Jake, Lo, and I (Aaron) talked about the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge at tonight's meeting! Here are some combined thoughts.

=== We should sign as soon as possible ===

Signing the pledge will counteract ongoing harm in a small but real way, so we should sign it as soon as possible.

=== Our obligations ===

Here's an idea of what we think we're promising to do, as an organization, by signing the pledge.

--- Items 1-3 ---

> WE AFFIRM our commitment to freedom, justice, and
> equality for the Palestinian people and all people
>
> WE OPPOSE all forms of racism, bigotry,
> discrimination, and oppression
>
> WE DECLARE ourselves an Apartheid-free community

These are things we have or should have affirmed already, so (re)affirming them presumably won't change anything about how we operate.

--- Item 4 ---

> WE PLEDGE to join others in working to end all support to Israel's
> Apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.

Here are some ways we can uphold this promise.

- Sign the pledge. As Lo pointed out in the quoted e-mails below, just putting our name on the list of signatories already helps uphold our obligations: "It reflects public support to our elected officials when we press them to divest from Israeli violence. It reduces harm to Palestinian and Arab members of our community. It challenges the official narratives and expands the public consciousness around Palestine."

- Confirm on our wiki that we've signed the pledge, and add the Apartheid-Free Communities logo.

- Facilitate (and, if possible, promote) the use of our space by organizations "working to end all support to Israel's Apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation."

- Provide information resources (like flyers, zines, articles, book chapters, and a listening / watching / reading list) in the space.

=== Background on the campaign ===

This Apartheid-Free Communities campaign is financed by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. You can find some steering committee members on the campaign site's "About" page (https://apartheid-free.org/about/).

All the listed steering committee members are Christian or Unitarian organizations, which for one of us (Aaron) is kind of a red flag.

On the other hand, the list of pledge signatories seems to include more diverse religious organizations. In particular, it has a good number of Jewish organizations, including the national and Bay Area chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace.

> On Mon, 2 Jun 2025, Jake Watters via sudo-discuss wrote:
>
> > Let's have a meeting this coming Wednesday, in two days! Last week just
> > three or four of us got together and discussed things as can be seen in the
> > meeting notes:
> > https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meetings
> >
> > Here's a proposed agenda:
> > * catch up on new membership applications
> > * continue talking about the process of sudoroom becoming its own 501(c)3
> > * the volunteer effort of updating our membership list
> > * fundraising including reaching out to members who may have forgotten to
> > pay dues
> > * sudoroom signing the "Apartheid-Free Communities" pledge! See below for
> > more info
> >
> > Lets say this Wednesday, 7:30PM?
> > -jake
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> > From: Lo via sudo-discuss sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org
> > Date: Tue, May 27, 2025 at 7:37 PM
> > Subject: [sudo-discuss] Proposal: SUDO room joins the Apartheid Free
> > Communities Campaign
> > To: sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org
> >
> > Dear Sudoroom members and leaders,
> >
> > For the past 2.5 years I’ve been a Sudoroom “member” (I say this in
> > quotations because I’ve been paying dues and attending but have never been
> > endorsed as a full fledged member), but I’d like to make a proposal that
> > Sudoroom become an Apartheid Free Community!
> >
> > I am writing as a member of SURJ Bay Area’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
> > As a racial justice organization, SURJ believes it is our moral obligation
> > to demand an end to Israel’s system of apartheid, its genocide in Gaza, and
> > its increasing violent seizure of land in the West Bank. All this is paid
> > for by our tax dollars, with the U.S. directly funding the Israeli
> > government to the tune of $35 billion a year.
> >
> > We invite Sudoroom to join us to support the Palestinian people’s human
> > rights, lives, and lands by taking the pledge to become an Apartheid-Free
> > Community.
> >
> > Apartheid is a crime against humanity. As defined by the United Nations
> > https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html, apartheid includes:
> >
> > • Acts such as murder, torture, inhuman treatment, and arbitrary arrest of
> > members of a racial group
> >
> > • Deliberate imposition upon the subjugated racial group of living
> > conditions calculated to cause its physical destruction
> >
> > • Legislative measures that discriminate in the political, social,
> > economic, and cultural fields
> >
> > We could fill pages with examples of how Israel’s treatment of Palestinians
> > meets this criteria—from arrests and imprisonment without charges to the
> > destruction of Gaza by bombing homes, hospitals, and schools and cutting
> > off food, water, electricity and medical supplies. Palestinians are
> > subjected to entirely different laws and judicial systems, without freedom
> > of movement and economic opportunities.
> >
> > Inspired by the anti-apartheid movement that helped topple the white
> > supremacist regime in South Africa, the Apartheid-Free Communities Campaign
> > is bringing communities together to end apartheid in Israel/Palestine. We
> > encourage Sudoroom to join the over 500 organizations across the globe,
> > including cities, schools, faith-based communities, labor unions,
> > businesses, and organizations, in taking the pledge to become an
> > Apartheid-Free Community.
> >
> > Signing the Pledge makes a difference! It reflects public support to our
> > elected officials when we press them to divest from Israeli violence. It
> > reduces harm to Palestinian and Arab members of our community. It
> > challenges the official narratives and expands the public consciousness
> > around Palestine. We ask that you sign this pledge, and take actions, in
> > whatever way makes sense to Sudoroom, to be part of this effort.
> >
> > Be sure to let me know if you have any questions and how I can support your
> > Sudoroom in signing the Pledge and joining this campaign.
> >
> > In Solidarity,
> >
> > Lo
> >
> > P.S. We have materials including buttons, posters, and pamphlets you can
> > use to increase awareness and build support. Plus the Apartheid-Free
> > Communities website https://apartheid-free.org/about/ is full of great
> > resources and educational materials.
> >
> > --
> > *Lo *
> > Pronouns: She/They https://www.mypronouns.org/
> >
> > There is no neutral body from which our bodies deviate. Society has
> > written deep into each strand of tissue of every living person on earth.
> > What it writes into the heart muscles of five star generals is distinct
> > from what it writes in the pancreatic tissue and intestinal tracts of Black
> > single mothers in Detroit, of Mexicana migrants in Fresno, but no body
> > stands outside the consequences of injustice and inequality
> >
> > *― *Aurora Levins Morales
> >
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