Left Voice Condemns DoJ IHRA Fascist Lawfare Case (NJ), Calls for Strong Campaign Against Repression, BRAVO!
Left Voice reporter Sam Carliner is on point with this call for opposition of the sketchy DoJ case that came to the opposite conclusion of the local proecutor who put charges on the pro-Israel alleged assailant that clobbered one of the protesters. I have written a statement and report on this matter as well. WE NEED MORE UNIFIED ACTION! It can not be only two speaking up. That also means not just Facebook shares and comments but concrete statements with demands. FightBackBetter will include a link to all statements. Also there should be one central statement – about this specific case with very clear rejection of the charges, the basis of the charges, the process of DoJ fishing into old cases and trying to twist the real police work in this case, demands to dismiss the charges immediately, demands of us to organize and rally and a way to add names and organizations in support of the statement. Unfortuntely this is a rinse and repeat operation since they will be coming for many of us very soon! And if we do not get other folks back – nobody will get ours either – there is a poem about it! – WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED! Editor, FightBackBetter.
In a shocking move, the Department of Justice has targeted activists in New Jersey in a new front in repression of the movement for Palestine and the Trump administration’s authoritarian offensive against the Left, workers, and social movements. The suit comes in response to a protest against a synagogue in West Orange being used to sell illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. The government is spinning what really happened, claiming the protesters were an antisemitic mob.
The suit targets the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has also been targeted by the state for their immigrant solidarity activism in California. The suit also targets American Muslims for Palestine, and includes several individual community activists.
The federal government is suing these activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, a piece of legislation designed to prevent anti-abortion protesters from keeping people seeking abortions from entering clinics. This is the first time the legislation has ever been used to target a protest outside of a place of worship.
However, it must be reiterated that the activists were not protesting the practice of Judaism — they were protesting supporters of a genocidal regime auctioning off stolen land. It has been common for Zionists to hold events that normalize violence against Palestinians in Jewish community spaces, and use that as a way to misconstrue the intentions of pro-Palestine protesters, many of whom are Jewish themselves.
In fact, as New Jersey Monitor reports, Essex Prosecutors had initially claimed that the Zionists were the aggressors in the confrontation at the protest which has prompted the DOJ lawsuit. This is plausible: Zionists in New Jersey have routinely harassed pro-Palestine activists. In West Orange, Zionists have even threatened pro-Palestine high schoolers with rape and murder, as Left Voice previously reported.
In the face of this new offensive against pro-Palestine activists in New Jersey, which would set a reactionary precedent if successful, we must organize a broad campaign against the lawsuit and in defense of the pro-Palestine protesters. Every union, every progressive NGO, every individual who is alarmed by the daily escalations of attacks on democratic rights by the Trump administration needs to speak out against the lawsuit.
The Left should play a key role in this campaign and use it to show that simply relying on the Democrats or the courts (who in important ways have acquiesced and capitulated to Trump) is not enough to take on the president. We have to do what the movement in L.A. did and what people in Chicago are doing, which is mobilize to take on Trump directly with the collective power of the workers and oppressed. Only in this way can we have any hope in defeating Trump’s authoritarian offensive.
We also cannot limit our fight against repression to just our own state. The attacks on the movement for Palestine are national, even international. These attacks against New Jersey activists are informed by dynamics far beyond our specific communities and state. We must unite with others facing repression. We can learn from examples of strong political campaigns against repression of the movement, like the ongoing campaign to reinstate the four CUNY professors fired for Palestine solidarity, or the international campaign against France’s attempt to silence pro-Palestine labor activists like Anasse Kazib.
Repression is ramping up. Now is the time for an unprecedented solidarity and strategy that can truly defend against these attacks.
