End US-Israeli collaboration on racist policing and militarization
End the Deadly Exchange Between the US and Israel
WHAT'S THE CAMPAIGN ABOUT?
Organizations with long histories of opposing or undermining the struggle for Palestinian rights, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), sponsor trips to Israel for US police chiefs, sheriffs, ICE agents, and border patrol, where they trade surveillance and militarized policing tactics with Israeli armed forces under shared racist ideologies.
These, and other local partnerships between US and Israeli police and military, defend and valorize Israel's system of military occupation while also reinforcing the racism and violence of US policing.
Palestinian-led groups have a long history of challenging US-Israeli militarization partnerships. Jewish Voice for Peace is running a national campaign opposing the ADL's programs in particular. Locally, some groups are working to oppose US-Israel police exchanges more broadly. Learn more about the campaign at deadlyexchange.org.
wHAT CAN YOU DO?
Pass legislation in your local government to challenge police militarization, including by ending US-Israeli police exchanges and redirecting funds spent on police militarization programs to instead invest in local community needs.
Pass legislation that your local government will not participate in police trainings and international weapons expos, which commonly include Israel and other repressive states.
Success Stories
STOP URBAN SHIELD - SAN FRANSCISO
A broad coalition of grassroots organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, led by the Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Critical Resistance, International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, and the Xicana Moratorium Coalition, took on the largest militarized SWAT training program in the world, and won. The Stop Urban Shield Coalition fought for six years to end the Urban Shield war games training and weapons expo bringing together local, regional, and international police-military units – including from Israel – to collaborate on new forms of surveillance, repression, and state violence. Following years of organizing, and a day of hours of testimonies from hundreds of local residents in March 2018, the Alameda County Supervisors voted to end Urban Shield as of 2019, a testament to the power of cross-movement community organizing to shift power and win.
DEMILITARIZE! DURHAM2PALESTINE
In Durham, North Carolina, a diverse, local coalition of 10 civil and human rights groups led a powerful campaign called Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine challenging racism and over-policing in their city. The campaign sought to ban US-Israeli police exchanges which serve to reinforce racist and militarized policing by both countries targeting Black, brown, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities. In April 2018, the Durham City Council voted unanimously to become the first city in the U.S. to ban training programs between its police department and foreign militaries, including Israel’s. This video tells the story of the historic campaign.