ACT UP NY Endorses BDS Movement, Joining Calls for a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza
On this day 33 years ago, ACT UP staged the Day of Desperation. ACT UP NY members disrupted CBS Evening News chanting “Fight AIDS, not Arabs,” in response to the Gulf War. The following day, HIV/AIDS advocates dropped banners in Grand Central Station demanding “MONEY FOR AIDS, NOT WAR” with corresponding actions across all five boroughs.[1] Between 1999 and 2003, ACT UP NY pushed the United States to end sanctions against the post-apartheid government in South Africa.[2] Today, we reference those same calls to action to stand against apartheid, occupation, and genocide in Palestine in our official statement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and unwavering support of the BDS Movement.[3]
ACT UP NY Day of Desperation in Grand Central Station – January 23, 1991
Our history is not lost on us as we choose to stand with Palestinians against a settler-colonial state backed by the finances and brutality of the United States. ACT UP NY has adopted the BDS resolution, which in addition for a ceasefire, supports an end to the occupation, recognition of the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and the right of the 7.25 million Palestinian refugees to return home.[4]
Palestinians have faced unprecedented violence before and after October 7. As an organization formed in the urgent response to the AIDS crisis, it is not lost upon us that Palestine is living under medical apartheid. The very hospitals bombed by Israel in Gaza were the same ones providing HIV screenings, antiretroviral treatments, and therapy for HIV positive Palestinians.[5] As on January 18, none of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are fully functional.[6] Overwhelmed with casualties, many are operating at 200 percent capacity, with innocent civilians dying slow, painful, and often preventable deaths. As we release this statement, several viral and infectious outbreaks are taking place in Gaza, including 8000 cases of Hepatitis A.[7] Israel’s bombing of Gaza has exacerbated reproductive violence, including a 300% increase in miscarriages.[8] Outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, malnutrition, and PTSD are equally rampant. As ACT UP knows, housing and food security are human rights that are directly tied to the healthcare and wellbeing of individuals. 85% of Gazans have been displaced from their homes and it is currently estimated that at least $15 billion will be needed to rebuild houses in Gaza due to Israel’s offensive destruction.[9] Meanwhile, people in Gaza also face a famine of the “highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded,” according to the UN relief chief.[10] Israel has already killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, and it has extended this violence to other countries like Lebanon and Syria. The crisis in Gaza is one of public health, human rights, and basic human consciousness. The list, unfortunately, can go on as to how Israel’s assault on Gaza is directly connected to the destruction of their healthcare infrastructures and corresponding global health failures. This horrific violence continues while President Biden continues to bypass Congress to aid Israel’s military and bomb Yemen.
As our tax dollars fund ongoing genocide abroad in Gaza, domestically our House of Representatives is proposing $767 million in cuts to domestic HIV funding in 2024.[11] Globally, the House Committee on Appropriations is proposing to eliminate $128.9 million in funding for CDC HIV/AIDS programs.[12] Our government is proposing nearly $1 billion in both global and domestic HIV/AIDS programs, but will continue to find money to fuel senseless and unjust criminal war.
In our undying belief that healthcare is a human right, that housing and food security are healthcare, we therefore oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide and apartheid. This is why we join the calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and are endorsing the BDS Movement.
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a non-violent movement founded in 2005 by a coalition of Palestinian-led organizations to uphold “the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.”[13] BDS recognizes Israel as an occupying and colonising force that discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denies Palestinian refugees the right to return home. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, BDS is a call to action to pressure Israel to comply with international law by meeting three demands:
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Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall.
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Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
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Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The BDS Movement functions through specifically targeted campaigns of boycotts, divestment and sanctions.[14] Boycotts “involve withdrawing support from Israel’s apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.” The BDS Movement focuses their boycotts on a smaller number of companies and products to create maximum impact. To clarify, this means the BDS Movement is calling on the strategic boycott of the following explicitly named companies profiting from the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. We call on our ACT UP NY members and supporters to join the movement in boycotting, against the recently updated list of campaigns, as seen in the graphic below.[15]
ACT UP has always been a rainbow coalition fighting in the struggles for queer and trans liberation, healthcare access, disability justice, and anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. We recognize that same-sex marriage is still illegal in Israel, and that efforts to pinkwash genocide stem back to the US-backed “Brand Israel” campaign.[16] As settlers marched for Pride in Tel Aviv, Queer and trans Palestinians have been brutalized by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) in Gaza and the West Bank. The IOF trains with countless police departments in the Deadly Exchange, including with the New York Police Department (NYPD), which have assaulted ACT UP members since our group’s founding in 1987. ACT UP NY is proud to be a diverse group of non-partisan individuals united in anger to end HIV/AIDS, with many of our members and leaders being part of the LGBTQ community. This is why we join the call of Queers For Liberation to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.[17]
Just as “Silence = Death” applies to our fight to end AIDS, so too does it apply to the complicity of genocide against Palestinians.
On World AIDS Day 2023, ACT UP NY proudly organized with JVP-NYC to demand our government “FUND HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE” alongside healthcare advocates, Palestinian solidarity activists, and HIV/AIDS advocates, including both current ACT UP NY members and our ACT UP veterans.[18] Ever since, we have dedicated ourselves to demonstrating solidarity with Palestinians, showing up as an ACT UP bloc to marches and rallies for Palestine.[19] We call back to the iconic pink triangle, reappropriated in combination with the watermelon, a symbol of Palestinian resistance, to display how healthcare, LGBTQ rights, and a free Palestine go hand-in-hand.
Photograph by Alexa Wilkinson
ACT UP NY and Jewish Voices for Peace World AIDS Day Action – December 1, 2023
We urge other ACT UP chapters to sign onto BDS’s call for LGBTQ+ organizations to support a permanent ceasefire and a free Palestine. We urge other ACT UP chapters, healthcare institutions, and LGBTQ+ organizations to take a stand for human consciousness, call for a ceasefire, support BDS, and remain steadfast in their beliefs of justice, equality, and welfare of all people. We are committed to fighting AIDS, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and oppression of all kinds. This endorsement is a fierce commitment to those beliefs.
ACT UP! FIGHT BACK! END AIDS!
Photograph by Alexa Wilkinson
ACT UP NY bloc at Palestine solidarity rally in Columbus Circle – December 31, 2023
Photograph by Alexa Wilkinson
ACT UP NY bloc marching at Palestine solidarity action in Bryant Park – January 6, 2024
1 DIVA TV Program Synopsis, “Day of Desperation,” (ACT UP NY) https://actupny.org/diva/synDesperation.html
2 ACT UP NY, “ACT UP Accomplishments 1987-2012” https://actupny.com/act-up-chronology-in-brief/#:~:text=January%2023%2C%201991%3A%20ACT%20UP,needed%20increases%20in%20AIDS%20programs.
3 Queers For Liberation, “#CeasefireNow: Call for LGBTQIA2S+ Organizations to Demand a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza” https://www.change.org/p/ceasefirenow-call-for-lgbtqia2s-organizations-to-demand-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza
4 BDS Movement, “WHAT IS BDS?” https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds
5 Omar Hamarsheh “HIV/AIDS in Palestine: A growing concern,” (Science Direct, August 23, 2019) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971219304126
6 Mithil Aggarwal and Yasmine Salam, “In Gaza’s collapsing health system, deaths are slow, painful and often preventable” (NBC News, January 18, 2024). https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-hospitals-collapsing-rcna132439
7 Miriam Berger and Itay Stern, “Deep Divisions emerge in Israeli Government over Gaza war strategy” (The Washington Post, January 19, 2024).
8 Kylie Cheung, “Miscarriages in Gaza Have Increased 300% Under Israeli Bombing” (Jezebel, January 17, 2024) https://jezebel.com/miscarriages-in-gaza-have-increased-300-under-israeli-1851168680
9 Maha El Dahan, “At least $15 bln needed for Gaza housing – Palestinian official,” (Reuters, January 17, 2024.)
10 Heather Chen and Eve Brennan, “Famine in Gaza ‘around the corner,’ as people face ‘highest level of food insecurity ever recorded,’ UN relief chief says,” (CNN, January 6, 2024) https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/05/middleeast/gaza-famine-un-warning-intl-hnk/index.html
11 NASTAD, “Save HIV Funding” https://nastad.org/savehivfunding
12 KFF, “House Committee on Appropriations Releases FY 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor HHS) Appropriations Bill & Accompanying Report” https://www.kff.org/news-summary/house-committee-on-appropriations-releases-fy-2024-labor-health-and-human-services-education-and-related-agencies-labor-hhs-appropriations-bill-accompanying-report/
13 BDS Movement, “Palestinian Civil Society Calls for BDS,”(July 9, 2005) https://bdsmovement.net/call
14 BDS Movement, “WHAT IS BDS”
15 Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), “Act Now Against These Companies Profiting from the Genocide of the Palestinian People,” (BDS Movement, January 5, 2024). https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide
16 Joy Ellison, “Recycled rhetoric: brand Israel ‘pinkwashing’ in historical context” (DePaul University, 2013) https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/149/
17 Queers For Liberation “#CeasefireNow: Call for LGBTQIA2S+ Organizations to Demand a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza”
18 ACT UP NY and Jewish Voices for Peace (Instagram, December 1, 2023) https://www.instagram.com/actupny/p/C0UPFLrOd3z/?img_index=1
19 Nikki Aye, “7 images of ACT UP NY taking to the streets at a queer Palestine rally saying ‘SILENCE=DEATH,’” “The Advocate, January 13, 2024) https://www.advocate.com/news/act-up-nyc-palestine-photos#rebelltitem1
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About ACT UP
Founded in 1987, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP currently meets every Monday night on Zoom. Notes: you will be asked to contribute your first & last name and email address to access online meetings, and KN-95 masks are required for ACT UP NY in person meetings/actions/gatherings. All individuals are welcome!
Support ACT UP NY & Palestinian people fleeing Gaza
For every SILENCE = DEATH watermelon item sale, proceeds will be split in half between ACT UP NY and direct medical aid to Palestinian people fleeing Gaza.
It’s pretty outrageous that you are supporting the Anti-Israel, Anti-Jewish movement going on today. As a longtime person with HIV and AIDS, who was involved in the early years of ACTUP and is watching Jews getting beaten (today at UCLA) and terrorist like tactics, it does not align with the ACTUP that Larry started. That you use Timothy’s photo on this press release supporting the on-going acts of hate against Jews here is F**KING outrageous. I will never support of align myself with a movement I once loved. You have disgraced what we stood for by supporting actions that today go beyond the realm of acting up.
It’s not antisemitic to oppose genocide, buddy. You are clearly delusional.
Maybe you need to ask yourself WHY you support genocide… You have issues. YIKES.
How is it antisemitic to oppose literal genocide? You realize you can support Jews without supporting Israel, right? Why would anyone support genocide? Are you a war profiteer?
I’m ecstatic to see ACT UP’s endorsement of BDS and calling for a permanent ceasefire! Thank you for standing up for justice everywhere and not letting pinkwashing poison the radical politics ACT UP is known for!