Recently US students on college campuses have been protesting against the Israeli states’ human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and most recently Raffa. There are historical examples of how to pressure the US government to do more to end Israeli state oppression against Palestinians and pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages. In the 1980s Local DC37 leaders wanted to expose the complicity of both the public and private sectors in the United States in supporting oppressive governments in South Africa and Central America. One article criticized the U. S. government for not taking steps to halt U. S. corporate investment in South Africa including the sales of military hardware to the country: “In taking this stance, the U. S. government is aligning itself with the Apartheid regime against brave African brothers and sisters who every day risk their lives for rights that Americans take for granted” writes the union’s news paper the Public Employee Press’ in March of 1980. The paper later reported that the “Reagan administration ha[d] moved to strengthen business ties with South Africa, and in recent years investments in and trade with South Africa have soared.” The black South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate, described Reagan’s tolerance policy of “constructive engagement” with the South African government as totally immoral, evil, and unethical. According to the Public Employee Press, Tutu called Reagan’s policy “un-Christian.”
