About Us
How do we work?
The St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee functions as a collective without official roles or hierarchy. Palestinians deserve the ultimate say in how their struggle for liberation proceeds, so we center the voices of Palestinians. We are dedicated to collective liberation. We have a history of partnering with social justice organizations in St. Louis and are guided by the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
Our Vision
The St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee opposes any form of racism or expressions of bigotry directed at any person or group. As a movement committed to equality and the end of oppression, we stand firm in our commitment to avoid replicating the systems of oppression we oppose.
Our Mission
The Saint Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee envisions a future in which Palestine is free from Israeli military occupation; Palestinians have equal rights; and Palestinian refugees claim their right of return to their homeland. We envision a future in which all the people of Palestine enjoy shared security.
Values
The Saint Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee is committed to the collective struggle for freedom, equal rights, and security for all communities within Palestine.
St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee
Established in 2009
In 2013, we linked arms with labor, environmentalist, and anti-privatization movements to block a water services contract with multinational giant, Veolia. Veolia was a target of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement because of its complicity with the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank. In 2015, as a result of world-wide pressure, Veolia withdrew from all operations in Israel, including the occupied territories.
The summer and fall of 2014 were transformative. Another Israeli invasion of Gaza followed by the police killing of Michael Brown made the ties between Israeli apartheid and white supremacy in the US painfully obvious. The Ferguson Uprising sealed our commitment to collective liberation. In October 2014, the Palestine Solidarity Committee hosted a Palestine contingent to Ferguson October that led to the first Dream Defenders delegation to Palestine in January 2015.
Since then, we have partnered with a host of social justice organizations including the Movement for Black Lives, Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis Latinos en Axión, the St. Louis Interfaith Committee on Latin America, American Muslims for Palestine - Missouri, St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace, and many others.
Saint Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee was founded during the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion of Gaza as a project of the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition. Since then, we have hosted educational events, sent activists to Palestine and to leadership workshops, demonstrated against Israeli invasions of Gaza and incursions into the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and agitated against pro-Israel legislation and legislators at the state and federal levels.
In 2011, we partnered with United Methodist Kairos Response to appeal to the United Methodist Church to honor the call by Palestinian civil society organizations to boycott, divest, and sanction Israeli companies.
