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By Nick Lavin
SOMERVILLE, MA — Just outside the Somerville Farmers Market, two Somerville for Palestine organizers – Lauren and Hala – lead a training for a dozen canvassers prepared and ready to engage people in the street. The group is gearing up to collect signatures for a ballot question demanding the city divest from from Palestinian occupation and genocide.
“While I’m frustrated the City Council voted not to divest, I’m proud so many people are doing the hard work to make this petition happen,” said Andrew, a Somerville resident and canvasser for the campaign.
Despite heavy rain all of the past twelve weekends, Somerville for Palestine has hit the streets hard since their ballot question campaign began a couple months ago after Somerville residents nearly overwhelmed City Hall in support of city divestment, only to be struck down by council. The campaign has collected well over 2,000 verified signatures for their petition calling for Somerville to “end all current city business and prohibit future city investments and contracts with companies… that sustain Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.”
For many canvassers, the latest news from Gaza underlines the urgency of their work. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, with firm backing from American allies, is systematically starving Gaza by blockading international aid. The entire 2.1 million population faces famine.
While pro-Palestine organizers had hoped national and international pressure on the American government to suspend weapons shipments would force an end to the war, the election of Trump in 2024 foreclosed the possibility of an end to the catastrophe. President Trump wholeheartedly supports Israel’s siege, explaining his vision for Gaza with an AI-generated video transforming the Palestinian territory into a luxury resort while outlining a plan for the ethnic cleansing of its population.
Many organizations like Somerville for Palestine have responded to this changing political terrain by orienting to local petitions to consolidate a pro-Palestine constituency in the town while continuing to build the national movement for BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), operating on both levels through concerted campaigns. Just as Somerville was the first town in Massachusetts to pass a ceasefire resolution in early 2024, a movement which quickly spread like a wildfire across the state and country, organizers hope momentum for municipal divestment in Somerville will encourage similar efforts while preparing the groundwork for continued state and national pressure.
Hala, a Palestinian and longtime Somerville resident, is motivated by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the petition from the community and hopes their work will inspire people elsewhere.
As the song says at Somerville High, Somerville leads the way, so Somerville for Palestine is leading the way on divestment.
Fundamental to the ballot question campaign is an intensive canvassing operation, which organizers hope will develop new pro-Palestine organizers and deepen support for the movement in Somerville. “We’re aiming for 10,000 signatures, that’s 10,000 conversations about Palestine in Somerville,” says Lauren, a Jewish pro-Palestine Somerville organizer.
Somerville for Palestine has had a lot of success in organizing coalitional support to harness to achieve the ballot measure and build a municipal base for Palestine. Their weekly canvasses, jointly organized with groups like Allston/Brighton for Palestine and Boston DSA, bring people from all across the Boston area to talk about Palestine, ceasefire, and divestment with Somerville residents.
Immigration, Palestine, and Civil Rights
Somerville for Palestine’s divestment campaign comes as Trump cracks down on civil rights. Just two months ago, Somerville’s own Rümeysa Öztürk was kidnapped by Trump’s ICE officers for writing an op-ed about divesting her university from Israel. Then too, Somerville for Palestine members were out in force protesting the decision and demanding her release.
Öztürk’s arrest also ignited fury from the labor movement: as a Tufts graduate student and member of SEIU 509, her arrest garnered immediate reactions from unions across the state and country demanding her release.
While unions were on the frontline in the fight for a ceasefire and arms embargo under Biden, pro-Palestine labor activists are still finding their footing on the shifting terrain under Trump. For DSA’s National Labor Commission, the focus remains squarely on an arms embargo; but rather than targeting federal officials, union activists are plunging headfirst into organizing pressure against local governments to prevent weapons shipments through their ports and transportation hubs.
In Somerville, it is crunch time for the divestment ballot question: with about three months left to collect the needed 5,500 signatures, Somerville for Palestine needs all hands on deck to get across the threshold to be on the ballot this fall. To support Somerville for Palestine’s efforts, you can sign up for a canvass at tinyurl.com/canvass4s4p.
Nick Lavin is a Boston Public Schools paraprofessional and a member of the Boston Teachers Union.
The post Somerville Fights for Palestine appeared first on Working Mass.
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