Resolution Calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an End to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine,
and Support for Workers’ Political Speech
by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, United Auto Workers Local 2325
November 2023
WHEREAS, Palestinian trade unions issued a statement calling for unionists worldwide to
pressure governments to stop all military funding for Israel, to take action against companies
involved in Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, and to pass motions in our unions to this effect;
WHEREAS, in recent weeks, working people around the world have shown public support for
Palestinian freedom;
WHEREAS, we are legal workers, including attorneys, paralegals, legal advocates, social
workers, interpreters, investigators, administrative staff, and more, serving and defending the
most demonized and oppressed communities in the United States–poor, criminalized,
immigrant, Black and Indigenous people–and we stand for human rights and against apartheid,
ethnic cleansing, and genocide;
WHEREAS, Israel has, since the violent tragedy on October 7, 2023, increasingly espoused
genocidal rhetoric against all Palestinians, including the Israeli Defense Minister calling all
Gazans “human animals,” and the President of Israel denying the existence of innocent civilians
in the Gaza Strip, and has taken actions to collectively punish civilians in Gaza, such as cutting
off food, water, aid, and electricity, and conducting a widespread bombing campaign;
WHEREAS, the United States has encouraged Israel’s escalation of violence against
Palestinians–for example, the House of Representatives recently passed $14.3 billion in US
military aid beyond the nearly $4 billion a year it provides to Israel annually–and it has otherwise
failed to express solidarity with the people of Palestine or taken any actions to do anything but
escalate the current violence;
WHEREAS, Israel has cut off internet and phone service in Gaza, further isolating Palestinians
in Gaza from the rest of the world and from one another;
WHEREAS, since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed over 11,100 people in Gaza, not counting
thousands of missing people and those who are dying from starvation, illness, or lack of
treatment;
WHEREAS, Israel has bombed hospitals, schools, places of worship, and refugee camps,
resulting in numerous deaths of civilians who are already displaced from their homes and are
seeking refuge at internationally recognized safe areas;
WHEREAS, on October 13, 2023, Israel gave 1.1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza
only 24 hours to evacuate their homes;
WHEREAS, in recent weeks, the number of Palestinian arrests and Israeli attacks against
Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem have greatly escalated, including 133 Palestinians
killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023;
WHEREAS, Israel is holding approximately 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons, many of them
under administrative detention without due process, and treatment of Palestinians in prison has
worsened in recent weeks;
WHEREAS, Israel has kept the Gaza Strip under a state of siege for decades, and according to
many international human rights organizations, maintains a colonial apartheid occupation
regime against the Palestinian people;
WHEREAS, the recent Israeli siege on Gaza deepens the ethnic cleansing and dispossession
of the Palestinian people that has been ongoing since the Nakba in 1948 and the Balfour
Declaration in 1917;
WHEREAS, Palestinians will now need humanitarian relief that reflects the assistance we
provide as legal service workers in New York, Detroit, and Texas, including relief to address
Palestinian homelessness, refugee displacement, prisoners rights, criminal defense, rights of
parents and children, and access to food, clean water, medical services, schools and essential
utilities.
WHEREAS, in 2022, this local passed a Resolution on Divestment from Israel Bonds, affirming
support for individual members and as a local collectively to take action in support of Palestinian
liberation from Israeli apartheid;
WHEREAS, many of our members, and the majority of our clients, have ancestors who are
survivors of colonization, apartheid, or genocide;
WHEREAS, our members denounce and are subjected to Islamophobic attacks and antisemitic
threats, and such attacks and threats are on the rise as Israel and the United States continue to
escalate the violence in Gaza;
WHEREAS, in the face of these ongoing horrors, members of the Association of Legal Aid
Attorneys reaffirm and deepen our connection to the Palestinian liberation struggle;
WHEREAS, organized workers at CAMBA Legal Services Workers United – UAW Local 2325,
The Bronx Defenders Union – UAW Local 2325,, Make the Road NY Union – UAW Local 2320,
workers at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America (UE), National Writers Union, the American Postal Workers Union, NYU
GSOC – UAW 2110, University of California Academic Workers – UAW 2865, Student Workers of
Columbia – UAW 2710, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and others have spoken out in solidarity
with the Palestinian people in recent weeks;
WHEREAS, workers, law students, and undergraduate student organizations are being doxxed
for expressing support for Palestinians and opposition to Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing,
and genocide;
WHEREAS, New York County Defender Services pressured attorney Victoria Ruiz to quit after
the New York Post published an article containing a video that misrepresented her actions at a
vigil for Palestinians recently killed by Israel;
WHEREAS, the ALAA chapter at The Bronx Defenders is being threatened with organizational
defunding due to The Bronx Defenders Union – UAW Local 2325, October 20, 2023 statement in
support of Palestinians, which condemned the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians committed by Israel and the United States;
WHEREAS, such threats to defund The Bronx Defenders are threats against vital legal services
provided to 20,000 low-income Bronx residents, including Bronx parents facing family
separation by child protective services in family court as well as Bronx community members
facing displacement in Bronx housing court, deportation in immigration court, and prosecution
and incarceration in criminal court.
THEREFORE, be it resolved, that the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Local 2325 of the
United Auto Workers, takes the following positions:
● We call on Israel and the United States to implement an immediate ceasefire; restore
water, electricity, gas, and internet; permit international humanitarian assistance, and
retract any evacuation orders in Gaza;
● We call for an end to Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian
land, sea, and air by Israeli military forces;
● We oppose all existing and any future military aid to Israel;
● We endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement;
● We endorse Not On Our Dime legislation, which prohibits not-for-profit corporations in
New York from aiding or abetting activity in support of illegal Israeli settlements in
violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949; and
● We support the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland; and
THEREFORE, be it further resolved, that we reject all attempts to intimidate workers for their
political speech, and we will organize against any attempts by our employers to procure funds
denied to other legal services providers due to their union’s political activism in support of
Palestinians and in opposition to the Israeli apartheid regime and occupation; and
THEREFORE, be it further resolved, that we call on our elected officials, UAW International,
labor councils of which we are members, other unions, and our employers to use all available
resources to take the actions listed above.
Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, United Auto Workers Local 2325
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