John,

Two years after October 7, we remember the thousands of Israeli lives lost on that day, and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian lives that have been lost since the Nakba in 1948 and grow higher every day from the ongoing genocide and forced famine in Gaza that has now reached over 200,000 killed—according to IDF officers themselves.

A genocide does not begin overnight; it is primed, prepared, and justified through years of occupation, apartheid, dehumanization, displacement, blockades, and normalization. For decades, the US government has happily aided the Israeli government and military in all of these actions, continuing to send billions of dollars of bombs and weapons to a government well known to be committing atrocities and human rights violations.

It is those decades of enabling—that have continued through the last two years—that have given Israel the green light to commit its genocidal campaign in plain view for the world to see. But working-class communities globally have risen up where their governments have failed: in general strikes, walkouts, work stoppages, protests, and brave flotilla missions to deliver life-saving humanitarian aid to dying and starving Palestinians in spite of almost assured violence, kidnapping, and detention from Israel.

We are proud to support the handful of leaders in Congress who have led the struggle against Israel’s genocide and apartheid long before 2023 and have continued despite pressures from Party leadership, threats from violent extremists, and unlimited spending from AIPAC. Our nation should be ashamed of how small of a minority they are in Congress, and we plan to change that.

As more Americans rise up in protest of leaders whose silence is bought by corrupt, pro-genocide lobbies, the tides are turning against spineless politicians who can’t muster the courage to denounce a genocide or refuse to fund it. AIPAC is no longer the lobby that can protect you from your own voters when you ignore their needs; it’s the reason your voters will vote you out of office.

It was because of the bravery of Justice Democrats' elected officials, who called the genocide what it was before it was politically safe, that took movement demands to the halls of power, forced bought and paid for politicians to grapple with the war crimes they were funding, and helped shift the Party's voters on this issue. There is still more work to be done, but our work and your support ensure that we can continue to build inside and outside the halls of Congress.

Ending this genocide is our elected leaders’ moral imperative as the country most responsible for funding it. And it is our moral imperative as voters, constituents, and everyday people to ensure we only elect leaders with the moral clarity to understand that. And as a broader movement for freedom, justice, and liberation, we can never forget that all of our struggles are interconnected, and each of us has a duty to do more than just vote, but to act, resist, organize, and build the just future we’re fighting for.

The future of Palestinian freedom, self-determination, and statehood is not one led by Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, or Tony Blair — it is one led for and by the Palestinian people, who deserve to have their homes, communities, cities, and nation rebuilt without condition and their liberation finally delivered.

— Team Justice Democrats