Tag: genocide

Open Letter from American Medical Professionals Who Served in Gaza

October 2, 2024

Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,

We are 99 American physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, nurses, and midwives who have volunteered in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. Combined, we spent 254 weeks volunteering in Gaza’s hospitals and clinics. We worked with various nongovernmental organizations and the World Health Organization in hospitals and clinics throughout the Strip. In addition to our medical and surgical expertise, many of us have a public health background, as well as experience working in humanitarian and conflict zones, including Ukraine during the brutal Russian invasion. Some of us are veterans and reservists. We are a multifaith and multiethnic group. None of us support the horrors committed on October 7 by Palestinian armed groups and individuals in Israel. …

…[T]he human toll in Gaza since October is far higher than is understood in the United States. It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population.

Our government must act immediately to prevent an even worse catastrophe than what has already befallen the people of Gaza and Israel. A ceasefire must be imposed on the warring parties by withholding military support for Israel and supporting an international arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. We believe our government is obligated to do this, both under American law and International Humanitarian Law. We also believe it is the right thing to do.

Read the letter in its entirety here: https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024

Marking One Full Year of Genocide and Escalating Violence Across the Region, New Haven Jews Call for the US to Stop Arming Israel

by Jewish Voice for Peace

During the Jewish High Holidays, 50 New Haven Jewish community members gathered for a public ritual action, mourning the dead, fighting for the living, and demanding that the U.S. stop arming Israel.
October 7, 2024 — …Today New Haven Jews and other community members gathered to perform a tashlich ritual action, casting off support for the Israeli military.

Dressed in traditional white, New Haven Jews and community members sang niggunim [Ashkenazi religious songs], read poetry by Mosab Abu Toha and Rabbi Brant Rosen, participated in a communal casting ritual, and called for the U.S. government to stop arming Israel. They carried a banner that said, “Mourn the dead, fight for the living. Stop Arming Israel.” The message was clear: we must turn our grief into action…

Every life taken in the past year — Palestinian, Lebanese, Israeli — every parent, child, grandchild that was killed in the past year was someone else’s entire world. At Jewish Voice for Peace our commitment to Palestinian liberation is grounded in our belief that every human must have the right to live in safety and freedom. The Jewish tradition teaches us that the preservation of life, pikuach nefesh, is the single most important commandment. For decades, the Israeli government has exploited and distorted our thousands-of-years-old Jewish tradition to justify the occupation, war crimes, and mass slaughter of a 76-year-old apartheid state…

The Israeli military has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, including more than 15,000 children. We know the numbers are likely much higher.

The U.S. government is actively enabling the Israeli government’s genocidal campaign… in direct violation of international laws…

The action concluded in a call to demand that Senator Chris Murphy vote yes on the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by his colleagues Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Peter Welch, and Senator Jeff Merkley. The Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, which cite U.S. and international law, would block $20 billion in weapons to Israel approved by the Biden administration.

Korea: Don’t Let Trump Normalize Genocide

by Stanley Heller, PEP

At a meeting in early August President Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” He was worse at the U.N. this week. There talking about the U.S. he said, “if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” Totally destroy? A country has a right to defend itself from an actual attack, but not to wipe out the entire nation of the offending government. That’s the immense crime of genocide. Trump threatened genocide and the corporate media just blandly reported it. The politicians were deafeningly silent.

photo: CodePink

photo: CodePink

There seems to be no limit to what crimes you can threaten in this brutal world. Talking about North Korean Supreme Leader Kim this month, John McCain said “If he acts in an aggressive fashion, the price will be extinction.”

For its part (if corporate media translators are to be believed) Kim’s government uses similar language to make monstrous threats. In April his Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Han threatened a “pre-emptive” nuclear attack if North Korea felt it was going to be attacked. In July a spokesperson said if there was the “slightest hint” that the U.S. was trying to remove Kim there would be a “merciless blow in the heart of the U.S.” with our “powerful nuclear hammer.”

The difference, of course, is that while North Korea is developing a nuclear force, the U.S. could actually annihilate North Korea right now.

The U.S. public is quiet, either buying Trump’s line or acting as if both side were just blowhards who would never dare to go through with their warnings. Yet even if Trump and Kim don’t really want nuclear war things have a habit of getting out of hand. People get angry, accidents happen, mistakes are made and … The point is not to get hysterical and start a nuclear war.

Read the whole article at peacenews.org.