11/20/2024
In a powerful display of unity on Monday, a coalition of activists, including XR Rochester, gathered at the Syracuse entrance of Lockheed Martin at Electronics Parkway and Continuum Drive to protest the company's continued shipment of weapons to Israel to carry out its war crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and its genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, while recognizing that the bombardment also represents an environmental disaster.
The protest exposed and condemned the complicity of Lockheed Martin in the genocide in Gaza. Lockheed Martin is the world’s and the US government’s largest weapons manufacturer and supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, Hellfire missiles, and other weapons and surveillance technology used in the war. The Lockheed Martin Syracuse facility has just been awarded an initial $276 million dollar contract by the US Air Force to produce the Variable Aperture Digital Radar System (VADR) that will be used to train air crew for engagements against “adversarial” threats.
Our action served as a reminder that the broad, growing Palestinian solidarity movement in NY mirrors those around the US and the world in objecting to tax dollars and locally manufactured weapons being sent repeatedly to Israel as it carries out war crimes, while local communities face poverty. End the genocide, free Palestine and Lebanon, end all US aid to Israel, arms embargo now!
Organizations participating in the protest included: Syracuse for Palestinian and Global Liberation, Syracuse Democratic Socialists of America. uhvCODEPINK., Fridays for Future Capital Region,
Extinction Rebellion Capital Region, XR Northeast,
XR Rochester, XR Ithaca, CNY Better Breathing Bloc, Syracuse Peace Council.
