John,

As we all watch the unfolding events in Palestine and Israel with grief, we want to start by sending our most heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of the Israeli and Palestinian people who have been murdered, attacked, and injured this weekend. Over 1,600 people in Israel and at least 765 people in Gaza have been killed by this violence — an overwhelming amount being innocent civilians.

Now is the time for our leaders in Congress to be clear-eyed about our moral values and belief in the equal application of human rights laws to all Palestinians and Israelis suffering right now. No civilian’s life is more precious than another’s and our shared goal should be towards a path of peace and liberation for all people there.

 

This did not just begin this weekend — it is a direct result of decades of Israeli military apartheid rule that has occupied the West Bank and turned Gaza into an open-air prison where Palestinians rarely have access to clean water, food, or electricity as a result of the Israeli military’s air, sea, and land blockades. Since the ascension of Israel’s most extreme right-wing government over the last year, the atrocities against the Palestinians, expansion of illegal settlements and settler violence, and calls from Israeli government officials for genocide have been overwhelming — yet met with silence from countries like ours.

The United States’ complicity in the Israeli government and military’s decades of human rights abuses and international law violations cannot be understated. As long as we continue sending blank checks to the Israeli military, without any conditions, we are greenlighting the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. We are proud of the courageous leaders we have sent to Congress who remain unflinching in their dedication to peace and justice in the region, and are unwavering in their calls to hold the fascist right-wing government of Israel accountable for their continued occupation and apartheid.

As the White House and Congress have already begun warning us of their intention to escalate this militarily with further funding for the Israeli military, we call on all progressive leaders to denounce knee-jerk militarism that will only lead to more civilian deaths and greenlight the extremist Israeli government’s desire to collectively punish all Palestinians for the actions of Hamas and turn Gaza into a “deserted island.”

We know that a path towards peace does not begin with funding further military violence and the occupation that triggered these tragedies. We urge a de-escalation and an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine that provoked these attacks.

Now is the time to remember the lessons of the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and call for diplomatic action and an end to US-funded military violence — for the sake of all Palestinians and Israelis.

In this together,

Justice Democrats