Dear Progressive Reader,

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented to Congress a National Security Memorandum (NSM-20) that examined the use of United States military aid by Israel in its conduct of the war on Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas. The report states that “[G]iven Israel’s significant reliance on U.S.-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL [International Humanitarian Law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.” While falling short of calling for a cessation of military aid, the report is being viewed as a strong rebuke of Israel’s aggressive actions toward the civilian population of Gaza—particularly as a full scale military invasion of Rafah is being prepared. In an interview on Wednesday (preceding the report’s release) President Joe Biden told CNN that he planned to halt some shipments of weapons to Israel “if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.” In spite of the critiques in the report, Israel remains the largest recipient of U.S. military aid as compared with all other nations. While Biden has paused the shipment of 3,500 bombs this week, according to The Washington Post, Israel dropped 22,000 U.S.-provided bombs on Gaza in just the first six weeks of the conflict. With a death toll of more than 34,000, voices across the country continue to call for an end to the shipment of offensive weapons to fuel this war.

Kathy Kelly writes this week for our website about the lessons we can learn from student protesters who are seeking to raise awareness of the human costs of this military funding, and the corporations that are profiting from it. “With thousands of innocent lives in the balance,” she says, “promoters of peace should take advantage of this crucial opportunity to follow the young people, learning alongside the students whose hunger for humanity reveals stunning courage.” Meanwhile, cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates the tactics being used by institutions and politicians to suppress those protests. Plus, Michelle Chen shares an interview she did with Muang Zarni, an activist for human rights in Burma, who looks at how the Genocide Convention is differentially applied based on the influence of powerful nations. And Mary Jo McConahay reports from a trial in Guatemala where the military assistance provided by Israel to Guatemala’s military in the 1980s is being revealed.

Also on our website this week, Mike Ervin looks at the issue of accessibility in churches that are also polling places; Jeff Abbott describes a “glimmer of hope” for Guatemala’s labor movement; and Lynne Archibald and Hannah Reynolds Martinez write about efforts at Princeton University to divest from fossil fuels—in particular in the funding of research on climate!

I had the honor of appearing on a radio program on Friday, hosted by Santita Jackson, daughter of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, together with other activists and journalists to talk about the continued pressure being placed on the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party around support for the war in Gaza—pressure and protest that is expected to impact the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next August.

Also, tomorrow is Mother’s Day, a holiday that has a strong history in the call for the abolition of wars. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe (author of the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) worked to establish a “Mother’s Peace Day” in Boston, Massachusetts, writing: “Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” May those words be a lesson for our world today.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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