SNEHAL SHINGAVI talks about the growing movement in the U.S. in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

DURING A press conference earlier this year, Secretary of State Colin Powell reassured skeptics about the new Bush administration's position on Israel. "I want the people of Israel to know that the relationship between the United States and Israel is unbreakable," Powell said. "America's commitment to the security of Israel is rock solid."

In fact, the U.S. government has poured almost $100 billion into Israel--more than it has given throughout its history to the whole of Africa--to cement the "unbreakable" relationship. Statistics like this one make the possibility of changing U.S. policy toward the Middle East seem hopeless.

But some cracks are beginning to show. In July, Powell was forced to criticize the Israeli air strikes in Nablus--carried out to assassinate leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas--that killed eight people, including two children. And State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher conceded that the U.S. "does not believe that targeted killings [of Palestinians] is a good policy."

These statements don't represent substantial changes in U.S. policy--they're mainly rhetoric. But they do offer opportunities to organize in the U.S.-- because they reveal the hypocrisy of a U.S. government that periodically criticizes Israel, while never for a moment blocking the flow of arms, weapons and money to its Middle East watchdog.

Despite the endless pro-Israeli propaganda of the mainstream media, ordinary people in the U.S. are more sympathetic to the Palestinians. For instance, a recent poll conducted by Zogby International showed that 63.5 percent of Americans support an independent Palestinian state and more than 50 percent back the right of Palestinians to return to their homes in Israel.

Organizations like the National Lawyers Guild and Amnesty International have begun to organize around the issue of human rights for Palestinians. Israeli and Arab activists have worked together over the past several months to oppose the demolition of Palestinian homes--with activists putting their bodies in front of the bulldozers.

And last month, people from countries around the world--including the U.S.--went to the Occupied Territories to serve as human shields for the Palestinians in conflicts with Israeli forces. These examples show the potential for a renewal of the movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

In the mid-1980s, a solidarity movement against apartheid in South Africa sparked a wave of sit-ins and demonstrations at colleges and universities across the U.S.

Despite the conservatism of the Reagan years, tens of thousands of students showed their support for the struggle of Black South Africans by demanding an end to economic relationships with the racist government--in particular, the "divestment" of university funds from companies that did business with apartheid.

Apartheid was defeated because of the mass struggle in South Africa itself, but the movement in the U.S. played an important role in putting pressure on the regime. Today, the beginnings of a similar solidarity movement are visible around the issue of Palestine.

At the University of California (UC)-Berkeley, where I go to school, the Students for Justice in Palestine launched a fight for divestment from Israel, targeting the billions of dollars in stocks and bonds in the UC system's portfolio. The campaign used creative direct action and education.

For example, in February, students set up a mock checkpoint at the main gate on campus. One side was marked "Israelis only"-and students were allowed to pass through freely. The other was labeled "Palestinians," and students passing through were asked for papers and otherwise delayed. The action became a focal point for discussions on campus about the nature of the Israeli system.

In April, activists organized a sit-in at one of the main academic buildings on campus--which was renamed "Muhammad Al-Durrah Hall," in honor of the Palestinian boy shot dead by Israel Defense Force troops earlier in the year.

I was one of the 33 people arrested in the sit-in, and I worked to build the subsequent demonstration where more than 300 people participated. It was one of the most exciting political events that I've been a part of--becoming the central issue in debates on campus.

By the end of the year, the membership of Students for Justice in Palestine had almost tripled. Now, we're planning a national conference titled "Holding Our Universities Accountable: Divesting from Israeli Apartheid"--to be held October 12-14, 2001 on Berkeley's campus. Our goal is to help build a national student movement for Palestine.

Meanwhile, Al-Awda, the Palestinian coalition demanding the right of return to Palestine, is planning for a demonstration in Montreal, Canada, on September 15 to protest escalating violence against Palestinians.

We're only at the beginning of this struggle. But we have to seize every opportunity to support the fight of Palestinians for justice-and to bring that fight here to U.S. streets.

List of stories from SW's eyewitness report from Palestine