‘Resistance is human right’: US anti-war movement slams crackdown on pro-Palestine dissent

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), a US-based people(s)-centered human rights project against war, repression and imperialism, has slammed the United States for cracking down on pro-Palestine dissent.

The Black Alliance for Peace said in a statement that it “recognizes that we are in a moment of increased and increasingly dangerous political repression.”

The statement, titled “Resistance to Oppression is a Human Right”, noted that peoples’ resistance to “oppressive, militaristic, and genocidal” policies enacted by the US national security apparatus “are once again being met with persecution, marginalization, violence, and even lawfare”.

Referring to the recent US designation of the Palestinian prisoner support network Samidoun as a “terrorist” organization, the BAP described the action as another “crude effort to smash all opposition to Zionist settler colonial fascism.”

The group said the US and its allies are using a variety of tools, including police, the propaganda apparatus in the form of the corporate media and the legal system to “crush” dissent.

“The punishment of those who openly oppose US government policies, particularly in opposition to US support of Zionist occupation and genocide, is in full swing,” the statement stressed, referring to the crackdown on pro-Palestine student protests across college campuses, and on independent media such as African Stream which was banned by Meta, Google, and TikTok over the alleged US claim that the site is controlled by Russia.

“The objective of this repression is not just to silence political opposition, but to criminalize it – totalitarianism in practice,” it added.

US police arrest pro-Palestine protesters for 'occupying' Minnesota University building

The US police have arrested a number of pro-Palestine protesters for briefly occupying a building at the University of Minnesota.

The movement vowed not to compromise or retreat in the face of the “deepening” repression.

“We remain unyieldingly committed to our principles, to People(s)-Centered Human Rights, to people’s liberation struggles, and to the right of all individuals and people to resist colonialism, dictatorship, global imperialist warmongering, and all forms of oppression.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza, which has so far killed over 42,700 Palestinians, in October last year after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since then, the United States has supplied the Tel Aviv regime with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment, and used its veto power against all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The US police and university authorities also cracked down on pro-Gaza protests and encampments on campuses.

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