Oshkosh, WI: Protest against Israel-linked Oshkosh Defense at their sponsored holiday parade
Oshkosh, WI – On November 30, 20 activists from the Fox Valley gathered in protest of the shameless Oshkosh Corporation’s sponsorship of the Oshkosh Holiday Parade. Oshkosh Corporation is the parent company of Oshkosh Defense, under which it manufactures vehicles of war, particularly the Eitan Armored Personnel Carrier (APC). Oshkosh ‘Defense’ has a $100 million contract with the Israeli occupation forces to produce 500 APCs.
“The hypocrisy of Oshkosh Corp to sponsor the holiday parade is an ugly attempt to sanitize their bloodstained reality as their war machines are used to wipe out a people. The ongoing use of these genocidal machines have caused the cancellations of Palestinians’ holiday celebrations,” said Audari Tamayo of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “This cowardly attempt at propaganda by the war profiteers is reflective of the wider callousness of the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation. The U.S.-Israeli war machine knows no bounds.”
Places of worship are being bombed by the Israeli occupation forces — an act the Zionists are no stranger to. Christmas celebrations have been canceled across Palestine. The third oldest church in the world, the Church of Saint Porphyrius, was bombed by the genocidal Israeli forces. This is after repeated attacks on the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, by settler forces. Schools, hospitals, ambulances, refugee camps, entire apartment buildings and people’s homes have been indiscriminately bombed.
“Oshkosh Corp has seen a rise a in profits with the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. The ruling class continues to laugh in our face as the merchants of death that are Oshkosh Corp. and its subsidiaries sponsor a holiday parade. But the people of the Fox Valley do not accept the posturing of the Oshkosh Corporation!” Tamayo said.
The protesters chanted for the duration of the parade: “Oshkosh greed makes children bleed” and “Oshkosh Corp, you can't hide, you don't care when children die!” The protesters were unapologetic about the murderous reality of the event’s sponsor.
Tamayo concluded: “The time of reckoning is dawning upon those who are profiting from settler-colonial occupation, from genocide, from the blood of the Palestinian people. Oshkosh Corp, we charge you with genocide. Blood money does not belong in the Fox Valley or anywhere. As long as the Palestinian people are under the continuous, violent, injustice of the genocidal Israeli occupation, the merchants of death deserve no peace. End U.S. aid to Israel! From the river to sea, Palestine will be free!”