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John,
This week, President Biden has been visiting Israel and occupied Palestine—but has stayed silent about U.S-funded war crimes happening there right now.
The Israeli military has begun to forcibly displace over 1,300 Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta—including 500 children. Demolishing schools, homes, and tents, the military is seizing the land claiming it’s for a firing zone, and likely it’s to make way for more illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.1
This forced population replacement is ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism, and it’s pushing families into homelessness.
I’ve joined nearly 90 members of Congress in urging the President to immediately stop the Israeli government’s forced expulsion of Palestinians from the villages of Masafer Yatta.2,3 Many of us have also called for the State Department to launch an independent U.S. investigation into the Israeli military’s recent assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Instead of heeding our calls, the President has chosen to remain silent about the Israeli government’s human rights violations.
As the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, I have been pushing Congress and the Biden administration to support Palestinian demands for freedom and to stop Israeli war crimes.
Our momentum is growing: More and more members of the Democratic Party are willing to speak up and challenge Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. I’m proud to be part of this shift, and I’m committed to keeping the spotlight and the pressure on until Palestinians can live freely.
Can you chip in today so I can keep up my outspoken advocacy for Palestinian rights—and all human rights—in Congress?
I’m the proud daughter of Palestinian immigrants and the granddaughter of a loving Palestinian grandmother who’s still living in occupied Palestine. I remember going through checkpoints with my grandmother as the Israeli military interrogated and segregated her, simply for trying to seek services such as healthcare.
For decades, the Israeli military has controlled and restricted Palestinians’ movement, as well as Palestinians’ access to medical supplies and resources like water and electricity. Refugees have also been living in exile, denied the internationally-recognized legal right of return to their homes.
Ahead of President Biden’s visit, the Israeli human rights organization group B’Tselem hung banners declaring: “Mr. President: This is Apartheid.”
As one B’Tselem activist said: “We hold the American administration responsible for supporting the Israeli apartheid regime. The United States of America, as a democratic country, should push for an end to this system.”4
Every year, the U.S. government sends billions of our tax dollars in military aid to Israel—with no conditions or accountability. Our government is a complicit enabler of Israel’s ongoing oppression and occupation.
It’s time to condition U.S. military aid to Israel on ending the occupation, human rights abuses, and war crimes. If those conditions are not followed, we must end the aid altogether.
I am a justice-seeker who fights against oppressions of all forms, and I’m not backing down. Our struggles for justice and human rights are interconnected.
Will you chip in $5 or more to my re-election campaign so I can keep fighting for human rights and dignity for all of us, including Palestinians?
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately:
My Sity Muftieh and all Palestinians deserve to be safe and live with human dignity.
Thank you so much for being by my side and in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Onward, until we are all free!
- Rashida
1 https://www.972mag.com/israel-military-demolitions-masafer-yatta/
2 https://jewishcurrents.org/progressive-lawmakers-demand-stop-to-israeli-war-crime-in-masafer-yatta
3 https://www.ifnotnowmovement.org/biden-masaferyatta
4 https://www.democracynow.org/2022/7/14/israel_welcomes_biden_summer_2022_trip
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