End the Deadly Exchange Seattle is a local coalition working together to end police exchanges between the Seattle Police Department and the Israeli military and police. To date the Coalition includes Bayan, Block the Bunker, Gabriela, International League of People’s Struggle, Jewish Voice for Peace, La Resistencia, No New Youth Jail, Parisol, Washington Advocates for Palestinian Rights.
What are the deadly exchanges?
Deadly Exchanges are a collection of hundreds of joint trainings held since the 1990s between US law enforcement agencies and Israeli Defence Forces and other Israeli security agencies. They have been sponsored by organizations such as JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and most prominently, the ADL (Anti-Defamation League). Thousands of police leaders across the country have participated.
What is the danger of the Seattle Police Department and other law enforcement agencies in participating in this training?
Our coalition is committed to abolishing the security state and carceral system which is founded on and systematically practices the oppression of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, and in its place collectively build an emerging, solidarity-based system of safety and liberation which prioritizes those who are most harmed by the current system: Black and Indigenous people, Palestinians, people of color, disabled people, religious minorities such as Muslim and Jewish people, queer and trans folks, undocumented immigrants, poor people and others. Only by understanding the history of policing can we push intentionally with radical and incremental reforms which move us closer towards abolition.
These trainings with the Israeli military are dangerous because they exchange “worst practices” of law enforcement including greater militarization, expanded surveillance, and escalated human rights abuses and discrimination. Both police and military forces in the US and Israel have committed many racist violations of people’s human and civil rights, including solitary confinement, military detention, racial and ethnic profiling, and violence as a means of social control. Israel, along with the United States, is a key actor in the global military-industrial complex and has served as a laboratory for oppressive policies, tactics, and technologies, with global ramifications and impacts.
What we can do?
While our goal is collective liberation of Crossing-Over Place (Seattle), Palestine and the entire world, our first step is to ban the Seattle Police Department from going on any more exchanges. We are planning to build community awareness through imagining creative alternatives, sharing resources and opportunities for education, and introducing city-council legislation to end the deadly exchange.
Our Coalition partners include:
Similar Campaigns Across the Country:
