Stop Genocide in Gaza

 

The situation in the Middle East has been deteriorating very rapidly. So many families across the arbitrary border dividing Israel-Palestine have been sobbing and mourning the loss of loved ones. We are witnessing an unprecedented loss of life.

In the wake of terrifying attacks on a music festival in Israel and the bombing of civilian infrastructure and dense residential areas in Gaza -- including apartment blocks and refugee camps -- Gaza is under a complete siege as Israel prepares for what looks like an imminent ground invasion of the enclave, while Palestinians in the West Bank face settler paramilitary forces.

DSA members across the country are mobilizing right now by attending and hosting protests, writing letters and calling members of Congress. In PDSA we are going to be having phonebanking and letter writing calls this weekend from 4 PM - 6:30 PM this Saturday and Sunday, pressuring our elected officials to support immediate deescalation and defunding of Israel’s war on Gaza, filling their inboxes with opposition to this unconscionable war. Sign up for our PDSA phonebank here. We call for peace for all people and stand against reprisals and violence against all innocent civilians. We echo the national statement of DSA on October 8th and encourage all to read it.

Make no mistake, an invasion of Gaza would be catastrophic. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the entire world. Israel has however issued an impossible demand: 1.1 million people in northern Gaza are being told to flee south from Gaza City to the southern end of the Gaza Strip. It's not clear whether they would ever let Gazans return to their homes, and it's even less clear how they could flee to begin with when civilian infrastructure has been destroyed. It seems we are watching the groundwork for a genocide being laid before our eyes. Thousands of people would die if Israel invaded, we need to stop this now.

We will not be demoralized, there are things we can do. Please come to at least one of our emergency phonebanks this weekend. And for things you can do right now, if you can spare a few dollars, please donate to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. This organization is providing crucial on the ground aid immediately after airstrikes in Gaza which are displacing thousands of people -- mostly children. Here's a link to their homepage.

Secondly, please call your representatives and urge them to stop American support for genocide. The US funds Israel with billions in war aid despite it being illegal to do so under US law. 2 million people are trapped in Gaza right now, with electricity, water, and food supplies cut off by Israel which is imposing a complete blockade of the densely populated region. The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights has a dialer up to help us call our representatives. Please call your representatives. Here's a link to the dialer.

Another tool, from NYC-DSA, No Money for Massacres: Palestine Solidarity, their letter writing tool. Here's a link to it. This will let you send a letter to your representatives. Right now Florida politicians like Marco Rubio are actively calling for genocide of Palestinians. We must stop them. We also need to pressure our elected DSA members in Congress in the Squad to lead and stop these warhawks. Representatives like Rashida Tlaib are under intense pressure and we need to have their backs.

And finally, while we are still as a chapter figuring out what to do, we've put together a participation form to share with our members and even folks outside of DSA to get together to stop atrocities. We are living through extremely difficult times and we think we need to be together in person collaborating together although for now we are meeting on Zoom as mentioned above. If you can help connect us to an in-person location please let us know immediately. If you can join in such efforts, please fill out our participation form – and share it with your friends – and we can text you very soon about more ways to get involved.

Friends, it is so easy to fall into despair and demobilization. But I must tell you: we can stop genocide. Not only that, we must. 2 million Gazans are being persecuted after a generation of grueling oppression and occupation. While it's hard for us in the States to witness this, it's a life and death situation in Gaza. We don't have all the answers right now, but these are just a few things we can do right now to move the needle towards justice. If you have more ideas on what we can do, please submit to the participation form above, and attend one of our phonebanks.

In solidarity,

PDSA Outreach Team