Open letter of solidarity with Palestine

Artist credit: One Rad Latina

up//root stands in unequivocal solidarity with the people of Palestine, who have endured systematic human rights violations under Israeli occupation. We endorse this statement written by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine as a vital display of solidarity among information workers.

Over the past few months and the last 75 years, the world has witnessed the Israeli state-led ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. We call for a ceasefire. We call for an immediate end to the occupation. We call for the right of return for all Palestinians. We bear witness.

Zionism is a state-sponsored ideological project inextricably linked with imperialism, colonialism, white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy. As critically-minded information workers, we find recent actions by the US House of Representatives to legally equate anti-zionism with antisemitism deeply alarming. These actions by the State emphasize our work as information workers who are professionally and personally committed to fighting disinformation campaigns, censorship, and attacks on critical thought. We denounce, as well, the U.S. empire’s vote against calls for immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the United Nations General Assembly on December 12, 2023.

We urge a raise in our collective consciousness regarding the histories which have led to this moment and created these conditions of perpetual violence. In this spirit, we share the Resources for a Free Palestine toolkit developed by our comrades at We Here. This toolkit serves as an intervention for understanding the narrative(s), histories, and lived realities underscoring the need for Palestinian liberation. We urge our audience to read, seek out, hear and amplify Palestinian voices; to share their narratives and to take action. Protest and practice resistance with your voice, your vote, your dollar, your labor, your attention. We must open our eyes and hearts as well to humanitarian crises around the globe, including Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. We must not look away. 

Our hearts ache in rage and grief for Palestine, and for all oppressed living beings who endure the terrors of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy. up//root is committed to seeing these systems dismantled, and to co-creating a world where the human spirit thrives.

Signed,

Team up//root