Upstream

[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 7: Direct Action w/ Max Geller of Palestine Action

Mar 5, 2024

11:24

Snipd AI

The podcast discusses direct action as a strategy used by various leftist groups, including tree sit-ins, port blockades, and resistance against police brutality. It focuses on the impactful work of Palestine Action in the UK and US, opposing Israel's arms exporter, Elbit systems. The episode explores the shift in activism towards direct action targeting Elbit, emphasizing moral disruption and legal tactics used by activists.

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Quick takeaways

Direct action is a longstanding strategy used by various ideological groups to achieve goals.

Activists targeting Elbit aim to disrupt drone production for Gaza by utilizing strategic closures and sustained campaigns.

Deep dives

Direct Action as a Strategy for Change

Direct Action, utilized by various ideological groups from anarchists to socialists, has been a longstanding strategy for achieving goals. This episode explores the diverse forms of Direct Action, from forest protectors staging tree sit-ins to residents congregating at ports to halt weapon shipments. Direct Action has been a tool against climate change, police brutality, and indigenous resistance. The conversation delves into Direct Action's role in confronting state actors and institutions, focusing on current activism against Elbit, Israel's major drone manufacturer.

Introduction

2min

Exploring Direct Action in the Context of Palestine Action

4min

Activism Shift: From BDS Organizing to Direct Action Against Elbit

5min

You can listen to the full episode with Max Geller of Palestine Action by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

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Direct action is a strategy that has been utilized for a very, very long time by the left, as a way to achieve their goals— from all tendencies: anarchists, socialists, to communists. Direct action can take a wide variety of forms, from the forest protectors doing tree sit-ins in Atlanta’s Weelaunee forest as part of the Stop Cop City movement, to residents of the Bay Area congregating early in the morning at the port of Oakland to stop a boat carrying weapons for Israel from leaving the dock.

From climate change to police brutality to Indigenous resistance against pipeline companies, direct action has been used over and over to stand up to individuals, institutions, and state actors of all sorts. In this Patreon episode, we’re going to take a deep dive into direct action, focusing on how this strategy has been deployed here in the U.S. and in the U.K. in the context of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people.

Max Geller is a public-facing member of Palestine Action in the UK who has been working with Palestine Action for about three and a half years, and has been doing pro-Palestine, anti-zionist work for many years with organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, the National Students for Justice in Palestine Steering Committee, and with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, or BDS, movement.

In this conversation we explore the work that Palestine Action is doing both in the U.K. and in the United States, we talk about direct action as a strategy and compare it to some other forms of action, we talk about some of the repression that activists have been facing—particularly here in the U.S. where anti-protest laws are beginning to become more and more common, we talk about Elbit Systems—which Palestine Action has targeted due to their prominent role in supplying weapons to Israel, and we explore Israel’s role as a major arms exporter to the rest of the world.

Further Resources: