Occupation: Advocate and Organizer
University: Tufts University
Organizations: Jewish Voice for Peace DC-Metro, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Collective Action for Safe Spaces
Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahmuskinpierret
Leah organizes around racial justice and anti-militarism in DC.
Leah currently works with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights to help activists turn their grassroots power into the influence to end US support for Israeli occupation and apartheid, helping to catalyze a shift from US complicity towards support for Palestinian liberation. She joined the US Campaign in 2017, after working with the Friends Committee on National Legislation and organizing with National Students for Justice in Palestine.
Leah is an organizer, professional advocate, and campaign strategist. She currently serves as Mobilization Chair on the Jewish Voice for Peace-DC Metro steering committee and is currently helping to launch a local campaign to end the deadly exchange between DC police and Israeli police and military forces.
She was a student activist at Tufts University (where she earned a B.A. in American Studies and International Relations), working for justice for Palestine and to win increased resources for campus survivors of sexual violence. Her proudest accomplishment in campus organizing was helping coordinate three annual National Students for Justice in Palestine conferences, making space for hundreds of young activists to learn from each other and build their movement, strengthening US-based work to enable the Palestinian liberation struggle. She got her start in organizing in high school when she steered a successful campaign to defeat a youth curfew proposal.
Leah believes in working to build the world we seek in our own communities. To live out that value, she organizes to end public harassment and assault in her home of Washington, DC, coordinating the advocacy efforts of Collective Action for Safe Spaces. She also supports local organizing, reads voraciously to better self-educate, and plays anti-racist, anti-imperialist soccer.
“We can’t love each other if we don’t support each other.” – said like 5 times a week 🙂
idk if you want longer quotes but if you do, here’s something from a piece I wrote that I’m proud of:
“These euphemisms of the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” were designed to make violent domination digestible to those whose political leaders, tax dollars and indifference uphold it… We must be vigilant of euphemisms around Palestine, and around every other political issue, because their confounding power veils most of the violence we uphold… Rejecting euphemisms means holding ourselves accountable to all the violence hiding behind everyday discourse.” from “Sterile terms hide violent norms: locating Tufts’ complicity in Israeli violence” https://tuftsdaily.com/opinion/2014/11/06/sterile-terms-hide-violent-norms-locating-tufts-complicity-israeli-violence/