Stop the Genocide, Free Palestine! An Assessment of Palestine Organizing Against Genocide at Penn State and in State College

Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.

Since October 7, 2023 “israel” has murdered nearly 186,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, not including those who cannot be found under the rubble, according to an analysis in The Lancet. (1) Food and water in Gaza is scarce. “israel” is actively blocking and destroying necessities as a calculated part of their genocidal imperialist project. Disease spreads as “israel” murders doctors. The “israeli” military has directed hundreds of thousands of people to “safe zones” and refugee camps, only for the “israeli” air force to drop bombs on these very same places. Palestinians continue to document the genocide in real time through social media. Scholars of genocide, non-governmental organizations, and human rights organizations have concurred that this is a genocide. (2)

Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic elimination of one group by another. Both historically and now, genocide is a tool of settler-colonialism, or a form of colonialism where colonizers seek to remove the Indigenous population of a land, with the explicit intention of bringing settlers to occupy the land instead. Settler states, proxied through the ruling class, conduct genocide of Indigenous peoples through cultural destruction, forced displacement, and mass killing. Ultimately, genocide is a key tool of the ruling class and is the ultimate expression of capitalist violence. The drive for profit results in the annihilation of people who are branded as inferior so that the ruling class can more easily dominate their land and resources. Through genocide, capitalists exploit and eliminate Indigenous peoples to secure resources. The U.S. historically used genocide in its imperial expansion through the displacement and massacre of Indigenous tribes in order to gain land and resources. The ongoing genocide in Palestine did not begin on October 7th: “israel’s” most recent attacks on Gaza are only the latest part of a long-lasting genocidal project. As Palestinian activists have shown us, settler colonial violence against Palestinians including displacement, massacres, and genocide has been ongoing since before 1948.

“israel’s” most recent attempt at genocide in Palestine has not been without fierce resistance. Armed resistance in Gaza bravely struggles for national liberation, while organizers across the world seek to break support for “israel’s” genocide. This genocide can only occur because Western countries such as the “united states,” Germany, France, Britain, and many others support it. (3) Imperialism, including its manifestation in Gaza, is the highest form of capitalism. The ruling class desires new markets and more access to resources in order to keep the globalized economies rolling. For the West, supporting this genocide offers new and expanded markets for the importation of military arms. For example, “israel” continues to murder Palestinians with weapons designed and delivered by Western arms manufacturers. Even our universities, such as Penn State, participate in the research and development of these weapons. Marxists understand the need for globalized resistance as “internationalism,” which is defined as solidarity of the working class that reaches across national borders. The struggle against capitalism requires effort across the globe, including in State College.

The link between capitalism and imperialism is highlighted in Palestine and unequivocally informs how we understand the broader anti-Zionist resistance movement. In what follows, we explain how resistance to imperialism (with genocide as a tool to achieve imperialist ownership of Palestine) has been central in Palestine’s struggle for national liberation and how resistance in our own local context matters in the broader struggle against Zionism. We conclude by highlighting the importance of organizing against all institutions that propagate and support Zionism, genocide, and settler colonialism in our own community, especially when our tuition dollars are used to fund it.

The national liberation struggle in Palestine began over 100 years ago. First, Palestinians resisted the British colonization of their country until 1948, when it was handed off to Zionists to form the settler-colonial state of “israel.” Palestinians resist their occupation by “israel” to this day. Throughout the struggle for national liberation, armed and unarmed resistance demands Palestinian self-determination, such as during the 1936–1939 Great Arab Revolt. During this time, Palestinians organized protests, boycotts, strikes, and protected land to demand a Palestinian national government from under the British and a decrease of settler migration. (4) After the 1948 Nakba, where over 700,000 Palestinians (roughly half the population) were displaced, Palestinian resistance to imperialism and settler colonization continued. Palestinians began reorganizing themselves in refugee camps inside and outside of Palestine against Zionism and the occupation. We see notable resistance during this time, especially after the 1967 Naksa, which saw the displacement of over 300,000 Palestinians and the occupation of all of historical Palestine by “israel.” Resistance organized itself along leftist lines such as the revolutionary Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an Asian Marxist organization, focused on empowering the working class as crucial in the fight for a free Palestine. (5) Palestinians recognize resistance to imperialism and settler-colonialism as a crucial part in their fight for self-determination.

Turning to Gaza, resistance continues to flourish. In 2018, the Great March to Return was a mass non-violent mobilization of Palestinians in Gaza marching to the borders of their besieged land to demand return to their original homes and villages. (6) Today, we still witness revolutionaries employing resistance in all forms to the genocide happening in Gaza and fighting against imperialism to protect Palestinian life and territory.

On the surface, it might seem that a small town like State College has no influence over the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This assumption is incorrect. Internationalism shows us that resistance in places like State College, and the Penn State campus, are essential to supporting resistance movements in Palestine. A blow to capitalism here is a blow to the global capitalist machine.

Voices of university students matter because the tools of genocide are being constructed on our campuses and funded with our tuition. For example, our campus at University Park houses the so-called Applied Research Lab (ARL). (7) Founded in 1945 at the request of the U.S. Navy, the ARL works with the Department of “Defense” to research, design, and test the very weapons that are being used to wipe whole Palestinian families off of the registry. Historically, the ARL produced the Mark 42 torpedo, which is known for its use during the “US” invasion of Vietnam. We reference the ARL to show that even our own university is not only complicit in, but actively contributes to the genocide in Palestine and the broader “US” imperial project. This necessitates a response, and the PSU community has, and must continue to speak out and fight back in the face of genocide.

In the days and months following October 7, 2023, revolutionaries in the PSU community proudly stood up against “israel’s” genocidal war. Throughout the 2023–2024 academic school year, the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, People’s Defense Front, and other community organizations have participated in protests, marches, and other actions against the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Importantly, as our actions bring more and more of the community together, we have seen retaliation from Zionists and the police forces who oppose us. When a vigil was hosted on Penn State’s campus, a far-right provocateur disrupted the event by yelling slurs, spitting on, and slapping an attendee while also calling for more Palestinians to be killed. (8) Other Zionist vigilantes harassed protesters with racist accusations and threatened Palestinian students. (9) The State College Police and Penn State police also attempted multiple times to repress our actions, weaponizing anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim racism by collaborating with racist vigilantes and provocateurs who seek to harass and suppress pro-Palestine actions. (10) Our unwavering commitment to the Palestinian people, resistance, and all oppressed people across the globe stands strong. It is clear that Penn State, the city of State College, and the ruling class here and abroad are on the side of genocide, which is why we continue to organize to stop the genocide and to free Palestine, from the river to the sea!

The Police’s blatant defense of genocide can be seen in the mass demonstration in support of Palestine that occurred on April 29th, 2024. Penn State students and members of the community protested Penn State’s ongoing support for “israel’s” genocide. As marchers approached the Applied Research Lab, twenty members of the State College Police Department and Pennsylvania State Troopers arrived on the scene to protect the ARL. Notably, Police were all but absent until the protesters appeared to threaten the genocidal capital interests housed in the ARL. Law enforcement in capitalist systems protect the imperialist machine’s ability to conduct genocide. Had marchers avoided the ARL, police repression likely would have remained light. This brazen defense of the war machine on our campus highlights two things. First, that the ruling class only cares about protecting its ability to spread death to maintain their power, and second, that they are afraid of people power. Law enforcement’s cowardly response shows that the imperialist class fears the masses and our ability to organize against them. The ruling class demands death when it is profitable. Capitalism offers a view of community safety and law enforcement that is not grounded in serving the people, rather, it demands a defense of the tools of war.

In the face of such injustice one must ask the following question: What is to be done? We must get organized. People power is rarely effective if it remains scattered and disorganized. When we organize towards common objectives, we can build the collective power to challenge and defeat the ruling class! Find the organizations in your community doing the important and necessary work of resistance. Support and join them in any way that you can!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

THE PEOPLE, UNITED, WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!

Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.

Sources

1. Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential (July 5, 2024): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext
2. Is What’s Happening in Gaza a Genocide? Experts Weigh In (November 14, 2023): https://web.archive.org/web/20231125022352/https://time.com/6334409/is-whats-happening-gaza-genocide-experts/
3. How big is Israel’s military and how much funding does it get from the US? (October 11, 2023):
   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/how-big-is-israels-military-and-how-much-funding-does-it-get-from-the-us
4. Great Arab Revolt, 1936–1939: https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/158/great-arab-revolt-1936-1939
5. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/23332/popular-front-liberation-palestine-%E2%80%93-pflp
6. Great March of Return: Six months of protests in the Gaza Strip (September 27, 2018):
   https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2018/9/27/great-march-of-return-six-months-of-protests-in-the-gaza-strip
7. Penn State & The War Machine: https://loadedonloaded.github.io/PSUWM.pdf
8. SCDS Report Back on Zionist Provocateur at Vigil (October 25, 2023): https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy0wTgmOPT4/?img_index=1
9. Ember Report Back on Zionist Provocateur at Vigil (November 6, 2023): https://www.instagram.com/p/CzTx_ShOo7k/?img_index=3
10. Ember Report on Police Anti-Palestinian Racism (April 24, 2024): https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Jcp_IOnUV/?img_index=1