Demanding the disability establishment divest from weapons manufacturers and other companies funding genocide.
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ALT On the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, disabled people in the "united states" are reflecting on the gains of the disability rights movement and the work ahead to preserve civil rights under the current administration and fight for justice for those left behind. As Black queer disabled elder Anita Cameron reminds us: “I'm grateful for the ADA. I pushed for it; I fought for it; I went to jail for it. But the ADA is the floor. It's not the ceiling.”
ALT Amidst celebration, we must not forget who the ADA has left behind. Designed predominantly by white, middle and upper-middle class physically disabled people, the ADA continues to be unequally applied to schools, hospitals, the economic realm, and the carceral system. Disabled Black and Brown people are abused and refused access in the prison system, punished and arrested as children in the K-12 education system, and denied access to quality medical care afforded to their white counterparts.
ALT Meanwhile, 20 months into the current genocide in Palestine, millions of Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of starvation and death from Israel's ethnic cleansing. The U.S. disability establishment continues to ignore its Palestinian peers, here, in Palestine, and abroad, hundreds of thousands of whom have been disabled or killed from starvation, bombing, disease, loss and denial of access to medical care, and torture in Zionist prisons.
ALT The corporations and governments that are engineering this mass disablement and genocide of Palestinians are also responsible for supporting ICE prisons, destroying our environment for profit, and supporting politicians who are rolling back Medicaid and civil rights in the "united states." The disability establishment continues to accept money from and work with these corporations.
ALT Our collective disabled rage is vital. It grounds us in the work that we do at Disability Divest. There can be no Disability Justice without divesting from corporations who finance this destruction and disablement at home and abroad. There is no Disability Justice without abolishing ICE and all police and prisons. There is no Disability Justice without a free Palestine.
ALT Disability:IN Conference Paid for by BDS Targets and War Profiteers
ALT The 2025 Disability:IN Global Conference & Expo is this week. It started Monday July 14 and ends on Thursday, July 17. Disability:IN has corporate sponsors that fund the conference. Sponsors include companies profiting from war, displacement, child labor, environmental destruction, violence, and genocide around the globe. Those same sponsors contributed a lot of money to the 2025 conference. Like a lot. Disability:IN received $9.3 million in conference sponsorships this year alone
ALT Let’s meet the sponsors, shall we? Conference partners are awarded certain tiers based on how much money they give/sponsor. Headliners: $175,000 Presenting Partners: $100,000 Influencer: $50,000 Thought Leader: $30,000 Collaborator: $20,000 Connector: $15,000 What orgs are in each tier group?
ALT $175,000 Sponsorship: Headlining Displacement: Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo supports Israel and was part of a consortium that gave a $500 million loan deal to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company, which produces a large range of arms and military surveillance technology. (Source: Breach Media) 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. Wells Fargo is also a corporate backer of Cop City in Atlanta. (Source: AFSC)
ALT $30,000 Sponsorship: Mass Disablement Thought Leader: Amazon, Dell, HP, and Shell. Amazon: Part of Project Nimbus with Google. Nimbus offers the platform for the Israeli military to run deadly AI programs such as Lavender and Gospel– crucial to the Gaza genocide. (BDS) Dell Technologies supplies the servers, maintains services and related equipment to the Israeli military as a part of a $150 million 2023 contract funded by US foreign aid. (BDS) Through its partnerships with the Israeli government, military, prisons and police, HP provides critical technological and logistical support that facilitates war crimes and crimes against humanity, including illegal settlement construction and apartheid in the OPT. HPE supports Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, a crucial pillar of its apartheid system, by providing technology for its databases and IT systems. (BDS)
ALT Shell has contributed 31.95 billion tons of carbon dioxide since 1965, supplies 5% of Israel’s oil, and holds stakes in the Caspian Pipeline, which delivers oil from Kazakhstan to Israel. (The Guardian, Oil Change International)
ALT $20,000 Sponsorship: Apartheid Collaborator: Intel, Lockheed Martin, and Cargill. Intel’s main facility in Israel is in Kiryat Gat, an Israeli settlement built on the ruins of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of Iraq al-Manshiyya. It lies approximately 16 miles from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. It has invested more than $50 billion in apartheid Israel’s economy over the last 50 years. (Source: BDS) The world’s largest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza. Israel also uses the company’s C-130 Hercules transport planes to support the ground invasion of Gaza. (Source: AFSC) Cargill has been fined in Brazilian court for using suppliers who farm cocoa using child labor. It has been fined in the United States for using child labor in a Kansas meatpacking plant. (Source: Reuters, Kansas Reflector)
ALT $15,000 Sponsorship: Settler-Colonialism Connector: Aramark, AXA, Barclays, BP, Caterpillar, Cisco, DTE, General Dynamics, L3Harris, Nestle, Sandia National Laboratories, Teva Pharmaceuticals. These include weapons manufacturers (General Dynamics, L3Harris), equipment and tech suppliers (Caterpillar, Cisco), companies profiting of Israel’s illegal occupation (Teva, AXA) companies with ICE contracts (Aramark), major polluters (BP, DTE) and companies using child labor (Nestle).
ALT As you read this post, Disability:IN showers these corporations with awards in the name of “disability inclusion.” They reward corporations responsible for children with bomb-amputated legs, families exposed to toxic fumes, and people kidnapped and tortured in detention facilities. For Disability:IN, only some disabled people get to be “included” in disability inclusion - those who are white, wealthy, and Western. Disability:IN celebrates the debilitation and disablement of the people on the periphery. We are tired of big “disability” organizations manufacturing disabled consent for heinous crimes committed for profit.
ALT Disability:IN’s Disability Index comes out on Monday. What is it? Post content credit: Liz Jackson and Rua William’s ‘How Disabled People Get Exploited to Build the Technology of War’ article: TinyURL.com/54mtwzrm
ALT Disability:IN is a nonprofit organization that advocates for corporate disability inclusion. Disability:IN is best known for its disability index, (formerly the Disability Equality Index or DEI), “an annual transparent benchmarking tool that gives U.S. businesses an objective score on their disability inclusion policies and practices.” Despite messaging reflecting positive disability-centric inclusion practices for businesses, there is little information about what ‘disability inclusion’ actually looks like. This lack of transparency allows harmful businesses get good Disability Index scores, while they disabled and debilitate people around the world. Top scoring businesses include weapon and military production companies.
ALT In 2023, Disability:IN gave Disability Inclusion Awards to 20 weapons and military-producing companies who profit from the genocide and disablement in Palestine and the Global South. Companies that scored 100% BAE Systems Ball Corp. Boeing Booz Allen Ford General Dynamics General Motors Honeywell Jacobs L3Harris Leidos Lockheed Martin Mitre Motorola Solutions Northrop Grumman Sandia National Laboratories Companies that scored 90% GE Aerospace Leonardo RTX/Raytheon Companies that scored 80% Peraton
ALT In their article, How Disabled People Get Exploited to Build the Technology of War, Liz Jackson and Rua Williams point out that Raytheon had a perfect DEI score from 2019 until 2023, where it dropped to 90%. They write: “Given how other arms suppliers thrive on the DEI, it is obvious that the 10-point drop in score was in no way a reflection of Raytheon’s portfolio of products that maim and kill innocent civilians. Instead, this drop was most likely a mutually agreed-upon slap on the wrist after Raytheon was sued by a disabled former employee for allegedly failing to pay required long-term disability benefits.”
ALT In 2024, Disability:IN continued to award these weapons and military-producing companies, this time giving them all perfect 100% scores. Companies that scored 100% BAE Systems Boeing Booz Allen GE Aerospace General Dynamics General Motors Honeywell Jacobs L3Harris Leidos Leonardo Lockheed Martin Mitre Motorola Solutions Northrop Grumman RTX/Raytheon Peraton Ford, Ball Corp. and Sandia National Laboratories appeared in the 2023 list but not in the 2024 list.
ALT In 2024, Disability:IN awarded companies and corporations that create disability through environmental destruction that lead to poor health outcomes and displacement. Companies that scored 100%: Chevron Shell Dominion Energy Xcel Energy DTE And more…
ALT The 2025 Disability Index will be released tomorrow, Monday, July 14, 2025. We will likely see the same congratulating of businesses and corporations that treat all workers, including disabled workers, as disposable and as a means for capitalist profit for the most wealthy. The hypocrisy and blantant disregard for disabled people’s material lives by the hands of these weapons production companies is shameful of Disability:IN. Continuing to celebrate these companies and corporations, giving perfect scores to evil businesses that have a direct and leading role in the genocides around the world, is disgusting. We will continue to speak out and highlight harmful corporations being awarded in the name of disability.
ALT How Disabled People Get Exploited to Build the Technology of War: The cutting-edge products that Big Tech and the Pentagon are developing could be rebuilding an untold number of lives. Instead, they’re being sent to the battlefield to ruin more. By Liz Jackson and Rua Williams, April 4, 2024 TinyURL.com/54mtwzrm Full link: https://NewRepublic.com/article/179391/wheelchair-warfare-pipeline-disability-technology
ALT Medicaid Cuts, Expanded ICE funding, and the Deportation of pro-Palestinian Protesters are All Connected
ALT Disability rights organizations are protesting the largest cuts to Medicaid in history.On Thursday, the House voted to pass Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill," cutting more than $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade and causing 17 million people to lose access to life-saving health insurance by 2034. The legislation also cuts SNAP (food assistance) benefits and increases Medicare costs for low-income beneficiaries. Disability rights organizations have called out this bill for its devastating impact on low-income and disabled Americans who rely on Medicaid for access to home- and community-based services. But few orgs have mentioned an important fact: Cutting Medicaid is directly tied to Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-free speech, and pro-genocide agenda.
ALT It’s not just Medicaid cuts- this bill also makes ICE the federal government’s most heavily funded law enforcement agency. This bill dedicates $170 billion for immigration and border-related operations, with $40 billion for ICE over four years. $ 8 billion to hire 10,000 more ICE agents $858 million for signing and retention bonuses $45 billion for detention facilities $2 billion in bonuses for Customs and Border Protection ICE will have a budget for more officers than the FBI, and more funding for detention centers than the Federal Bureau of Prisons. ICE inflicts ableist violence upon detainees by routinely denying medical care to the people they disappear and incarcerate. This legislation has drastically increased the surveillance state and imperiled the lives of millions of people.
ALT Medicaid, ICE, and Palestine are linked. Over the past several months, we have seen this administration use ICE to kidnap and attempt to deport Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activists like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk. Zionist groups understand that these deportation policies are a weapon that can be used to silence Palestinian voices calling out the genocide, and have bragged about sharing the names of pro-Palestinian protesters with the Trump administration for that very reason. The Department of Justice is now “aggressively prioritizing” efforts to denaturalize citizens. Trump has talked about arresting NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani, and Republican Representative Andy Ogles has called for Mamdani to be denaturalized. We cannot ignore how Medicaid is being cut in tandem with bolstering ICE and harming immigrants from the Global South, as well as immigrants and citizens who are critical of Israel.
ALT Medicaid cuts and ICE funding are part of a white supremacist agenda. Taking away health coverage or access to stable food is all an effort to further push people into poverty and desperation. We know social support systems are less accessible to Black and brown communities, and cuts will impact their wellbeing and livelihoods most. People in power will racialize the exacerbated desperation as being people being “crazy/disabled/dangerous” and needing deportation, institutionalization, or incarceration. They will use disability stigma as a tool for incarceration.
ALT Meanwhile, ICE continues to abduct people from their homes, places of work, and communities. They have detained more than 97,000 people in five months. Families of detainees have reported that their loved ones have not been feed or have been fed rotten food. Detainees have been forced to sleep on the floor for weeks. They are routinely denied access to medication or treatment for illnesses they contract in detention. ICE has also sent hundreds of men to CECOT in El Salvador without due process, where they have been subjected to beatings, forced to kneel for 9 hours, and denied access to the bathroom in overcrowded conditions. The cruelty is the point. Disablement and debilitation is government policy. It separates the have and have nots, healthy and unhealthy, the sane and insane, the white and Black and brown.
ALT There is no disability justice without abolishing ICE. There is no disability justice without a Free Palestine.
ALT Palestine, Disability Justice, Greta, & the Freedom Flotilla A picture of Greta Thunberg
ALT Have you ever wondered ‘What happened to Greta Thunberg?’ If you have, you’re not alone. Despite her rise to global fame as a child as one the most famous young climate justice activists, her name has not shown up as much in recent years. While Greta is a reliable and respected activist, people view her as they do most disabled people, someone to move their hearts and feel inspired by, but not serious enough to enact real change or be worthy of legitimacy. The act of her speaking out against injustice as an autistic person with selective mutism was viewed as a wonder rather than what she wanted, to be heard for the dire situation the world is in.
ALT So, why has Greta disappeared from the mainstream spotlight? It’s quite simple. Greta Thunberg is unapologetically anti-imperialist and pro-Palestine. Once nondisbled privileged people in power realized she would continuously challenge them to do something, they discarded her and her activism. Greta also recognizes that genocide and climate change are linked: “We cannot have climate justice without social justice. The reason why I am a climate activist is not because I want to protect trees. I’m a climate activist because I care about human and planetary well-being, and those are extremely interlinked.”
ALT What is happening now? Where is Greta and the Freedom Flotilla crew? Pt 1. Greta was on a boat called the Madleen or Freedom Flotilla. It had a crew of 12 activists including Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament The boat was going to Palestine to bring aid to the people living there who are trying to survive. This is because Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians and decimating the country of Palestine. The boat never made it to Palestine because Israel stopped it.
ALT What is happening now? Where is Greta and the Freedom Flotilla crew? pt 2. The crew of the Madleen were kidnapped and arrested by Israel on international waters and brought to Israel against their will. The crew had to choose to leave or stay. 4 people, including Greta left. 8 people intentionally chose to stay to bring more visibility to the issue. Greta chose to leave the country so she could continue to advocate for the situation.
ALT Who was aboard the Madleen and what happened to them? Sergio Toribio (Spain)
ALT Why does this all matter? The disability community is global, and arbitrary lines between countries decide what experience you have living there. Disability Divest, Greta Thunberg, and many other people with disabilities are in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians because Palestinians are being actively debilitated and disabled by Israel’s genocide. Fighting for people with disabilities means fighting for ALL people with disabilities.
ALT All eyes on Palestine. Follow the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the work as they work to break the siege. Disability Justice is Palestinian Justice. Palestinian Justice is Disability Justice.
ALT Article titled There is no disability justice without a Free Palestine by Dom Kelly. From Mondoweiss: News and Opinion about Palestine, Israel, and the United States. Read article in this post or at TinyURL.com/yrnjxh35 or by taking a screenshot of the QR code. Image: Palestinian child Mustafa Nasr, 11 years old, is being cared for by his family in the Al-Nazla area in Jabalia in Gaza City, February 2025. His legs were amputated in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his family’s home during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. A group of his family members were also martyred. Photo by Omar Ashtawy/apaimages
ALT Two news articles. The first article is from The Intercept. Title reads: Fetterman Went to Israel on NYC Mental Health Nonprofit’s Dime. Subtitle reads: The Pennsylvania senator has come under fire for skipping votes and town halls — but he had time for a first-class trip to Israel in March. Written by Georgia Gee on May 28 2024. A photo of Fetterman, a tall white man with a beard wearing a white hoodie, riding up an escalator. The second article is from Save the Children. Title reads: “Complete psychological destruction”: Children in Gaza have suffered “relentless mental harm” during five months of war. Published from occupied Palestinian territory on March 12, 2024.
ALT It repulsive and hypocritical that an organization supposedly dedicated to mental health and wellness sends someone to a country with a government that is actively committing a genocide that has destroyed the mental health of all Palestinians, including children. Caring about those with mental health and psychiatric disabilities means caring about anyone navigating these disabilities or conditions, not just a select few.
ALT Disability Justice for Palestine Event: April 15, 11hEST, 18h Palestine. register at: https://bit.ly/DJPTA
ALT Disability Justice for Palestine Event: April 15, 11hEST, 18h Palestine. register at: https://bit.ly/DJPTA
ALT Message from tweet in graphic. Logo for Disability Divest, a wheelchair user whose wheelchairs wheel is a watermelon with the neurodiversity symbol on it. Website reads: Disability Divest dot org.
ALT A Ceasefire Deal Has Been Reached. Our Work Continues. Disability Divest.
ALT On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, it was announced that a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza has been reached and will take effect on Sunday, January 19. We are encouraged by this news and support our Palestinian peers in their joy and relief. This is an important step in ending Israel’s genocidal onslaught on Palestine. But we know that as allies in the so-called “United States,” our work continues. We demand accountability for our government’s role in facilitating this genocide, its participation in war crimes, and its use of American tax dollars to murder Palestinian children and adults. We continue to demand that the U.S. disability establishment end its relationships with war profiteers. Disability rights cannot be built upon partnerships with weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
ALT For over 466 days, U.S. disability establishment organizations have continued to accept sponsorships from war profiteers and have encouraged disabled workers to become part of the U.S. war machine through employment with companies that profit off genocide. At the same time, U.S. disability establishment organizations and “leaders” have remained silent as our disabled peers in Palestine have been bombed, shot, starved, and frozen to death. They have prioritized their connections to war profiteers and the Biden Administration over the safety and liberation of disabled people. They have been silent and complicit. They do not represent us.
ALT We call on disabled people who believe in disability justice to support Palestinian liberation. Continue to speak up, protest, boycott, and donate to the survival funds of disabled Palestinians. There is no disability justice without a free Palestine.
ALT Donate: Support vetted fundraisers for disabled Palestinians (links in our bio). Fundraisers for disabled Palestinians vetted by Sky Cubacub of Rebirth Garments: allmylinks.com/queercripslovepal Crips for eSims for Gaza: chuffed.org/project/crips-for-esims-for-gaza Gaza Funds: GazaFunds.com
ALT close-up of Khaled outside in the sun, dark brown hair combed up, slight brown beard and hazel-brown eyes staring into the camera. He wears a slight smile and a blue and gray zip up with maroon shirt underneath.