Palestine advocacy. We will not allow baseless, fascist attacks to derail our advocacy. Americans increasingly view Israel as a moral and financial burden, with declining support for Israel and growing sympathy for Palestinians. In response, the pro-Israel lobby has resorted to increasingly desperate measures to reclaim public support:
“Nearly eight decades of virtually unconditional U.S. support for Israel have not been beneficial to Americans or to the U.S.Israel has sought to shape U.S. domestic political discourse and policy in ways that advance its own interests as America’s standing in the world has steadily declined. Consequently, many Americans are struggling with soaring living costs and persistent inflation, and more and more are questioning policies that have drawn the U.S. into immoral and costly conflicts that have perpetuated instability in the Middle East. Their calls for a fundamental reassessment of this relationship are growing louder and more influential.
When we defend Palestinian human rights, we are also defending the rights of Americans who refuse to see their taxpayer dollars fund genocide and apartheid, their civil liberties eroded at home, and the constitutional rights of their fellow Americans violated for speaking out against injustice.” – Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, AJP Action Executive Director.
