In light of Israel's latest onslaught in Gaza and the West Bank, those of us organizing to Block Cop City wish to publicly condemn Israeli violence and declare our full solidarity with and support for Palestinian resistance. While BCC is an action rather than an organization, we want to be explicit about the ways that these struggles connect.
We begin by recognizing that the same structures of settler colonialism and racial capitalism that are driving the ongoing genocide of the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (“North America”) are also driving the ongoing genocide of the people of historic Palestine. Block Cop City stands in solidarity with the Muskogee people who were displaced from the Weelaunee (“Intrenchment Creek Park”) and its surrounding territories, with Palestinians around the world, and with all people resisting colonial violence and dispossession.
We also recognize that many of Cop City’s corporate funders, including Coca Cola and Bank of America, are also financially supporting the IDF/IOF (Israeli Occupation Force), and for the same reason. The future of policing envisioned by these institutions can already be gleaned from the wreckage in Gaza. Though dwarfed in scale by the Israeli military’s genocidal brutality, the Atlanta PD, GBI, and Georgia AG have already deployed similar tactics of draconian state violence and collective punishment against Stop Cop City activists. As we head into a future of even starker inequality, civil unrest, and climate crisis, the rich are preparing to turn their communities into Tel Aviv while they turn ours into Gaza. Thus, the struggle to free Palestine is integral to the struggle to free us all.
We also recognize and condemn the more direct ways in which Atlanta’s repressive state apparatus cooperates with the Israeli military. This includes the GILEE (Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange) program. Led by Georgia State University, the program facilitates direct training between Georgia Police and the IOF, in part by sending Georgia police to occupied Palestine in order to be trained in racist and hyper-militarized surveillance and policing tactics. The Atlanta Police Foundation has already invited the IOF to train at Cop City if it is built, and APD and Fulton County SWAT team members recently joked about "capturing Hamas terrorists” while descending upon squatters in an abandoned hotel.
The #BlockCopCity action joins several other Atlantian and Mvskogee voices in condemning Israeli’s genocidal campaign, and we stand in solidarity with the ongoing inspirational resistances across Turtle Island and the globe. A Palestine solidarity delegation will be present at Monday’s action, where we invite all people of conscience to come link arms with members of the Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, and others calling for a free Palestine and to stop cop cities everywhere.
FREE PALESTINE!
COP CITY WILL NEVER BE BUILT!
COP CITY WILL BE DEFEATED