1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Please stop funding this. Israel has created hundreds of thousands of trauma patients, while simultaneously destroying Gaza’s medical system. This is cruelty beyond the pale. Nine in every 10 people in Gaza are internally displaced. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor accused Israeli forces of “widespread massacres” in Gaza City, saying it has received reports from its field teams of soldiers executing “dozens, possibly hundreds, of victims.” The Lancet medical journal conservatively estimates that Israel has killed at least 186,000 Palestinian people—about 8% of the Gaza population—directly or indirectly as part of this genocide. It is clear – that for your office – Israeli lives are worth exponentially more than those of Palestinians. This is racism. Israel has lost a small number of citizens in comparison, only 1,200 people. Oct 7 was tragic but it is time to confront the fact that Palestinians have, for decades, tried every possible avenue to shake off Israeli oppression, an unrelenting, violent colonizer. The tragedy of Oct 7 was going to happen sooner or later. Israel’s response to Oct 7 has not been governed by the rules of proportionality in war. Instead its response has been genocidal in proportions, and Netanyahu has weaponized food, water, electricity, medicine, and fuel. “Many households report having only one meal every day, with some having one meal every two or three days,” a recent OCHA report states. Israeli-imposed constraints continue to “severely undermine the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance and services across Gaza, including the delivery of food and nutrition assistance, medical care, protection and shelter support, and water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH] services to hundreds of thousands of people,” the OCHA report adds. “Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been plunged into an abyss of suffering. Their home life shattered, their lives upended. The war has not merely created the most profound of humanitarian crises. It has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery,” said Sigrid Kaag, UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator. It’s completely unconscionable that U.S. politicians keep funneling billions to Israel for the mass murder of Palestinian families. Fund care, not killing! You could be funding care for our communities, like housing and healthcare, but instead you choose to arm genocide. End this genocide now! Thank you, Leah