March 21, 2024
Palestinian Mother’s Day Events on Library Mall

Join MRSCP and Students for Justice in Palestine this Thursday on Palestinian Mother’s Day to commemorate the mothers and children martyred in Gaza. 

We will have art installations at Library Mall, handout flyers, and a vigil at 3pm.

We are in great need of volunteers, especially for the 2-4pm mobile installation slot, so please consider signing up to help.

ANTI-WAR PROTEST VOTE CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES IN WISCONSIN

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.

Sandra Whitehead, Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Mar 19, 2024

Protesters at President Joe Biden’s visit to Milwaukee last week carried a 20-foot banner promoting the “Uninstructed Vote.” All Photos by Kamal Moon

An anti-war protest vote campaign to bring a ceasefire in Gaza launches today in Wisconsin. On the first day of early voting, citizens are urged to vote “uninstructed” in the primary election.

Voting “uninstructed” (meaning basically “for no one”) sends a message to the Biden administration that its support of the Israeli military’s “genocide in Gaza is unacceptable,” explained Halah Ahmad, who is managing communications for Listen to Wisconsin, the grassroots group promoting the Wisconsin Uninstructed campaign.

(“Uninstructed” is the term used in Wisconsin; some states use the term “uncommitted.” And not all states have this option on their ballots.)

Wisconsin’s late presidential primary means President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have already secured enough delegates to be their parties’ nominees in November. However, the primary election is an ideal time “to show that we’re really serious about the White House taking action now to stop the violence in Gaza,” Ahmad told the Wisconsin Muslim Journal in an interview Friday.

“We are one of the states that often determines the presidential election, and by a narrow margin,” she said. “A majority of Americans have been calling for a ceasefire for months and haven’t been heard. This campaign is driven by people who are using democracy to make their demands heard. People feel encouraged to have that option.

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“We are focused on immediate policy impact. We want the White House to take action right now to stop the violence in Gaza,” Ahmad said. However, how people vote in November may depend on what the Biden administration does between now and then. “Our hope is that by pressuring Biden in the primary, we can change his position on the war to align with the vast majority of voters who want a ceasefire.”

At a press conference this morning in front of Milwaukee’s City Hall, Listen to Wisconsin community leaders listed their demands:

  • An immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza
  • An end to the siege of Gaza
  • Reinstate humanitarian aid and UNRWA funding
  • End unrestricted aid to Israel

They were joined by the lead organizer from Minnesota, where they secured 45,000 uncommitted votes in its primary. Also attending were Janan Najeeb of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine and Wisconsin Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) an outspoken critic of the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza.

Adding her voice, Wisconsin State Representative Francesa Hong said in a press release, “The truth is, many of my constituents have felt appalled and betrayed by our government and the Democratic Party on the issue of Gaza. For most Americans, a permanent ceasefire now is an uncontroversial demand and is a matter of humanity. Additionally, ending military aid to Israel is required by law through the Foreign Assistance Act as Israel continues to impede vital aid shipments, including our own, to a starving population in Gaza that has lost over 30,000 people, primarily women and children.

“We as electeds have an obligation to listen to voters, not the other way around,” Hong continued. “I support voters’ efforts to make their policy demands on Gaza heard by voting Uninstructed in the Democratic Presidential Primary. As a proud American who celebrates our democracy, I stand behind Wisconsinites who want to use the democratic process to protest this ongoing genocide.”

Early in-person voting in Wisconsin begins today and runs through March 31, but could end earlier in some communities. Hours and locations also vary by community.

The 11 a.m. press conference was live-streamed on Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Paletstine Instagram. A recording is available on the account.

Listen to Wisconsin campaign strategy

Listen to Wisconsin “calls for an end to the ongoing genocide” that has killed over 31,000 Palestinians in Gaza, “aided and abetted by the Biden administration,” a press release stated. To do so, the multi-faith, multi-generational movement aims to persuade 20,000 discontented voters to fill in the “Uninstructed Delegation” bubble on the Democratic Presidential Primary. “That equals roughly the same number of votes by which President Biden won in the last election,” it continued.

“We are pushing for ‘Uninstructed’ votes in the primary because we have to do whatever it takes to stop this genocide and tell our elected leadership that this injustice does not represent the will of the people—and it may cost them the election in November if they don’t change course,” said volunteer Heba Mohammad, who was the 2020 Wisconsin Digital Organizing Director who helped secure Biden’s election victory in Wisconsin.

Supporters of the Uninstructed Campaign protested at President Biden’s visit to Milwaukee last week, bringing a 20-foot banner promoting the “Uninstructed Vote.” They also distributed flyers that explained their goals and how to vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary. They joined about 400 protestors who rallied at Dontre Hamilton Park Wednesday and marched by a stop on President Biden’s Wisconsin visit.

“We had hundreds of protestors show up at the last minute to meet President Biden with our demands for an end to this genocide in Gaza—even though the location of the event was kept confidential until a short time before it took place,” said volunteer organizer Yaseen Najeeb of Milwaukee. “I think that’s very telling. People are here to call attention to the “Uninstructed” vote as a real threat to Biden’s campaign if he won’t impose a permanent ceasefire now.”

Wisconsin’s protest vote joins national movement

Following an example set in Michigan, followed by Minnesota and Washington, the Wisconsin Uninstructed Campaign urges voters to vote “uninstructed” in the Democratic primary.

In Michigan’s February primary, the “uncommitted” vote secured more than 100,000 voters, winning two delegates, Ahmad noted.

“There are conversations all over the country among people who work in electoral politics and care a lot about what is happening politically but also about what’s happening in Gaza,” she said. “The numbers of people, especially children, killed in Gaza are far beyond the worst we could imagine.”

After Michigan’s success, participants in the Wisconsin for Justice in Palestine Coalition, which includes representatives of 64 diverse organizations, began discussing what actions could be taken in Wisconsin. Several member organizations, including the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, as well as individuals decided to work on the Wisconsin Uninstructed campaign.

Leaders of Michigan’s campaign announced an “Uncommitted National Movement” yesterday. It aims to expand on the growing movement in several states to create a national united network. In remarks on the National Uncommitted Movement launch, Mohammad said, “Wisconsin is not only important for electoral reasons—our state represents the heartbeat of the country. As people of conscience, and pro-democracy, pro-justice voters, we’re going to use the primary to call for an end to the genocide now. We cannot bypass this opportunity.”

Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors to vote on ceasefire resolution Thursday

In another effort to stop bloodshed in Gaza, a resolution calling for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” in Israel’s War on Gaza will go before the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Thursday morning. If passed, Milwaukee County will join about 100 U.S. municipalities and counties calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, which includes 64 diverse organizations, as well as individuals and otherorganizations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have been collaborating to set up meetings between Milwaukee County supervisors and their constituents, said volunteer Heba Mohammad, a member of Milwaukee for Palestine, in an interview with Wisconsin Muslim Journal. 

“We’ve been hitting roadblocks with some supervisors who either ignore us or reject our requests,” but some have been willing to schedule meetings, Mohammad said. “It’s exhausting but every day I remember the privilege we have here to advocate.” 

The volunteers promoting the ceasefire persevere because “the scale of the ongoing genocide in Gaza has reached a level we can’t ignore.” As a swing state in the national election, Milwaukee County’s endorsement of this resolution would “send a strong message to the Biden administration,” she said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sandra Whitehead

Sandra Whitehead is an educator, nationally award-winning journalist and author of Lebanese Americans, published by Marshall Cavendish. She is blessed with a loving family–her husband Abdulaziz Aleiou and three children, Ali, Aisha and Adam.

Opinion: Reject Biden and build a better world

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.

SUSAN ABULHAWA, THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA, 18 MARCH 2024

Joe Biden must be spurned over his support for the Gaza holocaust. (Adam Schultz, Official White House Photo)

A literal holocaust is being perpetrated against Palestinians.

Israel is burying people alive en masse in their homes, terrorizing them beyond imagination, bombing indiscriminately, denigrating, demeaning, humiliating, starving, torturing, raping and robbing Palestinians.

Israel is forcing Palestinians from their homes into abject filth and fear, their whole lives, their histories, memories and hopes for a future blown up and filmed for Israeli public entertainment. Soldiers and civilians alike cheer and set music to the ineffable suffering of Palestinians, then post them on TikTok for fun.

Israeli media air snuff videos featuring the torture of Palestinian hostages. It is a human abattoir on a massive scale inside a ghetto of degradation, filth and fear, livestreamed and sponsored by the Biden administration with US tax dollars.

“Aid bombs”

Simultaneously, the Israeli and American architects of this horror pay lip service to “humanitarian aid” and perform acts of absurd political theater and deceit designed to assuage mounting public outcry while steering their genocidal project to its profitable colonial conclusion – vast gas fields and prime coastal real estate devoid of her native people.

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Demeaning and incompetent “humanitarian airdrops” of meager food, often falling into the ocean, were little more than publicity stunts. The most recent attempts deployed aid boxes with failed parachutes that fell like missiles onto hungry Palestinians, killing them instantly, effectively becoming “aid bombs.”

Now this unholy genocidal alliance wants to build a “temporary aid pier,” ostensibly to open a maritime corridor for US aid deliveries. Construction is expected to take approximately two months.

They’ve not commented on what Gaza’s already starving population is meant to do during those two months. Nor have they responded to the obvious question: Why not send aid through existing land corridors?

All the US has to do is drive its aid trucks through the Rafah crossing. It’s actually that simple.

Other aid trucks aren’t getting in because Israel bombs them. Are we to believe the US is afraid its own aid trucks would suffer the same fate?

The absurdity, hypocrisy and frank dishonesty is not lost on most of us. Whatever the reason for this pier, it has nothing to do with getting aid to Palestinians.

If the US wanted to prevent Israel’s engineered starvation campaign in Gaza, it could do so in the proverbial heartbeat.

It must be said that our public rage is what underpins the change in political rhetoric and political slights of hand. It is the collective force we display in the streets and on the ballots.

The ruling elite feels our growing unity and power in every speech we disrupt, every banner drop, every direct action and every instance where we confront the miserable status quo that a small group has created for the majority of humanity. In fact, it is our moral duty to inconvenience, disrupt and expose Zionists and their supporters everywhere.

The information gatekeepers have deployed all the usual mechanisms to control public discourse. Mainstream media fell in line with every Zionist lie, even after they were exposed as lies.

They’ve failed to challenge Israeli propaganda, no matter how mythical or incoherent. Their headlines and opinion pieces continue to paint Israel as a victim by manipulating language or printing outright fabrications.

White-man flavors of oppression

The so-called “free press” speaks and writes the same verbiage, as if they all share a singular colonial brain.

Social media giants have tweaked their algorithms to censor Palestinian content and ban popular accounts.

Congress is bearing down on free speech under the guise of confronting anti-Semitism, effectively joining forces with ruthless Zionist organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federations of North America to doxx, harass and destroy the lives of activists who dare to speak up against Israeli apartheid and genocide. At this moment in history when we bear witness to a new holocaust, our politicians are holding hearings against a Palestinian literature festival and university campuses across the country that do not actively engage in the Zionist agenda of silencing popular dissent.

At a moment when the president of the United States is circumventing Congress to send billions of our tax dollars in weaponry, cash and other gifts to Israel while it commits genocide, Congress is concentrating on banning TikTok because young people know and share too much truth.

The ruling class believes it can quell the global public’s moral impulse with these usual mechanisms of suppression and gatekeeping. The Democratic Party is counting on its base to fall in line with the threat of another Trump era.

Ultimately, we have the power to free our imprisoned minds from their propaganda; from the shackles of a two-party system; from a most undemocratic government that answers to a wealthy minority, not the masses, the overwhelming majority of whom want a ceasefire; and from the convenient divisions they impose upon us.

We have the power to create the world we want, one where our government serves the welfare of the nation, not the greedy ambitions of the few.

We have the power to choose morality instead of allowing ourselves once again to be cornered into the binary of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two white-man flavors of oppression, with the former being outright genocide.

Allowing Biden to serve another term will signal the moral destitution and tragic helplessness of the American people to register a minimal objection to an ongoing holocaust. A second term for Biden will make it clear that the ruling class can do anything it wants to us and to the world, no matter how vile or destructive, and we will remain slaves to the choices it engineers for us each election.

This is our world, and we can take back the reigns of our collective destiny. We can choose life.

We can choose to tread gently on our tortured planet; to reject their endless wars; to divert our public dollars away from the top 1 percent into our collective wellbeing and quality of life; to empower our young people, create community and have faith in each other; to dismantle the infrastructures that keep us ignorant and divided.

The world we want is possible, and it begins by acting now for the long-term future, even if it means short-term pain for the next four years. Ensuring that moral dissent prevails means a definitive loss for the Democratic Party, no matter the alternative.

Bolstering of third-party alternatives would be the most welcome side effect in electoral politics.

susan abulhawa is a writer and activist. She is a founder and director of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.

Jonathan Glazer’s Brave Oscar Speech Represents the Best of Judaism

DAVE ZIRIN, THE NATION, MARCH 11, 2024

Instead of confronting what the director of The Zone of Interestactually said, Zionists distorted his lines.

Jonathan Glazer reading acceptance speech
Jonathan Glazer accepts the Best International Feature Film award for The Zone of Interestat the 96th Annual Oscars held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 10. (Rich Polk / Variety via Getty Images)

I came of political age animated by the quip, “Two Jews, three opinions.” I was around people who argued, weighed pros and cons, and hashed out differences no matter how intense the disagreements. Sometimes no common ground could be found. But as rough as these debates could be, they were rooted in fact. Today though, the Zionist catchphrase should now be “a million Jews, no opinions.” Too many Zionists will brook no disagreement with Israel’s war on Gaza and are willing to distort the truth to defend it.

The director Jonathan Glazer is finding that out this morning. His speech at the Oscars, after winning Best International Feature Film for The Zone of Interest, explained the way his faith and the memory of the Holocaust have been weaponized to support the Israeli occupation of Palestine as well as the current carnage. It was beautiful and brave. His exact words were, “Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

The response of the right wing has not been debate and discussion. It’s been lies, obfuscation, and vulgarity. There’s the editor of Commentary, John Podhoretz, who tweeted, “By saying he refutes his Jewishness [my emphasis] on the biggest stage in the world five months after the attack on Israel, Jonathan Glazer has instantly made himself into one of Judaism’s historical villains.”

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Others parroted this line. Batya Ungar-Sargon, the opinion editor at the right-wing infomercial formerly known as Newsweek, tweeted, “I simply cannot fathom the moral rot in someone’s soul that leads them to win an award for a movie about the Holocaust and with the platform given to them, to accept that award by saying, ‘We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness…’” This was mimicked by all kinds of media bottom feeders. The common thread with all of them is that, rather than reckon with Glazer’s argument that his “Jewishness and the Holocaust [are] being hijacked by an occupation,” they only—and shamelessly—use part of the quote as a way to make it sound like Glazer is rejecting his religion and culture, when the opposite is obviously the case. He is actually reclaiming his culture from the pampered pro-Israel media prizefighters who argue that Judaism and Zionism are one and the same: that a 5,500 year old religion and culture must exist only as the support system for a 76-year-old colonial ethno-state. To call out this lie is a daring and dangerous act, and Glazer should be commended for standing in the tradition of debate—not of calumny and lies.

This is especially fitting given Glazer’s film: a chilling and shattering look at Nazism in the form of an idyllic Nazi officer’s home right outside Auschwitz. There is nothing “banal” about the evil on display in this film; a family frolics in a stream as bones and body parts float past them. It would be easy to read the film as a remembrance of the horror perpetrating on the Jewish people. But Glazer, as he has been collecting awards, has made perfectly clear: The phrase “never again” is not a Jewish slogan but something that must be raised every time a people are subject to genocide. He also said at the Oscars, “All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now.’… Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present.”

Glazer was the only Oscar winner to say anything about Gaza—rather shocking, given the stereotype of Hollywood, as George Clooney claimed in his unctuous speech a decade ago, that this is a bastion of liberalism. Hollywood is more of a PEP squad: progressive except for Palestine. Yet, if Glazer’s voice was the only one from the podium to acknowledge that these horrors were taking place while people were sitting snugly in their Vera Wangs, he was far from alone. The ceremony was delayed as solidarity protests blocked roads around the venue. It was a reminder that people are trying to stop the violence and win a permanent cease-fire in every corner, every college campus, every cultural arena in the country. That is, except for the Oscars, where the call for justice and peace were on mute. As Jews, our tradition of debate could not be more rich. It says so much about the Podhoretzes of the world—and how alien they truly are to Jewish tradition—that they want to take this tradition of debate and put a stake in its heart.


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Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin is the sports editor at The Nation. He is the author of 11 books on the politics of sports. He is also the coproducer and writer of the new documentary Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL.

Forcing #StopArmingIsrael onto Politicians’ Agenda

As a Palestinian American, I witness a new horror that Israel commits against my people, with my tax dollars, livestreamed online every day.

The only choice for all of us who live here in the belly of the beast—in the U.S. colonial empire that was built on the genocide of Indigenous peoples—is to resist. We must put up the fight of our lives to stop our government from funding genocide.

Barb, you and I know there is nothing normal about living in a country that sponsors massacres. As Israel invades Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, killing or kidnapping Palestinian patients, journalists, and medical workers, the U.S. House of Representatives is considering sending $14 BILLION MORE in weapons to fuel this bloodshed.

Disrupt now, and keep disrupting our politicians in power for every day that this genocide goes on.

Find out how you can escalate your actions on our USCPR Action Phone Zap this Wednesday, “Disrupting Campaign Events: Forcing #StopArmingIsrael onto Politicians’ Agenda.”

JOIN OUR PHONE ZAP

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On the Phone Zap, you’ll learn how to disrupt a politician’s campaign event based on a real-life example. Then I’ll walk you through ways you can take action to raise your demands for justice.

Together on the Zoom call, we’ll flood the phone lines in Congress and the White House to demand they call for a PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW and stop arming Israel.

We must defend Al-Shifa Hospital, and all the Palestinian journalists and medical workers who are risking their lives as they’re systematically targeted by Israel.

Register now for the “Disrupting Campaign Events” USCPR Action Phone Zap this Wednesday, March 20 at 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT.

 
Spread the word now. See you on Wednesday, and keep disrupting everywhere you go.

Onward to liberation,

CELINE QUSSINY
National Field Organizer

P.S. Defend Al-Shifa Hospital and all of Palestine now! Send an email to your members of Congress and keep protesting.

DONATE

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US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action
PO Box 3609
Washington, DC 20027
United States

Contributions to USCPR Action, a Project of Tides Advocacy, are not tax deductible as charitable contributions or as business expenses under IRC Section 162(e). Your contribution may be used for lobbying or political activity, and is not earmarked for a particular purpose. Please visit www.tidesadvocacy.org/donate/ for additional information about Tides Advocacy.

One-Third of Children Under 2 in Northern Gaza Now Acutely Malnourished

Muhammad, 11-year-old and Reham, 9-year-old, stand in front of one of the food distribution centers in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Abed Zagout/UNICEF)

“Malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery,” UNICEF said.

OLIVIA ROSANE, COMMON DREAMS, MARCH 16, 2024

Around one-third of children under two in northern Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund announced on Friday.

That’s double the percentage of children under two who suffered from acute malnutrition in January, as the rate jumped from 15.6-31% in one month.

“The speed at which this catastrophic child malnutrition crisis in Gaza has unfolded is shocking, especially when desperately needed assistance has been at the ready just a few miles away,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

“The situation is beyond catastrophic.”

The UNICEF data came from screenings it conducted with its partners in February. While the rates of malnutrition are higher in the north, no part of Gaza remains untouched. As a whole, the agency concluded that “malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery.”

A full 28% of children in Khan Younis in central Gaza have acute malnutrition, while in Rafah, around 10% suffered from acute malnutrition by the end of February. That was also double the 5% who suffered from acute malnutrition in January in the southern city. In the north, as many as 25% of children under five also suffer from acute malnutrition, up from 13%. The new figures come as humanitarian groups and U.N. agencies have been warning about potential famine in the Gaza Strip for months.

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UNICEF also found in February that 4.5% of children in shelters and health centers in northern Gaza suffer from severe wasting, the most serious and potentially fatal form of malnutrition, for which the necessary treatment is not on hand. In Khan Younis, more than 10% of the malnourished children have severe wasting. Even in Rafah, the number of children under two with severe wasting more than quadrupled from 1% to over 4% between January and the end of February.

In total, at least 23 children have died from starvation or dehydration in northern Gaza in the last few weeks alone, UNICEF said. Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza has been particularly devastating for children as a whole, killing around 13,450 out of a total death toll of more than 31,000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

“We’ve been sounding the alarm that children will die due to malnutrition and disease since the beginning of the war,” Save the Children UK said on social media on Saturday. “Our worst fears have now come true. These man-made conditions continue to deteriorate toward famine and will continue to take innocent children’s lives.”

Lucia Elmi, UNICEF’s special representative in the Palestinian territories, toldThe New York Times that children were declining at such alarming rates because the available water, bread, and flour was not enough to provide the nutrition they need.

“They need protein, they need vitamins, they need fresh products, and they need micronutrients, and all of this has been completely missing,” Elmi said last week. “That’s why the deterioration has been so fast, so rapid, and at this scale.”

Dominic Allen, the United Nations Population Fund representative for Palestine, told reporters on Friday that everyone he spoke to Gaza was “gaunt, emaciated, hungry.”

“The situation is beyond catastrophic,” he said.

Russell said that UNICEF had not been able to acquire the supplies it needed to properly treat malnourished children. Humanitarian groups have criticized Israel for making aid deliveries more difficult by searching every truck that enters the strip and rejecting whole shipments because they contained items like children’s scissors or wooden instead of cardboard boxes for toys. In multiple instances, the Israeli military has fired on on aid convoys and on people gathering to receive aid, killing scores.

“We have repeatedly attempted to deliver additional aid and we have repeatedly called for the access challenges we have faced for months to be addressed. Instead, the situation for children is getting worse by each passing day. Our efforts in providing life-saving aid are being hampered by unnecessary restrictions, and those are costing children their lives,” Russell said.

Ultimately, Russell continued, the only way to properly feed and treat Gaza’s children is for Israel to stop its attack on the strip.

“An immediate humanitarian cease-fire continues to provide the only chance to save children’s lives and end their suffering,” Russell concluded. “We also need multiple land border crossings that allow aid to be reliably delivered at scale, including to northern Gaza, along with the security assurances and unimpeded passage needed to distribute that aid, without delays or access impediments.”


Illegal Israeli Settler Roads Are Surging Across West Bank Since October 7

A Wall Street Journal investigation found that since Oct. 7, Israeli settlers have been rapidly building illegal roads and outposts across the West Bank. This work is sometimes done under armed guard with funding from the Israeli government.

Chapters:
0:00 WSJ’s findings: a surge in illegal construction
1:24 How roads become borders
2:35 Farkha: a new road threatens the village
4:41 Wadi al Seeq: a Bedouin village violently expelled
6:53 Government support for illegal farming outposts
8:35 Alonei Shilo: An illegal road 10 years in the making
9:29 Will Gaza be settled next?

WSJ video investigations use visual evidence to reveal the truth behind the most important stories of the day.

What will the “uninstructed” vote say about Wisconsin?

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot support or oppose specific political parties or candidates.

A photo shows Joe Biden speaking at a public event. Biden is shot from below, so that he looms over the camera at an angle, with bright stage lights behind him. The photo has been altered such that Biden is overlaid with a field of distorted static.
Illustration by Tone Madison. Source photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

A disconnect written in blood.

I don’t know what will come of the effort to encourage Wisconsin voters to vote “uninstructed”in our April 2 Democratic presidential primary, after more than 100,000 Michigan voterschose the equivalent “uncommitted” option in that state’s primary. Call it just a protest vote campaign, but I’m curious to see what it says about the conscience of voters here, and about their willingness to demand something better. Like Michigan, Wisconsin has open primaries, so you don’t have to be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote, though you can only vote in one. Thank god for small mercies.

Numerically, the “uncommitted”/”uninstructed” campaign isn’t threatening Joe Biden’s coast to the nomination as an incumbent. The greater threat may be that these disaffected voters will also abandon Biden in the general election, especially given that Wisconsin specializes in razor-thin electoral margins. What matters is that it is wrong for the United States to enable Israel’s slaughter of 31,000 people and counting in Gaza, and that a decent-sized chunk of the Democratic electorate—including those who are engaged enough to vote in primaries—is willing to take a stand. Whether or not they come around and hold their noses to vote Biden in November, it’s worth putting real pressure on Biden to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and do more to reign in Israel’s belligerent regime.

It would be hard to get any momentum behind a movement like this if Democrats understood or respected what drives a lot of us, let’s say… “ugh yeah fine I’ll vote Dem by default again” voters. For a long time, I’ve felt ambivalent about leftists who sit out elections. I’m starting to understand them a lot better. No, I don’t want Donald Trump back in office. If I had my way, the Republican Party would be outlawed and busted up, along with a host of right-wing civil-society organizations that have tried to help it seize power through violence and legal trickery. It’s also disturbingly clear how much certain Dems relish the threat of Trump as a bargaining chip, and how much they still share Republicans’ commitments to capital and empire.

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Trump would likely help Israel do even more gruesome things in Gaza, Biden’s defenders often remind the pro-Palestinian crowd, as if we should be grateful for the restraint Biden is showing. I’m reminded of conservatives who respond to our critique of the American justice system by going off about how “well, in such-and-such country, they’d just chop off your hands or throw you off a building!” This is a very messed-up way to talk about the world’s problems. If you want to draw a real contrast with Trump’s GOP or such-and-such country’s hand-chopping practices, you should aim to do way better, not just a little better. Take some responsibility for what you can do. Or if you’re the Democratic Party, reflect on all the choices over time that leave you depending on a blood-soaked creep like Biden.

    This is our newsletter-first column, Microtones. It runs on the site on Fridays, but you can get it in your inbox on Thursdays by signing up for our email newsletter.

Of course, if you’re deploying the argument that Biden’s leftist critics are just helping the Republicans… you’re doing that in defense of a guy who knows a lot about helping Republicans: supporting the Iraq War, supporting mass incarceration, stopping short of voting for Clarence Thomas’ confirmation but still doing a real bad job with all that.

How willing are we to at least send a message to President Joe Biden, and to Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation, including Senator Tammy Baldwin, that enabling Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is unacceptable? How many voters will Democrats accuse of “just helping Trump,” as the Democratic leaders of Wisconsin’s biggest, most diverse city roll out the red carpet for Trump’s white-supremacist party?

Given that Republicans tried to stage a coup and have become even more explicit in their embrace of vigilante violence (for instance, making a folk hero out of a guy who went around shooting people in Kenosha), we’ll just be lucky if the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee doesn’t turn out to be a nightmare for a city full of people Republicans hate. (Anyways it’s actually really great and smart because conventioners will stay in hotels, and stuff.) This is not simply an opposition party that plays by the rules and can be reasoned with. These are people who, if you keep enabling them, will keep working very hard to erode your rights and quite possibly just kill you.

So, as Democrats continue to tell us how urgent it is to beat the Republicans in elections and save democracy, they’re maybe not really that icked out. They’ve perhaps not outgrown the blithe arrogance and calculated tepidness that cost them Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016.

Let’s look at just a few recent things elected Democrats have done with the power they have, and whether they are the actions of people serious about stopping fascism. People serious about stopping fascism would not humiliate themselves to try passing immigration legislation that panders to the right. They would not throw around terms like “illegals” in the same speech where they congratulate themselves for supposedly not demonizing immigrants. They would not send National Guard troops to harass people in the New York City subways. They would not openly enable the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, a man every bit as corrupt and authoritarian as Trump. They would maybe stop short of smooching the far-right prime minister of Italy. (I’m sorry, truly… it’s so embarrassing that we have to think about this kind of shit. Our precious Dark Brandon is just so tactile!) They would not cross the aisle in Congress to pass a pointless, racist resolution attacking a Palestinian member of their own caucus. Granted, that last one was a minority of House Democrats, but even so, it’s never any of these folks with actual power who get perversely blamed for helping Trump, the march of fascism, or whatever.

The Teamsters, supposedly a cornerstone of the Democratic coalition, made a hefty donation to the Republican National Committee in February. Liberal commentators in recent years have routinely argued that it’s practical to downplay “culture war” issues like trans rights, notwithstanding the self-evident practicality of making sure people whose vote you seek aren’t killed or persecuted. Democratic elected officials and liberal politicos who should be encouraging a more open debate about Israel are instead aiding ridiculous smear campaigns, like the effort to convince people that the phrase “from the river to the sea” is an anti-Semitic call for genocide. Dress these examples up in all the campaign consultant-speak you want—they’re major capitulations.

When all this is going on, it’s selective and disingenuous to dismiss the pro-Palestine movement as petulant and unrealistic saboteurs. “Uncommitted” or “uninstructed” voters are people the Democratic Party has taken for granted and failed to properly engage. If you’re asking voters to line up behind Biden without question and lay aside any political leverage they might have, you’re asking them for a level of discipline the Dems can’t even get from their own elected members.

Some of us formed our politics in the wake of 9/11, watching our country treat the threat of terrorism as a blank check for bloodshed abroad and surveillance at home. Speaking for myself, I’m a “yeah just not a Republican” voter because I think American belligerence sucks, blind belief sucks, patriotic gibberish sucks, the reflexive demonization of all things Arab or Muslim sucks, and contempt for mass movements sucks. I think moderates give the whole game away by failing to fight for something better. I think this country is basically a huge wealth-management office draped with human entrails, and I’ll believe differently when we achieve something different.

All these years later, we still find ourselves asked to be part of an uneasy coalition with a lot of people who refuse to understand the glaring lessons of the post-9/11 era, and who will respond to concerns about actual war-crimes with an insufferable horse-race mentality. (If you’re in my agéd-millennial age bracket and you still dance to the “because terrorism” tune in any variety… what the hell is wrong with you?) A lot of the people we’re arguing with these days don’t seem to understand that debate within a political party/faction/movement is a good thing, and so is demanding accountability from the very people you’ve voted for. Defending the people you vote for with simplistic excuses and wishful thinking is… not behavior worthy of free people. This is getting so old.

Let’s keep in mind that voters delivered major upsets for Democrats in 2020. Six states that went to Trump in 2016 flipped to Biden in 2020. Voters delivered Georgia’s electoral votes—and both its Senate seats, which required them to come out twice in tough runoff elections. All of this during an absolutely horrible, exhausting year, and in spite of the fact that no one in their right mind was thrilled about Biden, exactly. If you are a reasonable person and convinced yourself that you were thrilled about Biden, well… we all have our moments.

Between 2021 and 2023, what we needed was for Democrats to deliver, as swiftly as possible, to treat their two years in control of both the White House and both houses of Congress like they treat every election—as an emergency. Sure, they got some meaningful things done. Still, priorities like codifying abortion rights and filibuster reform fell prey to the same “well you see it’s the art of the possible” fiddle-dickery Democrats have been stuck on for ages. (Yes yes, I’m sure we’ll keep hearing the pleas that Democrats were helpless to discipline Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, two politicians who have turned out to be not long for public office. Isn’t the whole point of electing Biden that he’s a creature of the Senate and can maybe work out these sorts of things?)

In 2022, Democrats lost the House but kept the Senate, avoiding the bloodbath that often awaits the party holding the Presidency during midterm elections. That’s in part because voters came through for candidates like Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman. After years of progressive posturing, Fetterman turned around and declared he wasn’t so progressive after all. Fetterman has taught the nation a lesson that we in Wisconsin, especially Madison, know all too well: “Progressive” has become a weasel word, divorced from specific historical moments and movements. Everyone can hide behind it, and no one can be held to it. The bait-and-switch will continue until faith in the process improves.


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Slideshow: Gaza Geno-Ecocide at its Cruelest

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The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network — Friends of Earth Palestine (PENGON — FoE Palestine) is a coordinating body for Palestinian environmental NGOs in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PENGON looks to resist and highlight Israel’s violations of Palestine’s environment and its control of Palestinian natural resources. PENGON sees international advocacy as fundamental in stopping Israel.

21 Years Later Gaza Crushed With Our Tax Dollars

From Craig Corrie – 21 Years Later
Gaza Crushed With Our Tax Dollars

On March 16, 2003, our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed as she stood to protect the home of a Palestinian family in Rafah in Gaza. Rachel was crushed to death by the Israeli military under a militarized, Caterpillar, Inc. D9R bulldozer, supplied by our United States government, paid for by our tax dollars. Now, twenty-one years later, we are witnessing the entire Gaza population being crushed by the Israeli military, using planes, bombs, shells, tanks and, yes, even bulldozers supplied by the United States. Genocide. Paid for by our tax dollars.

In some ways you could see this coming: soldiers never held accountable for their war crimes, human rights violations by the army of a country feeling entitled to the land of another people. We know this story, and we have seen this genocide. Ask any native American.

Our family worked for almost two decades to secure accountability in Rachel’s case, first through diplomatic means, and when that failed, through a civil lawsuit in Israeli courts. Some of the court testimony is particularly telling. An IDF Colonel responsible for training stated that there are no civilians in war zones, and the officer responsible for the military police investigation into Rachel’s killing testified that he thought Israel was at war with everyone in Gaza, including the peace activists. And all the time, the Israeli defense team referred to the people of Gaza – Rachel’s friends, our friends – as “the terrorists.” Even the Israeli high court said that international law did not apply to the actions of Israel in Gaza. How telling.

Repeatedly, the U.S. supplies weapons to Israel that are used in ways giving probable cause of human rights violations. But when the U.S. asks for investigation, Israel replies with reports that are far from the result of the thorough, credible, and transparent investigation required of, or in Rachel’s case promised by, Israel. Citing that violations cannot be proven, the U.S. continues military aid – rather than withholding more funding until our questions are properly answered, as allowed by U.S. law and dictated by common sense. The U.S. routinely rewards IDF war crimes with increased military aid, rather than sanctions. When that aid is abetting genocide, as it has since October 7, 2023, the aid itself is a war crime.

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The time to avert the massacre of October 7 and the genocide that has followed was during all the prior years of the Israeli occupation. Repeatedly, Palestinians, often joined by Jewish Israelis, have protested nonviolently to have their rights respected. Cindy and I have joined them for Friday afternoon protests in the olive groves west of Bil’in in the West Bank and have been met by teargas and small arms fire from the IDF, even though we never left Bil’in land. I remember stumbling up the hillside while an Israeli friend helped Cindy to medical aid for gas inhalation.

We have watched a landowner weeping as her olive trees were being uprooted to make way for a great wall to divide her forever from her crops. We watched from afar the Great March of Return in Gaza, again met by gunfire – often targeted at medics, journalists, and even children. Had Israel and the U.S. been moved by any of these nonviolent protests to respect the rights of Palestinians, then the violence of October 7, 2023, and the more than five months of carnage and destruction in Gaza thereafter might have been avoided. To have peace, there must be justice, and there is nothing peaceful about the daily injustice of the occupation.

On a larger, even more depressing scale, I remember in grade school wondering how it was possible that any nation could ever let the Holocaust happen. It was personal. Linda, the girl I shared a desk with, was Jewish. Now, as I watch in horror at the atrocities perpetrated in Gaza and rationalized in Washington DC, I see how genocide happens: by nations making excuses and looking the other way.

That is where we come in – by refusing to look the other way. And an amazing number of us around the world have done so. Activists on the street corners, in city council meetings, in front of the White House, on state capitol steps, many for the first time in their lives, refusing to hear the excuses, refusing to look the other way. We are heartened by each one of you and by the visible, constructive actions you are taking. You have joined with Rachel, who wrote to her mother more than two decades ago, “This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop.”

Craig Corrie (Rachel’s dad)
March 16, 2024


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Veterans For Peace statement about Aaron Bushnell protesting to the death


February 26, 2024

Madmen Arsonists Strike Again: They as Much as Lit Aaron Bushnell’s Match for Him

Aaron Bushnell just couldn’t take any more.

He couldn’t bear to see any more people eviscerated and incinerated by American bombs dropped by Israelis on innocent Palestinians.

So, in his Air Force uniform, he walked determinedly to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and set himself on fire.

What can we say about a young man who would do that to protest his government’s acts of cruelty and genocide?

It is important we say nothing before quoting his own calmly spoken, final words to the world.

“I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine!”

You can see Aaron’s last minute of life in this video, blurred out after he strikes the match.

In it, he shouts, “Free Palestine” six times. The last five are combined with screams of agony before he falls silent.

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A voice off-camera, shouts repeatedly, “Get him on the ground…on the ground,” which is the correct thing to do when someone is on fire.

People frantically rush in with a fire extinguisher. A police officer or uniformed guard appears and points a gun in Aaron’s direction. Someone calls out “I need a fire extinguisher…a fire extinguisher…another one…I don’t need guns; I need a fire extinguisher.”

Why would Aaron do something this extreme?

More of the “why” may come to light. But what he said in that video is sufficient. He could “no longer be complicit in genocide.”

Aaron’s motivation is strikingly similar to that of Norman Morrison, a 35-year-old, Quaker activist who set himself ablaze in the Pentagon parking lot below Secretary of War McNamara’s office, November 2, 1965.

In a letter to his wife, Morrison had written, “Dearest Anne, For weeks, even months, I have been praying only that I be shown what I must do. This morning with no warning, I was shown … Know that I love thee but must act for the children in the Priest’s village,” in reference to an article he had read in which a Catholic priest described Vietnamese “women and children blown to bits” from U.S. bombing and napalm.

Too many of us in VFP have seen the suffering war creates and it never leaves our memories. All of us agonize over our government’s aiding and abetting the slaughter of innocents.

We prod ourselves, “what is the most, the very best thing, I can do?”

That question moves some to learn the history of Palestine that they’ve too long ignored; some to contact elected officials; some to join a public protest; some to go on fasts; some to block roads or congressional offices and go to jail. But it never feels like enough.

Some may perceive fasting to the death or self-immolation as crazy and extreme beyond measure. Others see it as entirely appropriate because the horror protested is itself insane and extreme beyond measure.

Few who care deeply will have the courage to fast to the death or do what Aaron Bushnell did. But in addition to whatever inadequate things we already do, we can, we must, do two more things.

The first is to consciously let people who are pained and grieving at what our government does know that they are not alone. We should not assume our colleagues and comrades know we are aware of their anguish.

Secondly, we can resolve that we will move beyond simply reacting to bestial policies.

We could call our policymakers “madmen arsonists” because they go around the globe setting fires much faster than we can extinguish them.

These policymakers, swaddled in privilege, take their orders from those who profit from death and suffering. We know who they are: the people who run Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and their fellow merchants of death, and the people who finance what the merchants do.

These madmen arsonists operate on a grand scale internationally but also on a singular, small scale as in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. They as much as lit the match for Aaron Bushnell. The fire that killed Airman Bushnell was simply the “collateral damage,” as it’s so callously called, of the ongoing conflagration in Palestine.

Our firefighting will never keep up with arsonists who operate on a global scale. We are long overdue to learn the fire prevention skills needed to halt them.

Fire prevention in this context means prohibiting the lobbying, advertising, vote buying, campaign funding and actual legislation writing that corporations do behind constitutional shields given them by the Supreme Court, like free speech and protection.

Until we strip corporations of their shields, they will continue to amass economic and political power to govern us, to set fires large and small, while we run frantically for fire extinguishers until we are exhausted, penniless and gone.

Veterans For Peace is learning the necessary fire prevention skills we need as we continue fighting fires set by the madmen arsonists. It is simply our responsibility to do both at the same time.

Millions will be in the streets against the Rafah invasion on March 2; find a demonstration near you. Vigils will be held across the country for Aaron Bushnell in the coming days.

If you are a member of the US military want expert, confidential advice on how to get out, call the GI Rights Hotline 24/7 at 1-877-447-4487

Tell Pocan No More Military Aid to Israel

CALL Pocan’s offices and insist on a pledge not to vote for any further military aid. He’s still not done that. Here is the link to the Democratic discharge petition.

    Pocan in Madison (608) 258-9800
    Pocan in DC (202) 225-2906

Reject AIPAC from the Democratic Party. Join Us.
Right now, the Israeli military is preparing to invade Rafah, where over 1.7 million Palestinians are sheltering and starving from months of brutal bombardment.

Yesterday, AIPAC was on Capitol Hill lobbying members of Congress to give billions in unconditional weapons funding to Israel — directly enabling the attack on Rafah.

Now, Democratic leadership is using a procedure called a discharge petition to try to force a vote through and fund Israel’s assault on Gaza this week.1

Tell your member of Congress to reject AIPAC and their agenda: say no to $14 billion in weapons funding to Israel.

EMAIL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS

We put this easy tool together for you — all you have to do is fill in your information and press the button!

Urgent: Your Action Required March 13, 2024 AIPAC is lobbying Congress today to give billions in unconditional weapons funding to Israel — just as the Israeli military prepares to invade Rafah. Send a message to your member of Congress right now calling on them to reject AIPAC's agenda and oppose these weapons transfers. innmvmt.org/urgentaipac

Here’s why this is urgent: The discharge petition only needs 218 signatures to bring a vote to the floor — and at least 169 Democrats have already signed on.

That means we need to take action today to urge our representatives to refuse to sign or withdraw their signatures — and make it clear that they oppose billions in unconditional weapons funding for Israel.

The Israeli government has made its intention to invade Rafah very clear. Sending $14 billion in military funding would only enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, which has already killed over 31,000 Palestinians.

Send a message to your member of Congress right now calling on them to reject AIPAC’s agenda and oppose these weapons transfers.

On Monday, we joined a broad coalition of nearly two dozen progressive organizations calling on the Democratic Party to reject AIPAC.2

Moments like this are exactly why we organize — and exactly why we need people like you in our movement.

When you send a letter to Congress, you’ll be joining thousands of people across the country who are saying NO to AIPAC’s agenda and NO to Israel’s massacre of Palestinians.

Email your member of Congress right now to tell them to reject any vote to fund Israel’s assault on Gaza.

In solidarity,
The IfNotNow team

Sources:
1. Axios, House Democrats’ foreign aid discharge petition goes live
2. ABC News, Progressive groups launch ‘Reject AIPAC’ effort as Democratic divides over Israel deepen

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We continue to put all our resources into actions to respond to this moment. Please contribute if you can.

IfNotNow Movement
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The Only Barrier to Delivering Gaza Aid Is Israel

Aid Worker in Gaza: The U.S. Must Pressure Its Ally

MARCH 12, 2024

GUESTS
  • Yousef Hammash
    advocacy officer in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council
  • Francesca Albanese
    United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

Palestinians in Gaza marked the first day of Ramadan on Monday amid rising hunger and desperation, with Israel continuing to restrict aid shipments into the besieged territory. United Nations officials have complained that even basic items like medical scissors have resulted in trucks being stopped by Israeli forces at the border. This comes as countries such as the United States conduct dangerous airdrops of essential supplies and have announced plans to build a pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid. “It’s going to be more simple, more realistic and more efficient if the United States has pushed the Israelis to allow the aid truck to go into the north of Gaza and Gaza City,” says Yousef Hammash, advocacy officer with the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to us from Rafah. “The only issue that we are facing on delivering the aid on the ground is the restrictions the Israelis put on it.” Hammash also describes “living day by day” amid “madness, violence [and] bombardment.”

Israel’s Measures intended to Prevent Births within Gaza Strip

PCHR, March 9, 2024


On Saturday, 9 March 2024, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a new report titled, “Israel’s measures Intended to Prevent Births within Gaza Strip.” The report sheds light on Israel’s commission of one of the genocidal acts that is preventing births within a group.

The report lays out the catastrophic conditions facing pregnant women in the Gaza Strip, one of the most vulnerable categories and in need of lifesaving preventive and curative nutrition interventions. Estimates show that there are 50,000 pregnant women in shelters with no access to adequate food and proper healthcare, and 15% of them are likely to experience pregnancy or birth-related complications and need additional medical care that is not available.

Respectively, the report highlights Israel’s measures intended to prevent birth within the Gaza Strip amid lack of protection from military attacks. They are under direct attacks, resulting in killings, injuries, toxic gas inhalations and causing serious psychological and physical harm amid heightened feelings of fear and anxiety and lack of special protection. All of this combined will lead to preventing births and have serious consequences on reproductive health, including a rise in pregnancy pains, miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births.

The report then reviews Israeli violations resulting in provision of poor health services to pregnant women with no safe access. This has forced a lot of pregnant women to give birth in houses or shelters, worsening the birth-related complications, increasing their suffering and leaving them with unprecedented levels of stress.  Pregnant women unable to have safe access to health services are facing a double nightmare as if they need healthcare, they have to walk for a long distance or sometimes feel reluctant to ask for adequate healthcare.

The report also monitors Israel’s imposition of dire living conditions that increase pregnancy complications.  Due to the ongoing aggression, a lot of women became the caretaker of their families because their husbands were killed, injured, arrested or etc. Therefore, women bear greater responsibilities towards their children and families. Meanwhile, the aggression has led to forced mass displacement of civilians in light of the outbreak of epidemics and dire living conditions in shelters along with lack of electricity and water supplies.  All of this combined has increased pregnant and postpartum women’s suffering and health risks during pregnancy and after childbirth.

The report emphasizes that the Israeli serious human rights violations against pregnant women in the Gaza Strip amount to genocidal acts, in particular imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.  It calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Israel to cease all genocidal acts, including imposing measures intended to prevent births within the Gaza Strip; comply with the legally-binding provisional measures order lately issued by the International Court of Justice to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance; and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power in terms of its duty to transfer pregnant women to safe areas.

Read the report