Green Bay's "Punks for Palestine" Raises Money for Gaza, Third Year Running

Green Bay's DIY punk scene turned out again Sunday for the third annual Punks for Palestine benefit show, packing into the Green Bay UFO Museum Gift Shop and Records to raise money headed to Gaza. By the time the last band packed up its gear, the show had pulled in enough to cover 122 pounds of it.

The GBUFO isn't just a record shop with a name that never quite explains itself. It's become one of the more reliable all-ages venues on Green Bay's east side since former Exclusive Company staff opened it in 2022,¹ and it's hosted plenty of shows built around a cause instead of a cover charge, including a past all-ages bill where the price of admission was a donation to Planned Parenthood.² Sunday's show fits that same pattern, just with a recipient about six thousand miles away.

"Punks for Palestine" has become a loose name DIY scenes across the country have picked up independently of each other since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, benefit shows organized by whichever local promoter figured a mosh pit could double as a fundraiser.³ Three years in, Green Bay's version has become as much a fixture of the city's small circuit as the venue hosting it.

Flour carries more weight in Gaza than the price tag suggests. In February 2024, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians gathered around an aid convoy on al-Rashid Street, killing at least 118 people and wounding more than 760 while they tried to get food, an incident that's been called the Flour Massacre ever since.⁴ More than a year after an October 2025 ceasefire eased the worst of it, the hunger crisis in Gaza hasn't gone away. As of July, roughly two-thirds of the population, more than 1.4 million people, was still living with crisis-level food insecurity or worse, according to the latest UN-backed assessment.⁵