186,000 Dead and You Have the Power to Stop It

The Lancet, the world's oldest and highest-impact medical journal, reports at least 186,000 dead in Palestine. (Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee, Salim Yusuf. "Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential." https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01169-3. July 5, 2024.) Yet, despite this figure, the House of Representatives passed Representative Moskowitz's Amendment to the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2025 H.R. 8771 H.Amdt.1052, which prohibits the State Department from citing statistics obtained from the Gaza health officials. Mariam Mohammed Al Khateeb, a poet from Gaza, writes about the "Luxury of Death" missing in Gaza: "[n]o one dies complete. After a missile strike, everyone searches in the debris to put their loved ones back together. Mothers search for their children's heads to match with their bodies. To be a good mother in the rest of the world is to feed your children good food and keep them warm, but to be a good mother in Gaza is to bury your children whole." Every single one of those deaths belonged to a person with a story. The graphic photos and videos are a disservice to their memory, but we are forced to witness these deaths anyway as our tax dollars continue to fund Israel's onslaught against the people of Palestine. It goes beyond so-called self-defense. We have received testimonies from Palestinian hostages that the Israeli forces used torture techniques, including electric shocks, brutal beatings, sexual assault, and medical neglect. (Patrick Kingsley and Bilal Shbair. "Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans."  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-detention-base.html. June 6, 2024.) It is unconscionable that we are bankrolling this genocide, with the latest legislation approved for another $17 billion to Israel and shipments totaling at least $6.5 billion. (Karen DeYoung. "U.S. war aid of $6.5 billion discussed during ‘productive’ Gallant visit." https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/06/26/gallant-israel-military-assistance-us/. June 26, 2024.) Every day you fail to act is another Palestinian murdered. Their blood all but stains your hands. Just on July 7 alone, 55 Palestinians were killed, including 3 Palestinian hostages executed upon their release to Gaza near Kareem Abu Salem crossing -- their bodies found with hands cuffed. Even the West Bank isn't free from prosecution or attack, with 104 Palestinians abducted on that same day. These are just the figures we know -- that the House of Representatives voted to ignore -- and many more can and will continue to die if you remain complicit in Israel's actions. Please (1) demand a permanent ceasefire immediately, (2) refuse and revoke all funds and weapons going to Israel, (3) demand humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza, including medical supplies and baby formula, and (4) disinvite Netanyahu’s invitation to speak to Congress on July 24th.