1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

On August 28th, the Israeli military began its largest concerted assault on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, in what Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described (https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallant-idf-mowing-the-lawn-in-west-bank-but-will-need-to-pull-out-the-roots/) as “an attack to prevent terror.” Accompanied by tanks and bulldozers, and backed up by airstrikes, hundreds of troops entered Palestinian cities and towns across the region, including Tulkarem, Tubas, the Al-Faraa refugee camp, and Jenin, which was a central focus of the incursion. Over the next nine days, Israeli soldiers killed 36 Palestinians in the northern West Bank, eight of them children, and injured another 145; 21 of those killed were from Jenin. Under the guise of “destroying terrorist infrastructure,” as one Israeli military official put it, Israel destroyed an estimated 70% (https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/middleeast/israeli-military-operation-jenin-west-bank-enters-second-week-intl/index.html) of the city’s critical infrastructure, including water, sewage, and electricity lines, as well as commercial buildings, medical facilities, and residential areas. This is an illegal, immoral, and ineffectual way to promote justice and peace. These military endeavors are harmful to Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, and Americans as a whole. In order to stop this ethic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide, Israel must be held accountable. We must enact an arms embargo on Israel until they prove they are not breaking international law. And when they are found to be doing so, they must cease and pay reparations as the International Court of Justice recently decided they are obligated to do. I demand justice because only through justice will any of us ever experience true peace. (https://jewishcurrents.org/the-siege-of-jenin)