Disability Divest Calls for AAPD to End Relationships with War Profiteers

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Press Release

Disability Divest                                                                                             

Madeline Crowley

484-667-7635

DisabilityDivest@proton.me

Release Date: July 25, 2024 

 

Disability Divest Calls for AAPD to End Relationships with War Profiteers

[Washington, DC, July 25, 2024]-On July 25th, activists disrupted AAPD’s ADA Celebration event held at the Salamander Hotel on Piscataway lands known as Washington, D.C. demanding an end to the organization’s ties with entities and board members that profit off of the genocide of Palestinians and the disablement and colonization of Indigenous, Black, and Brown people across the world. 

Participating in AAPD’s event were Northrop Grumman, one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers, and Wells Fargo, which invests in Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer. Wells Fargo has also funded multiple resource extraction projects, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, which violates tribal sovereignty and the health and well-being of Native people, as well as private prisons and ICE detention centers.

“It’s truly dismaying that AAPD, an organization supposedly committed to the rights of disabled people, is taking sponsorships from and giving accolades to corporations responsible for the disablement and genocide of Palestinians and Indigenous, Black, and Brown people across the world. AAPD has an ethical responsibility to fight against ableism, colonialism, and the many societal and governmental forms of oppression that harm and even kill disabled people," said Ezra Star, a member of Disability Divest.  

During the disruption, activists took over the event stage and read a list of demands that included  that AAPD refuse donations, sponsorships, and partnerships from and cut all investments and ties with corporations and board members that create, finance, and sell the technology and other products used to perpetuate mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex as well as resource extractive and environmentally harmful projects contributing to worsening the climate crisis and violate the sovereignty of Indigenous nations.

“The connections between the colonization of Palestine and Turtle Island are undeniable. American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest rates, per capita, of disabilities in the so-called US and are still facing over 500 years of genocide. Israel has long since held a 'shoot to maim' policy disabling Palestinians while denying them their basic human rights to clean air, water, food, land, healthcare, and joy. AAPD’s actions are blatantly racist and genocidal, and they should be ashamed to work with corporations and banks that flagrantly violate US and international law,” said Jen Deerinwater, disabled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and Founding Executive Director of Crushing Colonialism.

Disability Divest is a collective of disabled individuals who have joined together to call for a free Palestine and the end to the U.S. disability establishment's partnership with war profiteers and complicity with genocide and colonialism. A full list of demands and more information can be found on our Google Document or on our social media channels @DisabilityDivest.

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Disability Divest Demands AAPD to Cut Ties with War Profiteers

Disability Divest calls on AAPD to live up to the legacy and power of disability justice by cutting ties with war profiteers and others profiting off of colonization. We are a collective of disabled individuals who have joined together to call for a free Palestine and the end to the U.S. disability establishment's partnership with war profiteers and complicity with genocide and colonialism around the world. We come together as comrades and reject the elitist and ableist idea that critiques from disability advocacy organizations carry more validity than critiques from disabled people and the community who are not affiliated with them.

Disability Justice is a framework that recognizes the value and needs of all bodies through cross-disability and movement solidarity, leadership of the most impacted, community care, and revolutionary hope. It fights colonialism and its impact on the global majority (Indigenous, Black and Brown people) because the struggles are interconnected. One cannot happen without the other. Like all liberation movements within the so-called United States, the fight for disability justice is led by Queer, Black, Brown, and Indigenous disabled people and importantly, centers their struggles.

It is also important to point out the so-called United States' history with islamophobia that continues to be upheld through violent propaganda like the "war on terror" alongside the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This creates systemic violence against Muslims that continuously targets and puts them at the threat of violent attacks globally.

As an organization working toward equity for disabled people, AAPD has an ethical responsibility to protest and reject the weaponization of disability for profit at the cost of disabled lives in Palestine, the Global South, and at home on Turtle Island (including the so-called United States), particularly in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. The oppression of Indigenous Palestinians is directly tied to the oppression of Indigenous people on Turtle Island.

In order to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people, tribal nations in the so-called US, and all people of the Global South:

  1. We demand that AAPD refuse donations, sponsorships, partnerships, and cut all investments and ties with corporations and board members that:
    1. Create, finance, and sell the weapons and technology used to perpetuate the mass disablement and genocide of Palestinian infants, children, and adults. 
      1. These include Event Sponsors Northrop Grumman, one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers; and Wells Fargo, which invests in Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
    2. Are otherwise profiting from Israel's war crimes.
  2. We demand that AAPD refuse donations, sponsorships, and partnerships from and cut all investments and ties with corporations and board members that create, finance, and sell the technology and other products used to perpetuate mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex.
  3. We demand that AAPD stop honoring companies perpetuating the genocide in Palestine, as well as oppression elsewhere in the Global South, with awards and speaking opportunities at AAPD events.
  4. We demand that AAPD cut financial ties with companies engaging in resource extraction and other projects contributing to worsening the climate crisis and environmental harm (e.g., pipelines, uranium, coal, lithium, cobalt, colton and other mining projects, trains and facilities transporting oil, gas, and other minerals, waste storage facilities, cracker plants, and more). Companies actively worsening climate crisis contribute to the disproportionately negative impact of environmental harm and the disablement of Native people. 

Learn more about Disability Divest at DisabilityDivest.org.