1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

CONGRESS I have watched in silenced horror as our tax dollars fund atrocious acts of violence against innocents in Palestine. Images of torn bodies and broken homes weigh heavy on my heart. Families are shattered by the shells raining from the skies, forcibly uprooting them from their land. This isn't defense or protection – this is a systematic extinction, strongly bolstered by U.S. financial support for Israel's incessant onslaught on Palestinian civilians. The same money that could be spent on healthcare, education, and building our crumbling infrastructures is being funneled into a ceaseless cycle of brutality that is nothing less than a crime against humanity. As an ordinary citizen and a taxpayer, I am appalled and distressed about our country's implicit involvement in this misery, complicit through our regular supply of arms to Israel. There are clear rules of engagement in warfare, delineated by international law. By funding such actions, we are permitting – no, endorsing – the transgression of these edicts enacted to protect the most vulnerable among us, and the civilian loss of life in Palestine is utterly unacceptable. It doesn't sit right with me that we advance democracy and human rights abroad when the resources we provide service an engine of war, devastation, and inhumane treatment. The current crisis must end, beginning with an immediate and sustained ceasefire. It is beyond time for the U.S. to cease all military aid to Israel until its grievous human rights violations cease. Our feigned obliviousness to this bloodshed and our continuation to bankroll such actions is in absolute discordance with our national ethos, one supposedly based on freedom, justice, and above all, value for human life. The blood of innocent Palestinians cries out for attention - let it not be ignored any longer.