Since October 7, 2023, the Zionist state of Israel has systematically murdered over 35,000 Palestinians, more than 15,000 of whom were children.1 This genocide is not a contained event but rather a continuation of Israel’s ongoing oppression, displacement, and killing of Palestinian people since its founding in 1948. Nikkei Progressives stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation from Zionist occupation and the apartheid regime. We oppose efforts by the Israeli government to conflate anti-Zionism with hate speech or antisemitism, which we also stand firmly against.2

Over the past two months, students have emerged at the forefront of American resistance against the U.S.’s military, industrial and political backing of the Palestinian genocide. Nikkei Progressives applauds these students for their moral fortitude and condemns the assaults and arrests of pro-Palestine protesters on college campuses across the country. As students, alumni, employees, and neighbors of Los Angeles area universities (including USC, UCLA, Occidental, Pomona, CSULA, UCI, and others), we are outraged by university administrators’ deployment of campus, municipal, and state police to silence student, faculty, and worker demands. We are disgusted by their failures of leadership, enabling the physical harm of students via intentional negligence and the emboldening of violent Zionist extremists assaulting them.

The brutality and institutional punishment towards student protestors demonstrate a clear, concerted effort to suppress free speech. It also aims to distract from one of the greatest moral issues of our generation: the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

As Japanese Americans, we are intimately familiar with “the con sequences of silence during moments of oppression.”3 We have a responsibility to our ancestors, allies, and ourselves to speak out against the subjugation and genocide of oppressed people. Nikkei Progressives calls on the Japanese American community to join us in expressing public support for the Palestinian people and protestors. In addition, we call on our community to join us in:

• Supporting student calls for divestment from the Zionist entity and weapons manufacturers.

• Demanding that all charges against pro-Palestine protesters be dropped and amnesty be granted for student and faculty demonstrators at their respective campuses.

• Contacting legislators to demand that they support a ceasefire in Gaza, admittance of humanitarian aid through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza, and an end to the arming of the Zionist state.
­Nikkei Progressives will be hosting Congressional letter writing and calling events; see our social media account (IG: @nikkeiprogressives) for announcements.

• Openly discussing the ongoing genocide and speaking out against retaliation towards those that raise it as an issue in institutional settings.

• Calling on universities to divest from armed police and end their relationships with police forces, many of whom are trained with/by Israeli Occupation Forces.

• Offering support in solidarity with Palestinian communities and organizations including, but not limited to, Nikkei Progressives’ partner organizations: Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFM), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

For those interested in joining Nikkei Progressives’ contingent for Palestine, please contact us at nikkeiprogressives@gmail.com.

Engaging in ongoing self-education, asking questions, and approaching news/media with a critical lens. We recommend viewing a recording of Nikkei Progressives’ Sip & Share event on Palestinian liberation at bit.ly/NPSipShare.

Nikkei Progressives is a grassroots, all-volunteer, multi-generational community organization. Our mission is to engage and unite the Nikkei community to stand against injustice, inequality and white supremacy and to work in solidarity with others for a more just society. Discover more at: nikkeiprogressives.org, facebook.com/NikkeiProgressives or instagram.com/nikkeiprogressives.

The views expressed in the preceding commentary are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.

1. Al Jazeera Labs. “Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker.” Accessed 20 May 2024.

2. Jewish Voice for Peace. “On Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations.” On
Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations – JVP (jewishvoiceforpeace.org)

3. We encourage the Japanese American community to read this statement made by the UCLA Nikkei Student Union, who have spoken out to stand in solidarity with their peers standing against genocide.