Letter to Olympia Indivisible Steering Committee

April 12

To Olympia Indivisible Steering Committee

At the Hands Off! Replace, Rebuild, and Reclaim Rally on April 5th, Cindy Corrie delivered a speech (attached as ‘Cindy Speech’) that called for solidarity with the people of Palestine. The response was overwhelmingly positive. When Cindy spoke, the crowd quieted and heads turned. The thousands in attendance held on to her every word and cheered at the speech’s conclusion. The MC led the audience in an impromptu chorus of “Free Palestine” chants. The vast majority of people in the crowd repeated the chant.

Despite the positive atmosphere of the day, two individuals wrote a scathing critique of Cindy’s speech (attached as ‘original letter’). They sent their complaints to the Olympia Indivisible (OI) Steering Committee as well as Evergreen Resistance. They falsely claimed the speech’s contents were anti-semitic, falsely accused the organizers of endangering Jews, conflated Judaism and Zionism, and asked the organizers to bar speakers from talking about Palestine at future events.

In response, Palestine Action South Sound and Jewish Voice for Peace Olympia drafted a letter (attached as ‘PASS+JVP Letter’) rebuking the claims made about Cindy and the contents of her speech. We highlighted the divisiveness of the original letter and the dire conditions of Palestinians. To date, the Israeli military has killed over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza and has escalated violence in the West Bank. This has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians as well as UW student Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. As Cindy highlighted in her speech, a majority of people support a permanent ceasefire and a US arms embargo of Israel. Calling for a ban of weapon sales does not threaten Jewish safety like these two individuals claimed.

Disappointingly, as of April 12 the OI Steering Committee has not responded to the PASS+JVP Letter. They only responded to the original letter of complaint, offering uncritical support. The OI Steering Committee's response (attached as ‘OI Letter’) offered no position on Palestine and instead made lukewarm calls for “trustworthiness” and “more say-so when collaborating with outside organizations.” The OI Steering Committee declined to name Cindy Corrie because they knew publicly attacking the mother of martyred activist Rachel Corrie would not bode well for them in Olympia. 

The OI Steering Committee’s letter claimed that Cindy’s speech was “a startling departure from the preceding speeches.” It suggested that Cindy’s talk about Palestine was unconnected to the “Trump administration's corrupt and illegal dismantling of democracy.” The reality is that the Trump administration is illegally deporting pro-Palestininan activists like Mahmoud Kahlil because he exercised his free speech to support Palestine. No true democracy illegally deports its residents for using their First Amendment rights.

It is wrong to fight Trump’s attacks on democracy and free speech by silencing activists fighting for justice in Palestine. The conduct of the OI Steering Committee bears resemblance to Columbia University’s repression of pro-Palestinian student activism under the false guise of anti-semitism. By using the same anti-democratic definition of anti-semitism that the Trump administration uses to justify quashing free speech, the OI Steering Committee is undermining their own stated goals of fighting Trumpism.

We believe it is wrong to weaponize Jewish safety to quell support for Palestinian human rights. It ignores the millions of Jews worldwide calling for Israel to end its ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This unilateral understanding of the Jewish people is anti-semitic in itself because it erases the voices of countless Jews that are standing in solidarity with Palestine and does nothing to confront actual anti-semitism. We request that the OI Steering Committee rescind their letter and invite them to participate in meaningful dialogue rather than attempt to suppress free speech.

In Solidarity,

Palestine Action South Sound