From the warehouse floor at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), Talia Rose can see the FedEx\u00a0planes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re directly across the tarmac from me,\u201d they told\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rose works the overnight shift at the UPS air hub. Most days, they clock in before dawn, when much of Oakland is asleep. Metal containers\u2009\u2014\u2009ULDs\u2009\u2014\u2009are rolled off the aircraft and pulled into the building. Rose unloads them, sending boxes down conveyor belts to be sorted and routed. Sometimes they\u2019re on the other side, throwing freight toward outbound trucks. It\u2019s physical work, repetitive and\u00a0precise.<\/p>\n
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Around six months ago, during a\u00a0weekly organizing meeting at the Oakland Liberation Center, they learned that military cargo bound for Israel had been moving through the airport. Activists had just released research documenting hundreds of such shipments passing through\u00a0OAK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report<\/a>, published by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), identified more than 280 military cargo shipments to Israel since January 2025, including shipments of parts manufactured by U.S. defense contractors for F-35 aircraft. The report traced cargo moving through OAK, including the BRU-68 bomb release system\u2009\u2014\u2009a product that enables F-35s to release 2,000-pound bombs. Similar research<\/a> into Maersk\u2019s shipping routes helped identify how military materials move across maritime corridors, underscoring that Oakland\u2019s airport is one node in a\u00a0larger commercial infrastructure serving the war\u00a0effort.<\/p>\n FedEx\u2009\u2014\u2009whose facility sits across the tarmac\u2009\u2014\u2009was handling the OAK\u00a0shipments.<\/p>\n Rose went home after the meeting and read the full\u00a0report.<\/p>\n \u201cI just kind of lay there all night,\u201d they said. \u200b\u201cI genuinely was in shock. I\u00a0see these planes fly in and out every single day, and any of them could be carrying these\u00a0parts.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, every landing feels\u00a0different.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single time a\u00a0FedEx plane lands and I\u2019m watching them land,\u201d they said, \u200b\u201cI wonder, \u200b\u2018Oh, is that the\u00a0one?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers argue that if the airport is governed locally, the Port of Oakland can and should refuse to facilitate shipments of weapons components to Israel.<\/p>\n Rose has since joined a\u00a0campaign called the Oakland People\u2019s Arms Embargo (OPAE), a\u00a0coalition of more than 30 organizations calling on city officials<\/a> to stop what they describe as \u200b\u201ckiller military cargo\u201d from flying out of Oakland\u2019s publicly owned\u00a0airport.<\/p>\n Organizers argue that if the airport is governed locally, the Port of Oakland can and should refuse to facilitate shipments of weapons components to Israel. The effort has garnered support from a\u00a0wide range of labor unions, including the 100,000-member California Nurses Association. On November 10, the Alameda Labor Council\u2009\u2014\u2009representing 135,000 Bay Area workers across healthcare, transportation, education, construction, manufacturing and service industries\u2009\u2014\u2009voted unanimously to endorse the\u00a0campaign.<\/p>\n A Harvard-affiliated geospatial study found<\/a> that in the first six weeks of Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza after Oct. 7, 2023, nearly 600 such bombs were dropped across the Gaza Strip. Eighty-three percent of Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals had bomb craters within 800\u00a0meters, and at least nine had bombs land within what researchers describe as a\u00a0lethal range.<\/p>\n Those bombs don\u2019t move themselves. The United States provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in military aid under a\u00a0long-term memorandum of understanding, and since October 2023, Congress has approved additional emergency funding totaling more than $14 billion. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute<\/a>, the United States supplied roughly two-thirds of Israel\u2019s major conventional arms imports in 2023. Weapons move by sea and by air and pass through public civilian\u00a0infrastructure.<\/p>\n Organizers argue that Oakland is a\u00a0key link in a\u00a0wider logistics chain linking U.S. manufacturers to overseas deployment. In recent months, activists across the globe have pressured shipping giant Maersk over its role in transporting military cargo. In Spain, organizers successfully alerted port authorities to Maersk shipments tied to Israel, prompting scrutiny and rerouting<\/a> in some cases. In Morocco, dockworkers have refused<\/a> to handle certain cargo. In Colombia, the government has announced an embargo on coal exports to Israel. None of these interventions have ended the war, but they did demonstrate that supply chains can be\u00a0contested.<\/p>\n At OAK, nothing announces itself as part of a\u00a0weapon.<\/p>\n \u201cThese pieces aren\u2019t huge and heavy,\u201d Rose said. \u200b\u201cIt\u2019s not as if they\u2019re not specially marked, outside of maybe a\u00a0high-value marker.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no crate labeled WAR. No flashing indicator that the freight in a\u00a0ULD will end up as part of an aircraft over\u00a0Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like there should be a\u00a0big stamp saying, \u200b\u2018This is a\u00a0genocidal can,\u2019\u00a0\u201d they\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Instead, it looks like any other freight: socks, legal documents, medical supplies, machine parts. Containers inside planes inside contracts inside federal aviation\u00a0rules.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all being made so complicit in this,\u201d they\u00a0said.<\/p>\n That complicity is structural, and responsibility is fragmented. A\u00a0carrier moves the cargo. A\u00a0port authority leases out the space. Federal regulators oversee the airspace. Congress appropriates funds. Each actor performs a\u00a0discrete role and can plausibly disclaim the\u00a0whole.<\/p>\n Oakland officials have expressed concern about the shipments. Some have argued that federal aviation law limits what the city can prohibit. Rose has attended Board of Port Commissioners meetings and heard the debate. \u200b\u201cThere are members that are absolutely on our side,\u201d they said. But it has been \u200b\u201creally disappointing\u201d to hear others insist, \u201c\u00a0\u200b\u2018Well actually, it\u2019s not our\u00a0job.\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf our city says it supports human rights, but still lets this go through, then what does that actually\u00a0mean?\u201d<\/p>\n Asked what they would say directly to a\u00a0Port commissioner, Rose did not hedge. \u200b\u201cWe have to put our foot down now,\u201d they\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the city declines to act, she argued, it sets a\u00a0precedent that publicly owned infrastructure can quietly facilitate military cargo so long as the paperwork is in order. \u200b\u201cOld good precedents,\u201d they said, referring to Oakland\u2019s history of labor and anti-apartheid resistance, \u200b\u201cwill be trampled over, and we\u2019ll have these new precedents that turn Oakland into a\u00a0town for killer\u00a0cargo.\u201d<\/p>\n The question now being pressed by organizers is simple: If Oakland\u2019s maritime side has been shaped by political and labor action before, why should its air cargo side be treated as untouchable?<\/p>\n The Port of Oakland oversees both the seaport and the airport. In 1984, ILWU members in Oakland refused<\/a> to unload South African cargo from the Nedlloyd Kimberley ship for 11\u00a0days. The action did not depend on federal permission; it depended on dockworkers deciding they would not handle it. The stand was part of a\u00a0broader municipal divestment movement that eventually pressured the city itself to sever financial ties with apartheid. The episode remains a\u00a0touchstone in local labor memory. More recently, Bay Area longshore workers have declined<\/a> to handle certain cargo linked to Israeli shipping interests during moments of Israeli escalation in Palestine, as part of community pickets invoking that same\u00a0tradition.<\/p>\n The airport, too, sits under Port authority. The question now being pressed by organizers is simple: If Oakland\u2019s maritime side has been shaped by political and labor action before, why should its air cargo side be treated as\u00a0untouchable?<\/p>\n This is what sovereignty looks like in practice. The Port Commission is locally appointed, and the airport is publicly owned. Yet the authority exercised within that space is threaded through federal aviation law, private carrier contracts, military procurement systems and international trade regimes. Sovereignty persists, but it is structured to facilitate\u00a0movement.<\/p>\n The contradiction is not unique to Oakland. South Africa, which brought a\u00a0genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, has also faced internal debate over coal exports tied to Israeli energy supply. Multinational firms operating through subsidiaries and joint ventures can continue moving material even when public opinion or national leadership shifts. Corporations often operate across jurisdictions in ways that blunt the force of democratic mandates. The formal authority of a\u00a0state remains intact, but the economic levers are harder to\u00a0pull.<\/p>\n The modern global economy didn\u2019t weaken states so much as repurpose<\/a> them. Governments police borders, enforce contracts and protect investment. What they struggle to do, especially at the local level, is interrupt the movement of capital. The rules are written to keep goods flowing. Stopping them requires swimming against legal architecture built for\u00a0efficiency.<\/p>\n