New subject: meeting this coming wednesday june 4

27 May 2025

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 *
*(Laura Wesely)*
*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

Proposal: SUDO room joins the Apartheid Free Communities Campaign