Denver Anti-War Action

November 2025: DAWA Newsletter

Denver Anti-War Action Updates

Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) is a local community organization that opposes US imperialism and the military-industrial complex worldwide. Founded in November 2023 in the wake of Israel’s most recent genocidal campaign in Gaza, DAWA has worked closely with the Colorado Palestine Coalition (CPC) and other local organizations to fight the forces that seek to destroy people and nations around the world. With targeted campaigns against local companies like Palantir and Lockheed Martin, DAWA continues to say no more to genocide! 

DAWA’s recent activity has largely focused on our campaign targeting Palantir, a software company with customers including the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Palantir is in the process of moving their headquarters out of the Tabor Center in downtown Denver following several months of sustained protests targeting the location. The new headquarters is in the nearby Cherry Creek neighborhood and DAWA is now working to build a broad coalition to expel Palantir from this new location. 

We remain committed to other areas of work as well. In early October, DAWA co-founded Denver Coalition Against Trump (DENCAT), a coalition of a diverse array of local organizations with the common goal of fighting Trump’s racist and reactionary agenda.

DAWA’s most recent events include:

  • Defend Venezuela webinar watch party (Saturday, 11/15/2025)
  • Community picket with coalition against Palantir at Cherry Creek Financial House (Monday, 11/3/2025)
  • “Nightmare on 17th Street” rally outside Tabor Center (Saturday, 10/25/2025)
  • Cherry Creek Financial House call-in (Friday, 10/17/2025)
  • Vigil honoring the martyrs in Gaza outside the Tabor Center (Tuesday, 10/7/2025)
  • Emergency All Out for Gaza rally against invasion of Gaza City (Sunday, 9/21/2025)
  • Car rally at Palantir Tabor Center headquarters (Thursday, 9/11/2025)

DAWA will be hosting these upcoming events:

Keep reading to learn about why we are targeting Palantir, how you can take action and more!

Big Tech in Your Backyard: Palantir

Palantir, a tech firm that develops software for big data analytics, has recently become infamous for the deep ties of its founders to the Trump administration as well as its involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ICE’s deportation campaigns. Formerly headquartered in the Bay Area, the company was compelled to leave in large part by local anti-war activists. It then moved right here to Denver, a city it perceived to be more friendly to its style of business. Though Palantir has had highly suspect connections for years (it has been an ICE contractor since 2011, for instance), it has gained mainstream notoriety over the past year both among the politically conscious and among investors hoping to hop on its increasing stock value.

Peter Thiel, one of Palantir’s cofounders, has this past year come under increasing public scrutiny not only for his ties to the Trump administration (he is an instrumental backer of JD Vance, for instance), but also for his own political views and actions. These include fearmongering about what he sees as the coming of the antichrist, opposition to women’s right to vote, and his hesitation to answer when asked if the human race should survive the growth of AI.

While once praised by investors for its market value, Palantir’s stock price has been suffering for months. In mid-August, Palantir’s stock saw a drop that pulled it out of the 20 most valuable US companies rankings. While it recovered briefly, Palantir’s value has since seen some of its worst declines of the year, with many investors actively betting on the stock’s continued decline.

Popular animosity toward Palantir appears to be coinciding with moves by the Trump administration to deepen its ties with the company, described by cofounder Alex Karp as the “first company to be completely anti-woke.” The Navy and Air Force are set to cancel two software projects involving overhauls of outdated human resources systems, despite the fact that the projects are almost complete. The rationale behind canceling these projects is to give other companies, notably Palantir and Salesforce, a chance to win contracts to complete them. Furthermore, Palantir has been one of the main companies profiting from Trump’s deployment of ICE, having made $30 million from its involvement in ICE’s “assisted voluntary return” program.

As the public perception of Palantir worsens, the Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to deepen its ties with the company, and incorporate it into its wider war on democratic and popular forces from Gaza and LA to right here in Denver. Denver Anti-War Action has been at the forefront of the fight against Palantir at its headquarters at the Tabor Center in downtown Denver, and will continue to carry on the fight at Palantir’s new location in Cherry Creek. 

Palestine Updates

Gaza

November 14 marked 770 days of ongoing genocide in Gaza. On October 10th, Israel and the US implemented a “ceasefire” agreement with Hamas, which Israel has since broken, violating its terms over 282 times and killing at least 260 Palestinians. Journalists on the ground continue to document ongoing genocidal atrocities by the IOF, showing the world these daily violations as they happen.

Israel currently controls over 52% of Gaza, forbidding Palestinians to travel beyond a mostly unmarked and ever shifting boundary dubbed “the yellow line”. This keeps entire neighborhoods off limits to Gazans; while those who cross this arbitrary and mostly invisible line risk IOF fire at will. In the perimeter under its control, Israeli forces have destroyed over 1500 buildings and continue to wipe out entire neighborhoods.

Israel has rejected over 100 requests for the entry of aid since the implementation of the “ceasefire”. Despite international pressure, the amount of aid entering Gaza remains a fraction of the levels prior to the start of the genocide. Israel continues to systematically delay or turn back aid trucks, and it deliberately blocks entry of the most vital supplies like food, fuel, tents, medicine, and excavation equipment. Since August Israel has withheld 1.6 million syringes for a UNICEF childhood vaccination campaign, along with denying the entry of nearly 1 million baby bottles and spare parts for water trucks. Israel has labeled these items “dual-use”, claiming they could be used for military purposes. Having been blocked the entry of materials necessary to rebuild their homes, over 1.5 million Gazans are living in tents and makeshift shelters. The winter has brought devastating flooding and cold, and compounded the already dire living conditions. 

As part of the “ceasefire” deal with Hamas, Israel agreed to exchange 360 Palestinian bodies for the remains of 28 Israeli prisoners of war. So far Israel has returned 315 Palestinian bodies, all handed over unidentified and many bearing signs of torture, abuse, and summary execution. Gaza’s health ministry has been able to identify only 91 of these returned bodies. Some of the murdered Palestinian hostages were returned with organs missing. Many were blindfolded, with hands and legs in cuffs. 

Israel still holds thousands of Palestinian hostages and continues to kidnap, illegally imprison, and disappear Gazan citizens as part of its ongoing genocidal campaign. In the past month alone, six Palestinian boys ages 13 to 17 have gone missing in Gaza at the hands of the IOF.

West Bank

While the eyes of the world have been on Gaza and the so called “ceasefire”, attacks in the occupied West Bank by both the IOF and Israeli settlers have only escalated as the olive harvest season in Palestine continues.  

A call for annexation by Israeli finance minister Bezelel Smotrich in late September emboldened settlers and the IOF itself to an increase in violence across the West Bank. In Jenin, Israeli forces killed Ahmed Jihad Barahmeh, a 19 year old Palestinian, just days after the killing of Saeed Murad al-Nasan, age 20, by settlers in the village of al-Mughayyir, North of Ramallah.

Attacks on Palestinians trying to harvest their land persist, with October on track to be the most violent month since UNRWA began tracking settler violence in 2013. Israeli forces and settlers have carried out over 2,300 attacks in the occupied West Bank in the last month, including the uprooting, destruction and poisoning of olive trees, physical attacks on Palestinians harvesting them, the draining of Palestinian water supplies by settlers and theft of olive harvests. 

An attack by the IOF and settlers near Nablus resulted in 36 injuries, including journalists. Two were injured by live fire, the rest from beatings and physical assaults. OCHA has recorded over 3,000 attacks on Palestinians over the past 2 years, including over 1,000 in 2025 alone, putting it on track to be the deadliest year on record.

In October the Israeli parliament voted in favor of a bill that would give preliminary approval to annex the occupied West Bank, a blatant violation of international law. The vote passed 25-24 and is the first of four needed to make it law. Coming just a month after Trump insisted he would not allow the annexation, the Trump administration has condemned the move, saying it’s “not something we’d be supportive of.”

Wins

Local

In mid-September, the Denver Post reported that Palantir will be moving from its floor in the Tabor Center to the Financial House in the Cherry Creek Business District. This follows seven months of continued action from Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), USPCN (United States Palestinian Community Network), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and several other organizations taking a stand against Palantir. As DAWA’s campaign had aimed to expel Palantir from the Tabor Center, this is a materially significant victory in our struggle against Palantir. While we cannot confirm the exact reasons for Palantir’s move, we know they are moving to a less central and less accessible area. At minimum, our continued disruptions at the Tabor Center motivated a move to a location they predicted to be more peaceful and welcoming to their development of mass surveillance technology.
We’ve seen in the last several months that Denver’s reception to Palantir isn’t quite as “politically friendly” as they hoped it would be. The recent vandalism at the Cherry Creek financial house is just another sign that the people want Palantir out. It is only a small echo of the destruction wrought in Palestine each week—destruction which Palantir has condoned, supported, and profited from since their founding, with programs that enable the targeting of entire homes, apartment buildings, even city blocks for destruction.

Denver showed Palantir that despite their decision to move here for its “better political climate,” genocidal tech bros are not welcome in our city. Their attempt to avoid protesters and dissent will fail; we will follow them wherever they go until they are out of Colorado (and ultimately out of existence). In fact, before they’d even had a chance to move in, Denver’s coalition against Palantir staged an all day picket outside their new location in Cherry Creek on Monday, November 3. 

Palestine

In mid-October, the Palestinian resistance’s struggle against the zionist state led to the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian hostages, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Approximately 1,700 Gazans who had been kidnapped by IOF troops and held without charge since the Al-Aqsa Flood were freed. These included two women, Siham Musa Ahmed Abu Salem and Mervat Hammad Muhammad Sarhan, as well as five children under the age of 18. Additionally, 250 Palestinians who had been sentenced to lengthy prison terms were released. 

Prominent freed prisoners include Mahmoud al-Ardah, who was first arrested as a teenager for throwing Molotov cocktails at IOF soldiers, and later temporarily escaped from Gilboa prison after downloading the prison’s floorplans. Another prominent figure released in October was Bassem Khandaqji, a Palestinian writer and journalist. Khandaqji authored the novel A Mask, the Color of the Sky, which won the Arabic Booker Prize in 2024. He was serving three life sentences prior to his release.

It must not be forgotten that a large number of Palestinians remain captive in zionist prisons. These include doctor Hussam Abu Safia, kidnapped by the IOF from Kamel Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza, nearly a year ago. PFLP Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat, and Marwan Barghouti, a former elected legislator in the Palestinian Legislative Council, also remain captive.

Nevertheless, the liberation of nearly 2,000 Palestinians, with an additional five freed on November 3rd, is a monumental victory for the Palestinian struggle.

What You Can Do

It is easy to feel helpless in the face of the atrocities we see everyday, from the genocide in Gaza to the ICE kidnappings right here at home. But we can’t forget that there are things we can do; even the smallest actions by individuals can have a huge collective impact. Here are some easy things you can do: 

For the People of Palestine

1. Don’t look away. This is genocide. These are war crimes. Silence is acceptance, and you can do something. 

2. Pay attention to Palestinian voices: Follow Palestinians on social media—there are so many people—mostly young people—out there documenting their lives even under these horrific conditions. Listen to what they have to say and support them when you can.

3. Follow Palestinian journalists! They are enduring the unimaginable by not just documenting the genocide against their people, but also living through it and we have to make sure to amplify their voices wherever we can.

4. Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) (https://bdsmovement.net): Boycott, boycott, boycott! The way we choose to spend our money is a very blatant and straightforward way to show companies what we think of their actions. With the BDS app Boycat, it is easy to find out what products and companies are complicit and to find alternatives that don’t fund genocide: https://www.boycat.io/

  • Boycott Teva Pharmaceuticals: Tell your pharmacy that you don’t want Teva products—usually there are non-complicit alternatives! https://boycottteva.org 

5. Donate to individuals or specific organizations. Donating is an easy and concrete way to make a real difference—no matter how much you can spare, anything is better than nothing. 

6. Contact Your Representatives: Make sure the people who are meant to represent you know that you won’t stand behind US-backed genocide. There are many tools that can help with messaging and what to say. We recommend the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) tool, which can be found here —https://www.uscpraction.org/action-alerts

7. Join an organization! We are stronger together! DAWA meets every Sunday at 3pm, in person and virtually. Reach out to us via email or Instagram if you are interested in attending a meeting.

8. Write Letters: To children in Gaza or to people detained in ICE facilities. 

9. Learn about the long history of settler-colonialist violence, oppression, and ethnic cleansing committed by the U.S. and Israel against Palestine

Books:

  • The Hundred Years War On Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
  • The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe 
  • The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein
  • We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I by Raja Shehadeh

Films:

  • Al Nakba (2013) Description: “A four-part series produced by Al Jazeera on the history of the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands that led to the first Arab–Israeli war in 1948, and the establishment of the state of Israel.”
  • Apples of the Golan (2012) Description: “Nestled high on a mountainside in the Middle East, a Syrian Druze village has survived under Israeli occupation, while 136 others like it were wiped out. The surviving communities find ways of forging lives enriched with music, dance, and intrigue, despite the ever-present IDF forces.”
  • Tears of Gaza (2010) Description: “Harrowing documentary on the fate of families during and after Israel’s bombing of Gaza in Operation Cast Lead, 2008-2009”
  • For a longer list of recommended films, see here: https://palestinecampaign.org/resources/films-about-palestine/

Other resources:

10. Sign the Anti Genocide Pledge: The Anti-Genocide pledge is a commitment not just in opposition to genocide but also to tangible action, to raising your voice and holding governments, corporations and individuals accountable.  Sign here: https://www.antigenocidepledge.com

11. Show your support! Profits from Wear the Peace‘s Palestine collection go directly to organizations helping on the ground in Gaza. 

For Our Immigrant Neighbors

  • Join the weekly vigil for Jeanette Vizguerra and others at the GEO/ICE Facility in Aurora at 6 pm every Monday. The facility address is 3130 Oakland St, Aurora, CO, 80010.

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