National Lawyers Guild Says Free Palestine

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) now, as always, stands with the Palestinian people. We affirm their right for self-determination and to resist occupation, subjugation, and genocide by all means necessary, including by armed struggle, as guaranteed under international law.

For three years every day, Palestinians have woken up in their homes and wondered what more is required of them to sacrifice before the world decides that they deserve to live free in their homeland. For three years, Palestinians have had to watch and listen while people in far-flung places, government officials, billionaires, and non-Palestinians debate their humanity and whether they are deserving of life, or the conditions that make life possible.

Complex legal concepts have been boiled down to talking points, where any person is now an expert on whether or not genocide is occurring, while the experts themselves emphatically assert: yes, this is and has been a genocide. Palestinians' calls to end it fall on deaf ears. Those living in diaspora have watched their families be slaughtered, maimed, and starved, while their homes are bombed, shot at, invaded and demolished. They witness as their taxes pay for the murder and dispossession of their loved ones, overridden with guilt.

Over the past three years, digital content has surged to "raise awareness," resulting in Palestinians again being exploited for clicks and funds that they may never see. The United Nations speaks from podiums about international humanitarian law, while they allow war criminals to address the United Nations General Assembly, instead of being subject to an international warrant for their arrest.

For nearly a century, Palestinians have tried to avail themselves of every possible mechanism to make the world care about their rights and their freedom, from diplomacy to protest They and their allies have suffered the consequences regardless of their "non-violence". The occupier and the complicit will always find a reason why those striving for self-determination are not asking politely enough.

Concurrently, the U.S. federal and state governments continue crushing pro-Palestine dissent. The U.S. Department of Treasury's OFAC designation list keeps growing, from Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in October 2024 to Palestine Action in August 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly but aggressively spending resources to extradite a pro-Palestine U.S. citizen from Spain. State legislatures are trying to expand targeted anti-BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) laws, aimed at silencing opposition to Israel and support for Palestine.

The NLG, its chapters, and committees have for years actively supported the many movements fighting for Palestinian liberation. Our members have been Legal Observers at encampments, have represented activists in court, and continue to stand alongside those who believe in a Free Palestine. Today and every day, we will continue to fight alongside Palestinians. We will keep saying it until it is true: from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.