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.