Collective Liberation Means Ending Apartheid, Settler Colonialism, and the Occupation of Palestine
Dear troublemakers,
We are writing today with heavy hearts.
We begin by acknowledging that the ancestral pain, sorrow, and grief brought by the violence in the region today is a continuation of a harsh historical reality. For over 75 years, the Palestinian people have been resisting relentless Zionist dehumanization, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, land theft, and colonization. The only way to achieve a lasting, just peace is to address the root causes of the struggle.
We stand in solidarity with the millions of voices calling for collective liberation through an end to Israeli apartheid. The struggle of Palestinians is connected to the struggles of Indigenous and oppressed people around the world, which demands of us, as people of conscience and creative social justice fighters worldwide, to take an intersectional approach while committing to decolonization to stop the bloodshed.
Appalled by what’s happening and unsure what to do? We can follow the leadership of Palestinian activists and answer their urgent cries to immediately stop war crimes and collective punishment by mobilizing where we are. We have curated a set of theories, principles, methodologies, and actions that might help you bring beautiful trouble into solidarity actions.
Amidst the horrific headlines, skewed mainstream media coverage, and institutional Western hypocrisy, we are seeing moving examples of solidarity sprouting around the globe, from artistic vigils mourning the loss of life and prophetic prayer for justice (Principle: Use the power of ritual) to mass street mobilizations (Tactic: Mass street action) to prefigurative actions illustrating the future we wish to see, like the image of a bulldozer dismantling the apartheid fence.
Beautiful Trouble is dedicated to the theory of revolutionary nonviolence, which holds a “nuanced view of struggle that does not over-emphasize the dichotomy between nonviolent and armed revolutionaries—that neither celebrates passivity nor fetishizes confrontation. It embraces the contributions of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Ubuntu philosophy: the notion that everyone’s liberation is indelibly connected. Advocates of revolutionary nonviolence must adhere to strategic nonviolence and maintain dialogues beyond those who agree with that framework.”
In centering the Beautiful Trouble principle “Follow the lead of the most impacted,” we also echo the call for meaningful support for Palestinians published by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The BDS Movement calls upon us to work with progressive networks to pressure parliaments and governments to end all military-security cooperation and trade with apartheid Israel, ban goods and services of companies operating in Israel’s illegal colonial settlements, and promote UN action to investigate and dismantle Israeli apartheid, as a similar international solidarity campaign helped achieve in dismantling the apartheid regime in South Africa.
If you are in the US, you can immediately call on Congress to stop fueling violence and sending weapons to facilitate war crimes by sending a letter to your Representatives via Jewish Voices for Peace, send letters to Congress via the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, or click-to-call your Congressperson.
Institutional pressure campaigns (including boycotts and divestment) against Israeli and international companies and banks that are complicit in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity are powerful tools. There are countless BDS campaigns that you can search by country, including directly pressuring Google, Amazon, HP and HPE, Chevron, Siemens, G4S/AlliedUniversal, AXA, PUMA, Carrefour, Airbnb, Expedia, Sabra, Barclays, and other companies.
You can also mobilize your community, trade union, association, congregation, social network, student government/union, city council, cultural center, or other organization to declare yourselves an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ), working with organizations like Apartheid Free to end all relations with apartheid Israel and companies/institutions that are complicit in its system of oppression.
At a time when emotions can run hot, we are also reminded of the importance of self-care and community care. Beautiful Trouble recently released a Resilience Toolkit that you are invited to download for free and use in your organization, family, neighborhood, and community as you navigate the heartbreaking headlines.
As we watch these horrific events unfold with grief, we persevere in our belief that a better world is coming. We derive our hope from the power of persistence—asking constantly what we can do today so that, as Paulo Freire puts it, we’ll be able to do tomorrow what we cannot do today.
In hope and solidarity,
The team at Beautiful Trouble
