- United States
- Wash.
- Letter
Every day I switch on the news or log onto social media, again I am met with images of despair, distress, and death. Broken buildings, wailing mothers, and terrified children offer an overwhelming testament to the humanitarian crisis taking place on the streets of Gaza and throughout Palestine. A crisis that is deeply connected to American foreign policy choices. The highly reported, deeply unsettling military actions that Israel undertakes are under scrutiny, especially when factoring in that it uses our nation's funding and weapons supplies.
It is with a heavy heart but relentless determination that I plead for an immediate ceasefire. Surely we, as a progressive and empathetic society, cannot stand by as innocent Palestinian civilians endure unspeakable horrors. Indeed, if the roles were reversed it is tough to imagine we would not be calling for an intervention already. Continued funding and ammunition supplies to Israel from our end simply perpetuates a cycle of violence and brutality against innocent civilians that we cannot, in good conscience, allow to persist. This situation is not a faceless, distant problem. It is a humanitarian crisis having severe impacts on the lives of ordinary people, just like you and me.
The situation begs for urgent steps that involve addressing crimes against humanity from all responsible parties. It starts with revoking the persistent infrastructural and arms support to Israel and acknowledging the consequences this support has produced. This letter is not an appeal born out of political bias. Instead, it is a desperate call for mercy, for justice, for reason. Because beyond the divisive politics and entrenched narratives, there are innocent lives hanging in the balance - their survival dependent on the decisions we make today. Their hopes for peace, just like ours, are modest, universal and quintessentially human. Let us not betray those hopes. And may we always be on the side of justice, no matter how difficult or unpopular that position may be.
