Ceasefire in Gaza Now
It’s taken me way too long to post this, and to our followers who’ve been waiting for a statement from me: I am sorry for my delay. I wanted to confirm that my writers felt safe with my posting about this, given the news that people, especially college students, are being targeted for taking a stance on the genocide happening in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire.
Admittedly, I have also been paralyzed with horror at what’s been happening the last month. It’s been challenging to find the right words after seeing such atrocities take place.
Moreover, I am just one person with a limited, surface-level understanding of the history of this conflict, and I want to be as sincere, respectful, nuanced, and objective as possible when talking about this, so it’s taken me a little while to finish writing this. What started as an intended short post turned into an entire piece. I couldn’t stop writing or thinking about everything.
I had to say something because being silent is being complicit.
Why a Ceasefire Must Be Called
Thousands of Palestinian civilians, mostly children, have been killed in horrific bombings, including in hospitals and refugee camps. Entire families have been wiped out. Gaza is becoming a mass grave, as the men, women, and children living there are being massacred unrelentingly by the Israeli government in an active genocide.
The Israeli government has shut off power, water, gas, fuel, and internet to Gaza, putting them in the dark and starving people to death over the past few weeks while also depriving them of medicine and humanitarian aid. They have told people with nowhere to go to leave Gaza at risk of being killed, despite having no way of going anywhere or even receiving the message to evacuate with communications and power down.
Refugees are being told where safe passages are and then being bombed while trying to escape Gaza, as they’ve been instructed. In addition, much of the humanitarian aid that has been allowed into Gaza has then been destroyed by airstrikes.
Obligatory Disclaimer About the Crisis
I want to make it as clear as possible: I acknowledge that Israel is responding to the horrendous terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7th, and I recognize the need to respond to it and rescue the people taken hostage by Hamas. And I acknowledge and mourn the deaths of Israeli citizens killed and those injured in attacks by Hamas.
What Hamas has done is inexcusable, and I am in no way suggesting Hamas be allowed to continue its attacks or be excused or forgiven. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that.
I am also very aware, disgusted, and heartbroken over the reports of the legitimate rise in antisemitism hate crimes against Jewish people around the world these past few weeks, just as I am over the rise in Islamophobia also happening.
This entire situation has brought out the worst in people and the worst types of people.
Where is the Line Drawn Between Defense and Offense?
All that said, we also must acknowledge that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned of the impending October 7 attacks before they happened and did nothing to stop them. Through this inaction, whether from negligence or on purpose, Netanyahu let Israeli citizens die and be taken hostage by Hamas. And, in their response to those attacks, which they did not stop from happening, Israel has killed an astoundingly disproportionate amount of Palestinian citizens while claiming to target Hamas.
Yes, a country has a right to defend itself, but where is the line at what is defined as defense? Over 1,400 Israeli citizens have been killed in the past month from the attacks by Hamas and even from Israeli airstrikes. This is a tragic and unnecessary loss of life. And it is just as tragic and unnecessary that in response to Hamas’ attacks, Israel has killed almost 11,000 Palestinian people to date, nearly half of whom were children. Journalists, humanitarian aid workers, and medics have been killed. Again, this is just in the past several weeks since the attack on October 7th. To add perspective, more people have been killed in Palestine over the past month than the number of people who’ve died in Russia’s war against Ukraine since it began almost two years ago.
How exactly does killing children, civilians, aid workers, and other innocent people defend Israel or protect Israeli citizens? The answer is that it doesn’t. If you can justify killing innocent people, especially children, you’ve lost the plot and your humanity.
Using War as a Justification for Genocide
For the sake of not making a long post even longer, I will not get into how Hamas as a group and the terrorist attack they carried out on the 7th do not exist in a vacuum as they are ultimately a result of decades-long oppression by the Israeli government against Palestinian people. There are so many more researched people out there who have spoken about the history of this crisis and will be much more nuanced about it than I ever will be. If you need a starting point, look up the term Nakba to learn about the history of the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians by Israel.
Again, I’m in no way excusing Hamas or their actions, but this didn’t just happen out of nowhere. It is just the reality of the situation. It is not as black and white as it’s being presented.
Under the argument that “this is war,” the Israeli government has shown no remorse for killing innocent children or other people, even bombing multiple hospitals and refugee camps, claiming to target Hamas. It feels like that argument is being used as a justification to wipe out all of Gaza and all the Palestinian people living there, even to the extent that they have actually killed some of the people that Hamas took hostage. (Moreover, Netanyahu also reportedly rejected negotiations with Hamas recently to release hostages in exchange for a 5-day ceasefire. If the goal is to rescue hostages, why wouldn’t they negotiate to save them?)
In response to these airstrikes they’ve carried out on hospitals and refugee camps, the Israeli government has said that Hamas is using people as human shields within these hospitals and refugee camps.
Whether or not that is the case, if the answer is to bomb people indiscriminately in hopes you’re killing Hamas hiding within, not caring who you kill in the process (including the people you’re supposed to rescue), then I cannot accept that reasoning. That is a war crime.
To argue that all Palestinians are the same as Hamas or that all people calling for a ceasefire are antisemitic or supporting terrorists is beyond all common sense. Especially considering that many Israeli citizens and Jewish people around the world have also called for a ceasefire and are demanding that this attack not be carried out in their name. Many are also calling for Netanyahu to resign. UN experts have warned of a ‘Grave risk of genocide’ in Gaza and that both Israel and Hamas are committing war crimes. Yet the Israeli government is targeting Israeli citizens, repressing them for speaking out, and cracking down on internal dissent.
Is the world going to accept the justification for defense and allow war crimes to continue? To allow children to be slaughtered? Are we going to excuse a genocide?
Our Government’s Response to the Crisis and Response to Calls for a Ceasefire
A Parallel of the Post-9/11 Era
There is much about this crisis that is similar to our country’s response to the attack on 9/11. But more specifically, how did it turn out in Iraq or Afghanistan (or anywhere else in the Middle East), where our country indiscriminately bombed places and killed civilians while our government claimed to be targeting terrorists?
Those were also war crimes, just like the war crimes happening right now in Gaza. But, instead of seeing bits and pieces of it over many years, we’re watching it on live television in a matter of weeks.
And even though America isn’t the one bombing Gaza (yet), it’s our weapons being used and our money being sent to pay for an active genocide. Biden just requested another $14 billion in funding to send to Israel. If passed, nearly $20 billion will have been sent to Israel just in the past month alone.
We are told we don’t have money for health care, education, housing, or anything beneficial for our citizens. Yet, we ALWAYS have money for war, defense contractors, and supporting genocide in other parts of the world.
We cannot accept this.
Silencing People for Speaking Out While Ignoring Real Antisemitism
This is an ethnic cleansing happening on live television, and we’re spending more energy on going after people calling for a ceasefire than we are trying to stop a literal genocide from happening. What’s even more worrying is that simply calling out what’s happening is automatically said to be antisemitism or supporting terrorists. This leaves no room for objective discussion about the situation.
This is about the Israeli government’s actions and not Jewish people as a whole. It is not antisemitic to criticize a government’s actions. And calling someone antisemitic for demanding a humanitarian ceasefire, for any criticism of what’s happening, or for criticizing the Israeli government degrades the seriousness of legitimate antisemitic hate that’s happening. And it especially ignores the experience of living in this country for the past few years.
All of a sudden, this administration and politicians are concerned about antisemitism. The House of Representatives, including 22 Democrats, just censured the only Palestinian-American lawmaker, Rashida Tlaib, for speaking out against what’s happening to her people, saying she was “promoting false narratives.” Moreover, the government is going after colleges where student groups are calling for a ceasefire and calling out this genocide, claiming those students are supporting terrorism. Republican presidential candidates at this week’s debate basically called for the extermination of Palestine, for Gaza to be leveled, and for international students to have their visas revoked if they show support for Palestine. Republicans in Congress want to expel Palestinian-Americans from the country and ban Palestinian refugees from entering.
The Hypocrisy of the Government’s Response to Antisemitism
Yet, in places like Florida, literal Nazis have been marching down the street for the last few years, waving Nazi flags and calling for the death of all Jewish people. This happened this summer right in front of Disney World. Back in 2017, we had neo-Nazis carrying tiki torches and chanting antisemitic hate in Charlottesville, Virginia. An FBI document reported in 2020 that white supremacist groups have infiltrated US law enforcement agencies in every region of the country over the last two decades.
Where was the swift and strong response from the government about that, or any other blatant display of antisemitism or hate crimes committed over the past several years? Where were the censures for representatives excusing legitimate antisemitism or those supported by neo-Nazi groups? These groups have been seen carrying 2024 campaign flags for Trump and Ron DeSantis, yet when these politicians don’t explicitly condemn the support of hate groups, nothing is done about it.
No, it’s the people exercising their First Amendment rights who are calling out a genocide that our government is complicit in providing weapons to wipe Gaza off the face of the earth who are the problem and must be stopped, not the literal Nazis who’ve been marching in our streets. *hopefully, obvious sarcasm*
The government only appears to care about antisemitism when money and profit are involved. And the fact that people don’t see this blatant hypocrisy and lack of accountability worries me.
We Must Act Now to Save Lives; Ceasefire NOW
Every facet of this horrendous situation has been sickening to watch, and to see so much evil and hatred happening is devastating.
A group of Palestinian children just held a press conference outside of a hospital to beg for their lives and plead not to be killed, saying they want to live. Their water supply has been poisoned. Their food and medicine are being destroyed. White phosphorus, which is illegal to use on civilian populations, is reportedly being used in Gaza (and Lebanon) by the Israeli government. And then to hear that a minister in the Israeli government was just suspended for “jokingly” suggesting they nuke Gaza is horrifying. It’s a relief that he was disciplined for that, but it’s still alarming that it was ever brought up in the first place. And given the fact that our country is giving billions of tax dollars to fund all this, to fund an active genocide and target anyone who dares to question that is all the more alarming.
This has to end. Today’s victims could have been yesterday’s ceasefire.
The world cannot continue to stand by and watch this happen. Israel must stop this relentless attack on Gaza, and Netanyahu and his government must answer for their blatant war crimes against the Palestinian people. I acknowledge the need to stop Hamas and stop the violence they’ve carried out; there is no argument there. But, a solution must be made to rescue the hostages and stop Hamas without killing any more innocent people in the process.
But, if the solution is to wholly level Gaza to the ground with no regard to humanitarian law and actively carry out genocide in the process, then that is not something that can be allowed. And it is not something I will stand by or be quiet about.
There must be a ceasefire now.
Resources
If you want to take action and add your voice to the call for a ceasefire, check out CeaseFireToday.com to find protests, donate, email Congress/contact your representatives to demand a ceasefire, and more.
For Nevada residents, one of our House Representatives, Susie Lee, is one of the 22 Democrats who voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib. Consider calling or emailing her office to tell her how you feel about that.
Besides that, please stay informed, nuanced, and vigilant in all of this. The amount of misinformation and disinformation is endless right now, which is part of why it took me this long to prepare all of this. Talk to your friends, families, and neighbors about what’s happening and help foster objective discourse about the situation.
Watch out for bias or propaganda in news reports, be mindful of the words chosen to describe what is happening (especially outlets automatically equating all Palestinians with Hamas), and be wary of the images you see if they’re not verified. There are reports that Adobe is selling AI-generated images of the crisis in Gaza, and news outlets are using these images without mentioning they’re not real photos, which is worrisome, especially from a journalistic standpoint.
And above all, please do not lose your humanity. To see people excusing or outright calling for genocide is soul-crushing. It can be easy to give into the fear, anger, grief, and any other heavy emotions this situation makes us feel, for better or worse. Those emotions are important, as they motivate us to act but can also lead us to despair. Just do what you feel is in your ability, keep speaking up and talking about what’s happening, and never give up hope. You can make a difference.
Thank you for reading.
