Nov. 20: The People’s Arms Embargo
Blocks Gates at Travis Air Force Base
Toby Blomé / CODEPINK
(November 21, 2024) — Yesterday, on a rainy early morning, 75-100 people rallied at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield to protest Travis’ ongoing shipments of weapons to Israel. This is a new campaign, “The People’s Arms Embargo,” to nonviolently impede the weapons supply to Israel that fuels the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Over 20 organizations co-sponsored or endorsed.
28 activists were arrested at Travis AFB in nonviolent Human Blockades at all 4 entrance gates to protest US weapons sent from Travis to Israel.
-All were ultimately cited and released by about 4pm; mostly the “repeat Travis base offenders” were kept 5-6 hrs. longer and placed in jail cells. Most “new offenders” were released before noon. There were at least 5-6 people, young and old, risking arrest for the first time in their lives! One elder who was arrested was participating in her first “street action” ever. Genocide is incomprehensible to most of us!
It was a most successful day because of the participation of many people in large and small ways. Great media coverage and still coming.
A beautiful example of PEOPLE POWER! We will be back!
28 Arrested at Mass Blockade of Travis AFB
Protesting US Weapons to Israel
Tony Blomé / CODEPINK
TRAVIS AFB / FAIRFIELD, CA (November 21, 2024) — On Wednesday, “World Children’s Day,” police authorities reported 28 people were arrested in a mass nonviolent rally and “human blockade” that blocked all 4 entrances into Travis Air Force Base, the state’s largest air base, to “Nonviolently stop the supply chain for weapons to Israel.”
All arrestees were charged with misdemeanor “failure to comply with a lawful order,” and released by 4 p.m. Wednesday, and given January court dates.
Travis has been a key air base transporting US weapons to Israel in its year-long military offensive in Gaza, which many experts, nationally and globally, are calling a genocide.
In the early rainy morning, base personnel heading for work were confronted by about 100 demonstrators, some carrying “bloody” shroud-covered (mock) baby or child corpses because, “This is what genocide looks like.”
To institute a “People’s Arms Embargo,” peace protestors ultimately blocked all four Travis AFB gates, successfully putting “our bodies between these bombs and the children of Gaza by blocking workers loading these bombs onto planes headed to Israel,” said longtime Quaker peace activist and co-organizer, David Hartsough.
Nov. 20 was “World Children’s Day,” and protest organizers noted that even by conservative numbers more than 12,000 children – and 700 infants – have been confirmed killed by Israel in the war in Gaza. Tens of thousands more children are starving, wounded and traumatized they say.
“Some experts estimate the total death toll nearing 200,000, with most bodies still under the rubble; 70% are women and children,” charges co-organizer Toby Blomé. “Our conscience calls us to act to halt the worst humanitarian horrors of the 21st century.”
Grandmother and lifelong activist Shirley Osgood states, “I would just like to say how important it is, in light of the horrors of this ethnic cleansing and genocide, that we continue to do something every day to try to bring about justice and freedom which Palestine is asking for.”
In Related National and Global News
Today the International Criminal Court issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, including “starvation as a method of warfare.” In contrast, just yesterday the US Senate overwhelmingly rejected 3 separate resolutions, sponsored by Bernie Sanders, that would have blocked or limited shipment of specific weapons and military equipment to Israel.
“After over a year of US funded genocide in Palestine, and mass protests across the country, our government is STILL ignoring the will of the majority of Americans who say no to tax $$ and weapons to aid Israel’s ongoing slaughter in Gaza. Congress is preparing to send $20 billion MORE in military aid to support this horrific violence on mostly civilians,” said organizers. “We say: Join the People’s Arms Embargo.”
The coalition emphasizes that sending arms to Israel violates numerous Federal and International laws, including the Nuremberg Principles that prohibit crimes against humanity, with Hartsough, San Francisco, noting, “We appeal to the workers at Travis and the American people to help us stop this madness.”
The People’s Arms Embargo is a new campaign at Travis, sponsored by over 20 organizations.
MEDIA COVERAGE:
Pre-Event Media
Protesters Converge on Travis
Fairfield Daily Republic
https://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/protesters-to-converge-on-travis-afb-in-anti-israel-action/article_9ad16f22-a5f7-11ef-ad59-cfcc6fd04f13.html
Post-Event Coverage
‘People’s Arms Embargo’ at Travis Air Force Base
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2024/11/20/peoples-arms-embargo-at-travis-air-force-base/
Videos And Photos
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k0wWD5oDWAi2PWdHQfo-QDiHjPHvelrZ
