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<\/p>\nImage courtesy, Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Israel\u2019s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank just passed its 800th<\/sup> day (and 77th<\/sup> year): at least 70,000<\/a> have been confirmed dead, including 20,000 children \u2013 and Israel shows no sign of stopping. Since a ceasefire was agreed to on October 10, Israel has attacked<\/a> Gazans with bombs, snipers, and ground mobilizations nearly 500 times. In the West Bank, Israel has killed and detained<\/a> hundreds of Palestinians and approved 19<\/a> new settlements.<\/p>\n None of this carnage is possible without assistance from the United States: we supply two-thirds<\/a> of Israel\u2019s foreign weapons and sent $12.5 billion<\/a> in military aid in 2024 alone. While other countries reckoning with Israel\u2019s war crimes have restricted or ended weapons transfers to Israel, the U.S. is contemplating legislation<\/a> to fill in the \u201cgaps\u201d created by those embargoes.<\/p>\n For those of us living in the U.S., \u201cSolidarity,\u201d in the words of<\/a> Gandhi Peace Award winner Omar Barghouti, \u201cbecomes moral duty.\u201d<\/p>\n The weapons Israel is using to murder innocent Palestinians are manufactured right here in the United States. 2024 was the industry\u2019s most profitable<\/a> year on record, making $679 billion in revenue. Billions of dollars in profit are made every year off the weapons \u201cbattle-tested\u201d<\/a> against children in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n Our moral duty, then, is to hold these weapons manufacturers accountable for their complicity in Israel\u2019s war crimes.<\/p>\n A new campaign in Brooklyn, New York, is doing just that. In October, the grassroots community organization PAL-Awda<\/a>, which has advocated for the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homeland since 2000, launched a campaign against Mini-Circuits, a small company manufacturing radar and microwave technology \u2013\u00a0and several critical parts for weapons used in Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our moral responsibility to organize against the companies in our own communities that enable and profit off of the genocide of our people,\u201d a PAL-Awda spokesperson told me.<\/p>\n Mini-Circuits, headquartered in a dull concrete building in South Brooklyn, produces radar components for weapons manufactured by Lockheed Martin and used to kill Palestinians in Gaza. Public records on the HigherGov database<\/a> show Mini-Circuits has won over $2.2 million in subcontracts with Lockheed Martin to produce these components in the last four years.<\/p>\n These Lockheed Martin weapons include the Hellfire Missile, Patriot Missile, and Joint Air-to-Ground Missile. Survivors in Gaza have found remnants<\/a> of the Hellfire Missile \u2013 known as the \u201cfire-and-forget\u201d<\/a> missile \u2013 in the rubble of residential buildings, schools, and health care centers. The U.S. has sold at least 3,000<\/a> Hellfire Missiles to Israel since October 2023.<\/p>\n PAL-Awda has held two rallies outside Mini-Circuits\u2019 headquarters since the campaign began, hoping to speak with employees. Both times, the company sent all employees home before the rally began.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand that many of these employees may not be aware of the impact of their work,\u201d PAL-Awda\u2019s spokesperson said. \u201cWe are here to remind workers that they too have agency: they can agitate within the company in support of our demands to cut weapons contracts, refuse to work on projects that are intended for weapons, or quit in an act of protest.\u201d<\/p>\n PAL-Awda\u2019s goal is to pressure Mini-Circuits to drop its contracts with Lockheed Martin and other weapons manufacturers complicit in genocide, \u201ca victory that certainly feels possible, as these contracts make up only a fraction of Mini-Circuits\u2019 total revenue,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The Mini-Circuits campaign isn\u2019t the only promising anti-militarism campaign in New York. Just ten miles north, there are two more military manufacturers hidden inside the old Brooklyn Navy Yard: Easy Aerial, a drone manufacturer; and Crye Precision, a tactical gear manufacturer. Both make products for the Israeli Defense Forces.<\/p>\n The Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard<\/a> campaign has spent over a year fighting to evict these companies from city property. In September, State Senator Jabari Brisport joined the campaign<\/a> at a press conference outside the Navy Yard: \u201cMark my words: they will be removed.\u201d<\/p>\n These campaigns have\u00a0a track record of success: in 2024, the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) Boston\u00a0campaign forced<\/a> Elbit Systems to vacate its<\/span>\u00a0office in Cambridge.<\/p>\n The U.K.-based Elbit Systems is Israel\u2019s largest weapons manufacturer<\/a>, and they had initially chosen<\/a> the Cambridge office to be in close proximity to Harvard and MIT. After two years of sustained protest, which included pickets, noise demonstrations, and spray paint, Elbit vacated the office. The local community made the weapons giant unwelcome in Cambridge\u2019s tech sector.<\/p>\n While an office closure for a weapons giant like Elbit may not be financially devastating, the same can\u2019t be said for a smaller company.<\/p>\n If evicted, Easy Aerial and Crye Precision would both need to relocate their headquarters \u2013 at a hefty cost. By leasing<\/a> in the Navy Yard, they avoid real estate taxes and are eligible for multiple tax credits and reduced energy costs. These benefits should be reserved for the artist studios and small businesses that make up most of the Navy Yard\u2019s tenants \u2013 not companies profiting off a genocide.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you know something unjust is happening in your own neighborhood, you have to speak up,\u201d a parent who lives near the Navy Yard told me in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mini-Circuits also appears to be vulnerable to community input, if their closure ahead of PAL-Awda\u2019s rallies implies anything. They manufacture radio and microwave components for a variety of industries<\/a>, including telecommunications, medicine, satellites, cable networks, aerospace, and defense. It is entirely within their power to stop making parts for Lockheed Martin\u2019s horrific missiles \u2013\u00a0and they have a moral imperative to do so.<\/p>\n Lockheed Martin cannot manufacture its missiles without Mini-Circuits\u2019 components. If PAL-Awda succeeds, Lockheed will need to find another supplier. It is up to us, in communities around the country, to make sure that no company in our neighborhood is complicit in genocide.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n