Mass blockade at Travis Air Force Base protests the arming of Israel

by The People’s Arms Embargo, Popular Resistance

Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, Calif. – On Nov. 20, as reported by police authorities, 28 people were arrested in a mass nonviolent rally and “human blockade” that blocked all four 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. the same day and given January court dates.

Travis has been a key air base transporting US weapons to Israel in its yearlong 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, they said, “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

On Nov. 21, 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 the previous day the US Senate overwhelmingly rejected three 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 dollars 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, listed here: 

Co-sponsors (organizations that will actively support the campaign in one or more of the following ways:  bringing members and/or affinity groups to actions as able, helping in planning, joining a working group, contributing funds to help pay for costs etc.)

World Beyond War

Occupy Beale

CODEPINK, National

CODEPINK, SF Bay Area

Human Rights Working Group of UUSF (SF Unitarian Universalists)

Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center

Peace and Justice Center of Nevada County

Peninsula Peace and Justice Center

Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism

Ban Killer Drones

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee

Vikings for Humanity (Vanden High School student organization, Fairfield, Calif.

Endorsers (Organizations that will support our campaign by promoting and getting the word out, but don’t have the capacity to contribute in other ways)

Veterans For Peace, National

Veterans For Peace, SF Chapter

Veterans For Peace, Sonoma County Chapter

Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service

Pax Christi – Northern California

Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County

San José Peace and Justice Center

United Front Committee for a Labor Party

Women’s League for Peace and Freedom – SF East Bay

Green Party of Sonoma County

To learn more and get involved, email wendyPalestine@gmail.com or call 510-714-8687.

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