Transforming Our Grief into Action

As we mark three years of Israeli genocide in Gaza, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is launching a Month of Action. Our chapters across the country will mobilize their communities for protests demanding an end to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

AMP will make it clear to U.S. lawmakers that Israel’s brutality against the Palestinian people is not a new phenomenon. From the Balfour Declaration to Israeli massacres at Deir Yassin, Tantura, Qibya, Kafr Qassem, and Sabra and Shatila – Israel’s genocide in Gaza is a byproduct of successive U.S. administrations’ historical support for Israel. The evidence? The U.S. has given Israel $300 billion in aid since 1948, including over $20 billion in military aid just in the last three years, as well as diplomatic cover to pursue its crimes. That is why, as Americans, we must continue to speak out against Washington’s systematic enabling of Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity. 

In the last three years, Israel has systematically murdered Palestinians in Gaza, entrenched its apartheid rule in the occupied West Bank, victimized thousands of Palestinian prisoners, and continues to brutalize Palestinian-Americans with impunity. Despite these horrific circumstances, the tide has turned. Every day, Americans bear witness to Israel’s war crimes as Palestinians document their own genocide on social media – resulting in a transformative shift in Americans’ views on Palestinian human rights. 60% of Americans now view Israel unfavorably while 41% sympathize with the Palestinians. Even some Republicans now support accountability for Israeli war crimes against Palestinians and American citizens alike. Such progress would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

However, progress does not come without costs. Salah Sarsour, Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Leqaa Kordia, college students, and activists across the country have been met with state-backed repression designed to intimidate them into silence. This did not happen in a vacuum. Growing support for Palestinian human rights is precisely why the pro-Palestine movement faces vicious assaults on its First Amendment rights.

Even AMP has faced sham lawsuits meant to render us ineffective. However, those attacks have fallen short. We will not succumb to defamation, intimidation, or smear campaigns. Three years of genocide have only strengthened our resolve.

That is why during our Month of Action, we call on everyone to transform their grief into action by:

• Organizing protests and activities centered on accountability.
• Demanding an end to genocide, apartheid, and constant attacks on Masjid Al-Aqsa.
• Building lasting political power to secure Palestinian human rights.

AMP will continue organizing until the Palestinian people achieve the freedom, justice, and dignity they have been denied for generations.