The Electronic Intifada Podcast 30 September 2025
Military cargo is flowing through the commercial Oakland Airport to the genocidal Israeli army, PYM says, concealed from the people of Oakland, their union members, their city officials and their educators.
Since January 2025, the report states, at least 280 military cargo shipments to Israel have been identified departing from Oakland Airport, with Nevatim Airbase being the primary final destination.
These shipments have occurred multiple times per week for nearly the entirety of 2025, and have included F-35 fighter jet components “used to carry and release munitions, guide weapons, power surveillance and targeting systems, and support critical flight operations – all essential to sustaining the combat readiness of Israel’s Air Force,” the report states.
The frequency of these shipments, particularly when compared to other US airports, positions Oakland Airport as one of the few consistently active logistical nodes in the US military supply chain to Nevatim Airbase.
As part of the growing momentum sparked by PYM’s Mask Off Maersk campaign, which has been tracking the Danish multinational shipping company’s role in supplying Israel with weapons parts and components, researchers wanted to understand the larger supply chain that supports and abets Israel’s genocide in Gaza – which led them to look at Oakland Airport in particular.
“We started to track planes, knowing that there are particular types of materials that actually are flown; that cannot be shipped or cannot be traveling long distances by train,” Nadya Tannous of the Palestinian Youth Movement tells The Electronic Intifada Podcast.
“And as we started to look more closely, we realized that actually not only is Oakland a facet of the F-35 supply chain, it’s actually a key node to the F-35 supply chain.”
Tannous says that the research team were shocked to learn that the Bay Area, which touts itself as a progressive region, “actually has been complicit in the genocide all this time, using our civilian infrastructure to support the massacres of our people in Gaza by supplying components to one of the deadliest and most expensive weapons on the market today, which is the F-35.”
She points out that these air cargo shipments from Oakland are being facilitated by the global shipping company FedEx.
The Oakland People’s Arms Embargo Coalition recently held a press conference and rally at Oakland International Airport to demonstrate widespread opposition to military shipments flying out of Oakland to the state of Israel, and to urge local decision makers to implement an arms embargo to stop further shipments.Monadel Herzallah of the US Palestinian Community Network and the Oakland People’s Arms Embargo Coalition says that at least 46 members of his family have been killed by Israel in Gaza, using US-made weapons.
He told The Electronic Intifada Podcast that even though this Oakland-based arms embargo campaign is nascent, there is clear potential for its success.
“The last two years have revived an anti-colonial and anti-racist, anti-imperialist struggle not only in Oakland, but all over the world, [while] forces of empire do everything they can to re-establish the status quo and reverse the revolutionary tides that have swept the globe,” he said.
“And we see that not only is Oakland changing, California is changing, the United States is changing. The world is changing. The resolve of the people only grows stronger and stronger.”
Watch the video above, or listen to the episode via SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Produced by Tamara Nassar
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