Anniversary of a Genocide

Events, Information, Opinion

A year into witnessing, supporting and paying for Israel’s horrific genocidal barbarism in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, Americans must ask if we have any power and agency to stop these atrocities. Wendell Berry writes: “We have become a society of people who cannot prevent our own children from being killed in their classrooms—and who do not much mind the killing of other people’s children by weapons of war.” We must not allow ourselves to be numbed by the daily killing of innocent men, women and children. This inhumanity must not be normalized nor forgotten.

Please watch ‘The Night Won’t End’: Biden’s War on Gaza (1 hr.18 min)  From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States in the war.

You are invited to join us every Friday at 10:00 am MT when the American Friends Service Committee hosts an Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now.  AFSC has been working with Palestinian refugees in Gaza and elsewhere since 1947. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist, this is the best way to learn and stand together with a community of people around the country who are dedicated to building a world beyond war.  Registration link to future action hours is here.  The agenda for the Oct. 4th Action Hour follows.

AFSC’s main page on the Crisis in Gaza is here. The Action Hour Landing Page is here. 

This Action Hour is modeled on Jewish Voice For Peace’s daily power hours.

Welcome to this Action Hour

  • Moment of silence.
  • Background: AFSC has staff in Gaza, with an ongoing presence there since 1948. More information about our work here. Donations to the Gaza humanitarian appeal can be made on this link.
    • Find Yousef’s weekly update from Gaza here.
    • Take a look at the new collection of Displaced in Gaza stories on courage and kindness among loss in Gaza. 
    • Read more about the experiences of Lebanese under attack by Israel. Here’s an article on the use of white phosphorus. Read also about media bias in coverage. 
    • Jennifer was quoted in this article about the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block weapons to Israel. 

Action 1: Call Congress to demand an immediate cease-fire

  • You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the office you request.
  • You can also look up the phone numbers for your Congressperson here and your Senators here.
  • There is a suggested script on the next page of this document.
  • You can use this Action Alert from Jewish Voice for Peace to call you Senators and ask them to support a Joint Resolution of Disapproval. Here’s the fact sheet on the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval that Sen. Sanders has introduced. Watch his floor speech on the JRDs. 
  • Find compelling pro-peace polling data: here and here 
  • Send a message to the White House via their website. Send a message to the office of the vice president here. 
  • See if your member of Congress has taken action to support conditioning aid to Israel here. 
  • Read the bill information for the UNRWA Restoration Act here. Here’s some background on the bill. Use FCNL’s Action Alert to ask your Representatives to support the bill. Read Odeliya’s piece on the importance of the bill. Hassan Al-Tayyab from FCNL has also written this piece in The Hill. 
  • Tell Congress: Oppose Israel’s bombing and ground invasion of Gaza and demand a permanent cease-fire and full humanitarian access. Urge them to end all military funding to Israel and insist that Israel uphold international humanitarian and human rights law today.  
  • Tell Congress: Save lives and act to prevent the spread of a regional war. 

Action 2: Write a Letter to the Editor

Closing

Resources/ Reminders

  • Check out the new resource, Genocide Gentry, they present a preliminary dataset and analysis on key members of board members of weapons manufacturers. 
  • Check out AFSC’s divestment resource. Find guidelines for divestment, a list of recommended companies for divestment, a list of divestment wins, and more!
  • AFSC’s Corporate Accountability team is hosting weekly BDS office hours! Join them every Tuesday at 5pm PT if you need any assistance with your community’s divestment efforts. These calls are for groups with divestment campaigns, not individuals!
  • We’ve collected stories from displaced Palestinians in Gaza and are sharing them on our new Displaced in Gaza landing page. These heartbreaking stories help us to understand a little about what life is like in Gaza. 
  • Check out our Action Hour landing page for 12 great resources we’ve presented over the last 9 months. 
  • Our friends in the Action Center for Corporate Accountability at AFSC have launched an incredible new resource for divestment, the social media accounts @How2Divest on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Check out this introductory video about the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement. 
  • Keep track of which municipalities and democratic parties have called for a cease-fire with the cease-fire resolution tracker map.
  • Donate to AFSC’s work in Gaza. Or use our new peer-to-peer fundraising tool! 
  • Use this link to join an AFSC Signal group where we will post occasional actions you can take besides the ones highlighted on the Action Hour. 
  • Read this collection of testimonies from Displaced in Gaza by Palestinians in Gaza who are providing education, medicine, and more to their community. 

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