From Al Jazeera on August 12: Israel killed 1.8 percent of Gaza's total population since October 7 according to official figures. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 24 percent of casualties in the besieged coastal enclave are young people (ages 18-29). About 70 percent of the wounded people in Gaza are women and children while an estimated 10,000 people are missing and two million have been displaced, the bureau said. It added that 620 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank over the same period, 75 percent of whom were below the age of 30. The bureau's figures also showed that 34 people in Gaza have died of malnutrition and about 3,500 children are at risk of death due to food shortages.
President Biden’s administration continues to supply and fund Israel while knowing since October 2023 that Israel has been targeting civilians. On July 11, he approved more 500 pound bombs to supply Israel. This is continued participation in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, erasure of Palestine, and a violation of Leahy Law, which prohibits our government from funding foreign forces who are implicated in gross human rights violations. What will presidential candidate Kamala Harris do?
International scholar and lawyer, Francesca Albanese, has documented how Israel’s gross human rights violations and war crimes are genocidal acts, including their targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers, targeting journalists and civilians, using starvation as a weapon, etc. Israeli government officials have repeatedly expressed genocidal intent. Sites of learning, culture, and historical memory — universities, mosques, churches, museums — have been decimated. The Gaza Strip's ability to produce food and clean water has been severely destroyed by Israeli airstrikes and bulldozers which have razed farms and orchards. People have unearthed mass graves with evidence of torture. As people of conscience, we will not ignore this.
I am demanding you to take immediate steps to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians by calling for 1) a total and permanent bilateral ceasefire, 2) humanitarian aid allowed to enter Gaza, 3) an end to Israel's siege on Gaza, 4) the release of all Palestinian and Israeli hostages, 5) no more weapons or funding to the Israeli military, 6) the reinstatement of U.N.R.W.A funding. A permanent ceasefire is an absolutely critical step to ensuring everlasting liberation and peace.
The I.C.J. ruled that Israel should do everything in its power to prevent genocide. Never again means never again for anyone. Palestinians deserve to live with freedom and safety which means first stopping this genocide and then ensuring liberation from occupation and apartheid. The liberation and safety of Palestinians, Israelis, Jewish people, and Muslim people are intertwined. There can only be true safety when we are all free from oppression.
First sent on August 13 by Alice
