The Reason Young Asian Americans Are Standing With Palestine

As we mark Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, students across the country are and spurring mass movement for a free Palestine.

Younger generations are significantly , and according to a , younger Asian Americans are the demographic group most likely to sympathize with Palestinians and to believe that the United States is too supportive of Israel. The legacy of U.S. wars waged throughout Asia has historically shaped generations of solidarity-building between Asian Americans and all peoples facing the brunt of U.S. militarism. And as the U.S. continues , , and exacerbate tensions , young Asian Americans have a particular role to play in challenging the ever-growing U.S. war machine.

In a , Ji Hye Choi, a young organizer with Mari氓nas for Palestine, shared that as a Korean woman born and raised on the U.S. territory of Guam, her ancestral legacy and upbringing have shown her how communities across time and space have organized to , , and .

Ji Hye said skeptics dismiss her because of her young age, but she is nevertheless determined to stand in solidarity with Palestinians based on a shared understanding of 鈥渢he global fight for resistance and liberation.鈥� As I listened, I was deeply struck by her clarity and deep sense of purpose, both tied to her ancestral inheritance.听

Through her work to build solidarity with Palestinians, Ji Hye is one of many young Asian Americans working to resist U.S. militarism and war. She is continuing a tradition that I have been proud to be a part of through my own work across the country to end the Korean War.

While the term 鈥淎sian American鈥� has been , the origins of Asian America are rooted in an internationalist, anti-war ethos. As Karen Ishizuka , it was 鈥渘o accident鈥� that Asian America was born during the peak of organizing against the Vietnam War, when Asian Americans highlighted the connection between racism and militarism in Vietnam鈥攁 perspective they felt the mainstream anti-war movement ignored. U.S. militarism and imperialism .

Past Asian American organizers also applied a class lens to their organizing, and reinvestment in working-class communities at home. This class-based analysis is even more critical today as Asian Americans have the . Much of this economic disparity can be tied to the legacies of and in Asian Americans鈥� countries of origin.

We stand on our predecessors鈥� tall shoulders and those of preeminent feminists like Margo Okazawa-Rey, a founding member of and the historic , a 鈥渞adical black feminist, socialist, anti-imperialist .鈥� As a 鈥� Okazawa-Rey has long led movements in challenging militarism and radically rethinking possibilities for intersectional activism in the Asia Pacific and beyond.

Like Okazawa-Rey, our predecessors applied intersectional lenses to their activism. We must learn from them as we advocate for long-term change in all arenas of policymaking by building out , as urged by veteran movement leaders Ahmad Abuznaid of , Deepa Iyer of , and Darakshan Raja of .

In particular, we must wrest power out of the hands of and reclaim the halls of legislative power from corporate interests. U.S. has reached new heights; in April, a $95 billion military spending package after it was approved by Congress, with . As the U.S. continues to fund Israel, it also expands its military presence in preparation for a potential war with China.

of U.S. national discretionary spending already goes toward the Pentagon, which has failed every single audit ever mandated by Congress, . With zero accountability, the U.S. military continues its costly ramp-up for a war against China as it prepares for the聽听(搁滨惭笔础颁)鈥斅燾arried out in the Pacific biennially in coordination with 25 other countries (including Israel, South Korea, and the Philippines). While聽, U.S. communities lack聽,听, and聽, and are underprepared to deal with the聽.听听

In April, Biden also approved a controversial bill after it was passed by Congress, . A coalition of leading Asian American organizations because FISA has been used to 鈥渏ustify mass spying, racial profiling, and discrimination of innocent people,鈥� with harsh consequences for both and .听

We must as we organize during this increasingly precarious time. Our elders have taught us that an identity grouping is only as meaningful as its capacity to be transformative for all peoples. Okazawa-Rey has explained that the Combahee River Collective鈥檚鈥渋dentity politics鈥� were not exclusionary, but about to organize against all systems of oppression.听

If we are to continue making meaning out of 鈥淎sian America鈥� this AAPI Heritage Month, we must root ourselves in intersectional principles, draw threads across global and local struggles, and forge new paths toward a world free from U.S. militarism and forever wars.

Cathi Choi is the director of policy and organizing for Women Cross DMZ, and co-coordinator of Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network. Her writing has appeared previously in the LA Times, Asian Pacific American Law Journal and the Journal of Policy History. She speaks English, Spanish, and Korean.

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