Photo by Jim Ulrick
from antiwar.com
‘People’s Arms Embargo’ at Travis Air Force Base
by Rick Sterling
Seventy-five protesters gathered under threatening skies at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California at 6:30 am on Wednesday, November 20. Their mission: to speak out and briefly interrupt the shipment of weapons to Israel from this air base.
For 90 minutes, they showed banners such as “Stop Arms for War Crimes” and “Stop Travis: No US Weapons for Genocide. ” They delayed traffic on the busy six-lane roadway into the base by frequently pressing the button to allow pedestrian crossing. Fliers were handed out to receptive drivers. The flyers asked “Why are we blocking access to Travis Air Base and messing up your day?”. It was explained that while November 20 is World Children’s Day, weapons to Israel from Travis are being used to kill children. Bombs loaded onto planes at Travis and other US air bases have killed many thousands of children.
David Vidmar grew up on Travis Air Base. He said, “I am participating in the People’s Arms Embargo to honor my father as he would have been sickened by the indiscriminate targeting, slaughter and starvation of Gazan children and women in Israel’s genocide.”
In the second stage of the protest, protesters completely blocked the roadways into the base. Ultimately, they shut down all of the entry points to the base before Fairfield police arrived en masse and arrested those blocking the roadway. A total of 28 persons were arrested for blocking the north, south, and main entry gates to Travis AFB.
Some of those arrested were processed in a few hours. Ten persons were still in Solano County Jail six hours after the action. It is not known when they will be released. They include Toby Blome, David Hartsough and others who were organizers of this action. [Editors’ note: All protesters were released by the end of the day.] The protesters have been charged with blocking the road and “not following a lawful order”.
Many people globally believe the US is violating international law by continuing to provide weapons for what the International Court of Justice describes as “plausible genocide”. One year ago many prominent US State Department and USAID officials criticized the Biden policy of blanket support for Israel. Yet it continues unabated. Today’s action at Travis AFB highlights the discrepancy.
Rick Sterling is an independent journalist based in the SF Bay Area. He can be reached at rsterling1@gmail.com.
Photo by David Solnit
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Press release
28 Arrested at Mass Blockade at Travis AFB Wednesday Protesting Sending Weapons to Israel
TRAVIS AFB/FAIRFIELD, CA – On Wednesday, as reported by police authorities, 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 it’s 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, “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:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jb45jUdRkv6vv9vx7IPaODjR6mqKyA8Yoe1aVOWnXL4/edit?tab=t.0
Photo by David Solnit
Photo by Janie Kesselman