1. United States
2. Letter

For too long, we have watched human tragedy unfold before our eyes within the Palestinian borders - the thousands displaced, the children orphaned, the homes and lives irreparably shattered. Its effect has seeped into our lives, marking us, evolving us, for we are not just simple spectators to this global theater of injustice. We are implicated through our silence, our inaction, lured into complacency by the distance between us and the bloodied streets of Gaza. It is no secret that U.S. funding has fortressed the arsenal of the Israeli government and its military, fuelling the engine of discord for years and making the American citizen an accessory to the atrocities committed against the people of Palestine. Our taxes have been increasingly utilized to pour ammunition into the pockets of those who point their guns at unarmed civilians. One must question - how can peace or stability be truly established upon a pile of bodies? How can we stand proud as citizens of the world, offering thoughts and prayers in one moment and guns and ammunition in the next? It is time for change. It is time to cease being the silent contributors to an endless cycle of violence. We must demand an immediate ceasefire and insist upon the cessation of all U.S. financial and material support of Israel's overbearing militarization campaign against the Palestinian people. We must commit ourselves to the abolition of any action that partakes in crimes against humanity, for humanity's sake and for our own moral and ethical sanctity. War breeds war, bloodshed begets bloodshed. In hope for a peaceful, just world, we should not aid the wheels of violence but partake in the construction of bridges - bridges of dialogue, of understanding, diplomacy, and mutual respect.