Contact Congress in support of this resolution:

Reps. Bush, Tlaib, Carson, Lee, Ramirez Lead Colleagues in Call for Immediate Ceasefire 

• Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
• Message your Senators and Representatives

The atrocities committed by Hamas and Israel in the past nine days will continue to escalate unless something drastic changes. Both entities have committed egregious attacks on civilians. However, there were no beheadings done by Hamas, as was falsely claimed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. As of this writing, the New York Times reports 2,670 Palestinians have been killed in reprisal for the October 7 Hamas attacks, and 9,600 wounded. Twice as many Palestinians have died in this hideous conflict as Israelis. Where does the killing stop?  

The Israeli occupation, past, and current invasion and siege of Gaza, Palestine can be defined as genocide. Professor Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish legal scholar first used the term in 1945, in Genocide: A Modern Crime. He writes: “Genocide does not necessarily signify mass killing. More often it refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight.” 

One ‘drastic change’ that should occur is for the U.S. comply with international law and cease arming Israel. Short of that pipe dream, the U.S. should strongly compel Israel to end its brutal and enhanced siege of Gaza’s 2.1 million people, nearly half of whom are children.  

MORE ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE: Our friends at Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow have a good grassroots operation going with protests and phone banks to support the protests. Phonebanks make it possible for everyone to participate across the country. I’m sure some of you are participating in this and other grassroots activities. While these are “Jewish-led” events everyone opposed to the siege, bombing and ethnic cleansing in Gaza can participate.  A list of phonebanks and protests is here. A centerpiece is a week of actions in Washington DC including events on today and a Capitol Hill protest on Wednesday.