Resolution for an Arms Embargo on Israel, Cessation of Forever Wars, and Investment of U.S. Public Resources in U.S. Communities
WHEREAS, in February 2024, delegates to the National Joint Council meeting of UAW Local 2320 (NOLSW) overwhelmingly adopted a Resolution for the Liberation of Palestine that proclaimed NOLSW’s solidarity with the Palestinian trade unions and created a Palestine Solidarity Working Group (PSWG) charged with executing the resolution. After adopting the resolution, the PSWG confirmed that NOLSW was divested from Israel bonds and entities with direct ties to Israel; and
WHEREAS, since NOLSW passed the aforementioned resolution, Israel’s U.S.-enabled violence against the people of Palestine has astronomically increased. From October 2023 to June 22, 2025, Israel has killed at least 56,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 17,400 children, and injured at least 131,138 Palestinians in Gaza. It has likely killed over 100,000 more people through its blockades on food aid and its systematic destruction of Gazan medical facilities and water and sanitation infrastructure. Israel simultaneously continues to illegally annex land in the occupied West Bank and terrorize Palestinians there; and
WHEREAS, in January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it was “plausible” that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Top genocide scholars agree that Israel is committing genocide. In July 2024, the ICJ affirmed that Israel’s prolonged occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal, as is its system of racial segregation and apartheid. Furthermore, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant as co-perpetrators of grave crimes against the Palestinians of Gaza; and
WHEREAS, Maersk, the logistics company that has shipped millions of pounds of military goods to Israel, is also attacking workers’ rights at home. Recently, sustained pressure from the Palestinian Youth Movement and activists forced Maersk to cut ties with companies operating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.Yet Maersk continues to facilitate the transfer of weapons used to commit genocide in Gaza; and
WHEREAS, unions in Palestine and professional associations have called on unions worldwide to “Stop Arming Israel,” and workers and their unions around the world, such as in Belgium, France, Greece, Morocco, Spain, and Sweden, have responded to the call. The Palestinian trade unions also “underline[d] the importance of boycotting the Histadrut because of its blatant complicity in Israel’s policies including occupation, settlement building, apartheid and hijacking of Palestinian workers’ rights”; and
WHEREAS, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 recently “urge[d] trade Unions, lawyers, civil society and ordinary citizens to press for boycotts, divestments, sanctions, justice for Palestine and accountability at international and domestic levels”; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. spent at least $22 billion supporting Israel’s military operations in the first year of Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Furthermore, the U.S. spends close to a trillion dollars on its own military – which accounted for 37% of all global military spending in 2024 – and it spent around $8 trillion in public funds on the disastrous decades-long war on terror, an example of a “Forever War.” Disturbingly, both major U.S. political parties support this war machine and the military-industrial complex; and
WHEREAS, the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” While the U.S. always has money for war, it claims to have empty pockets when it comes to providing Americans with basic needs such as access to affordable housing and higher education, food security, and universal healthcare and childcare. The U.S. also fails to adequately fund social services and civil legal services, such as those we provide as members of NOLSW; and
WHEREAS, after aggressively devastating Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, in June 2025, Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran, killing about 935 Iranians as of June 30, 2025 and injuring many more. Despite vehement protests from U.S. residents opposing Israel’s calls for the U.S. to join its war with Iran, on June 21, 2025, the U.S. directly attacked Iran without justification or Congressional authorization. Such reckless aggression in no way serves U.S. interests or makes people in the U.S. or the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) any safer; and
WHEREAS, we support the right of the Iranian people to self-determination and strongly reject intervention of any kind or attempts at regime change by foreign actors, especially the U.S. and Israel, which have long destabilized and brought immense suffering to the MENA region. There is no reason to believe the
U.S. is motivated by support of Iranians’ or other civilians’ rights or that its intervention will effectively further those rights. In fact, the U.S. has infringed on Iran’s sovereignty since at least 1953, when a CIA-orchestrated coup overthrew Iran’s first democratically-elected Prime Minister. Furthermore, the U.S. has either taken or supported military or CIA action against all six countries in the MENA region that Israel sought to invade and topple.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that NOLSW demands an immediate arms embargo on and a cessation of any type of aid and diplomatic assistance to Israel and any other country that commits war crimes or otherwise violates international law; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW endorses and supports the Mask Off Maersk campaign to prevent shipping companies from using our airports, seaports, and any other public resources for the shipment of arms to Israel and any country that is committing war crimes; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW strongly rejects these attempts by the U.S. and Israel to infringe on Iran’s sovereignty and demands that the U.S. government immediately stop engaging in and supporting foreign wars and otherwise taking and supporting military actions abroad, including against Palestine, Iran, and other places in the Middle East and North Africa region; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW stands for investing money currently being spent on foreign military aid and war towards serving the needs of people at home in the U.S.; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW stands with the people of Palestine and Iran against all forces of oppression and for the rights of people everywhere to live freely; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW will educate its members about the role of the Histadrut, Israel’s racist labor federation, in oppressing Palestinians, and it will sever ties with the Histradut in solidarity with the Palestinian trade unions; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW will defend members who are unfairly disciplined for showing or voicing support for Palestine; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW urges its bargaining units to bargain for retirement plans that are free of direct or indirect investments in companies flagged as divestment targets by the BDS Movement or the American Friends Service Committee and will support them in doing so; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Palestine Solidarity Working Group in collaboration with the NEB will oversee the execution of this resolution and the original Resolution for the Liberation of Palestine; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NOLSW calls on the UAW CAPs and UAW International, the AFL-CIO, state labor federations, and all central labor councils to which NOLSW sends delegates to take action consistent with this resolution and to refrain from providing any material support to any candidate or politician whose positions or actions are inconsistent with any part of this resolution or the prior Resolution for the Liberation of Palestine.
Passed July 23, 2025
