Resolution Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an End to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, and Support for Workers’ Political Speech

The following resolution was approved by a membership vote by a margin of 1067-570. 

WHEREAS, Palestinian trade unions issued a statement calling for unionists worldwide to pressure governments to stop all military funding for Israel, to take action against companies involved in Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, and to pass motions in our unions to this effect;

WHEREAS, in recent weeks, working people around the world have shown public support for Palestinian freedom;

WHEREAS, we are legal workers, including attorneys, paralegals, legal advocates, social workers, interpreters, investigators, administrative staff, and more, serving and defending the most demonized and oppressed communities in the United States–poor, criminalized, immigrant, Black and Indigenous people–and we stand for human rights and against apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide;

WHEREAS, Israel has, since the violent tragedy on October 7, 2023, increasingly espoused genocidal rhetoric against all Palestinians, including the Israeli Defense Minister calling all Gazans “human animals,” and the President of Israel denying the existence of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip, and has taken actions to collectively punish civilians in Gaza, such as cutting off food, water, aid, and electricity, and conducting a widespread bombing campaign;

WHEREAS, the United States has encouraged Israel’s escalation of violence against Palestinians–for example, the House of Representatives recently passed $14.3 billion in US military aid beyond the nearly $4 billion a year it provides to Israel annually–and it has otherwise failed to express solidarity with the people of Palestine or taken any actions to do anything but escalate the current violence;

WHEREAS, Israel has cut off internet and phone service in Gaza, further isolating Palestinians in Gaza from the rest of the world and from one another;

WHEREAS, since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed over 11,100 people in Gaza, not counting thousands of missing people and those who are dying from starvation, illness, or lack of treatment;

WHEREAS, Israel has bombed hospitals, schools, places of worship, and refugee camps, resulting in numerous deaths of civilians who are already displaced from their homes and are seeking refuge at internationally recognized safe areas;

WHEREAS, on October 13, 2023, Israel gave 1.1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza only 24 hours to evacuate their homes;

WHEREAS, in recent weeks, the number of Palestinian arrests and Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem have greatly escalated, including 133 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023;

WHEREAS, Israel is holding approximately 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons, many of them under administrative detention without due process, and treatment of Palestinians in prison has worsened in recent weeks;

WHEREAS, Israel has kept the Gaza Strip under a state of siege for decades, and according to many international human rights organizations, maintains a colonial apartheid occupation regime against the Palestinian people;

WHEREAS, the recent Israeli siege on Gaza deepens the ethnic cleansing and dispossession of the Palestinian people that has been ongoing since the Nakba in 1948 and the Balfour Declaration in 1917;

WHEREAS, Palestinians will now need humanitarian relief that reflects the assistance we provide as legal service workers in New York, Detroit, and Texas, including relief to address Palestinian homelessness, refugee displacement, prisoners rights, criminal defense, rights of parents and children, and access to food, clean water, medical services, schools and essential utilities.

WHEREAS, in 2022, this local passed a Resolution on Divestment from Israel Bonds, affirming support for individual members and as a local collectively to take action in support of Palestinian liberation from Israeli apartheid; 

WHEREAS, many of our members, and the majority of our clients, have ancestors who are survivors of colonization, apartheid, or genocide;

WHEREAS, our members denounce and are subjected to Islamophobic attacks and antisemitic threats, and such attacks and threats are on the rise as Israel and the United States continue to escalate the violence in Gaza;

WHEREAS, in the face of these ongoing horrors, members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys reaffirm and deepen our connection to the Palestinian liberation struggle;

WHEREAS, organized workers at CAMBA Legal Services Workers United - UAW Local 2325, The Bronx Defenders Union - UAW Local 2325,, Make the Road NY Union - UAW Local 2320, workers at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), National Writers Union, the American Postal Workers Union, NYU GSOC - UAW 2110, University of California Academic Workers - UAW 2865, Student Workers of Columbia - UAW 2710, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and others have spoken out in solidarity with the Palestinian people in recent weeks;

WHEREAS, workers, law students, and undergraduate student organizations are being doxxed for expressing support for Palestinians and opposition to Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide;

WHEREAS, New York County Defender Services pressured attorney Victoria Ruiz to quit after the New York Post published an article containing a video that misrepresented her actions at a vigil for Palestinians recently killed by Israel;

WHEREAS, the ALAA chapter at The Bronx Defenders is being threatened with organizational defunding due to The Bronx Defenders Union - UAW Local 2325, October 20, 2023 statement in support of Palestinians, which condemned the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians committed by Israel and the United States;

WHEREAS, such threats to defund The Bronx Defenders are threats against vital legal services provided to 20,000 low-income Bronx residents, including Bronx parents facing family separation by child protective services in family court as well as Bronx community members facing displacement in Bronx housing court, deportation in immigration court, and prosecution and incarceration in criminal court.

THEREFORE, be it resolved, that the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Local 2325 of the United Auto Workers, takes the following positions:

●      We call on Israel and the United States to implement an immediate ceasefire; restore water, electricity, gas, and internet; permit international humanitarian assistance, and retract any evacuation orders in Gaza;

●      We call for an end to Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian land, sea, and air by Israeli military forces;

●      We oppose all existing and any future military aid to Israel;

●      We endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement;

●      We endorse Not On Our Dime legislation, which prohibits not-for-profit corporations in New York from aiding or abetting activity in support of illegal Israeli settlements in violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949; and

●      We support the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland; and

THEREFORE, be it further resolved, that we reject all attempts to intimidate workers for their political speech, and we will organize against any attempts by our employers to procure funds denied to other legal services providers due to their union’s political activism in support of Palestinians and in opposition to the Israeli apartheid regime and occupation; and

THEREFORE, be it further resolved, that we call on our elected officials, UAW International, labor councils of which we are members, other unions, and our employers to use all available resources to take the actions listed above.

Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, United Auto Workers Local 2325