Berkeley Families for Collective Liberation

Berkeley Families for Collective Liberation is a grassroots organization based in Berkeley, California that formed in response to attacks by pro-Israel lobbyists and Zionist community members on our K-12 school district, teachers and students. We are bound by our commitment to our joint struggle for freedom, starting with the liberation of Palestine, and we recognize that no one is free until we are all free. We are not free in a world where we cannot talk about Palestinian freedom or teach real Palestinian history in our schools. We uphold that Jewish safety and Palestinian liberation are intertwined, and that the struggle for Palestinian freedom is interconnected with the struggles of all colonized and oppressed peoples, including our Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, Latine, Asian and Pacific Islander siblings.

We are fighting to support and defend our educators in Berkeley who teach the truth about Palestine and to protect our students’ right to confront injustice in the world, both inside the classroom and out.

We recently WON the fight to keep Liberated Ethnic Studies in our school district for the current academic school year, which is an anti-colonial, anti-imperial curriculum that centers authentic history and the liberation of colonized peoples. It is under fierce attacks by pro-Israel lobbies who want to see it completely removed from K-12 schools because of its handling of Palestinian history and perspectives.   LESMCC gives our kids in Berkeley the opportunity to learn local, authentic histories or BIPOC communities and our struggles for liberation.

We stand with educators as they face unprecedented scrutiny, intimidation and harassment. Our educators deserve dignity. Our students deserve dignity. They are the ones upholding Berkeley’s legacy as the birthplace of the free speech movement and leading us into a more just future and a liberated Palestine.