BACKGROUND for the Pledge to Stop Genocide
The United States is providing essential military, economic, and diplomatic support for the most destructive assault in modern history[i], dropping the equivalent of two Hiroshima bombs[ii] worth of explosive power on Gaza in the first two months of the attack, killing over 21,000 Gazans[iii], wounding over 53,000[iv] and displacing nearly 2 million[v] who’ve been left with negligible shelter or safe refuge. Israel’s air strikes and ground invasion have turned Gaza’s physical infrastructure into rubble, including 364 attacks on healthcare services,[vi] the killing of 300 health staff and medics [vii], and the destruction of hospitals, of which only 9 of 36 are functioning at a minimal level.[viii] The physical devastation alone exceeds the pace and degree of previous worst cases, including US campaigns to defeat ISIS in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria in 2017.[ix]
Israel is preventing all but a trickle of food and water from reaching Gaza, as well as medical supplies, energy, and electricity, as a result of the complete siege Israel imposed on Gaza when the attack began.
Over half a million Gazans are literally starving now, and the entire population of 2.2 million is at the brink of starvation, in a food crisis that exceeds the extent and speed of the worst recent hunger disasters, including in Afghanistan and Yemen.[x] Given the squalid, over-crowded conditions, lack of sanitation, and vulnerable health of a malnourished population, infectious diseases are exploding, with 355,000 people now afflicted in what could become epidemics of mass deaths that would far outstrip the carnage so far.[xi] [xii]
Meanwhile, Israel’s nightly bombing of Gaza is live-streamed from Lebanon by Al Jazeera as millions in the region watch with horror. Regional tensions have grown beyond the breaking point and could easily engulf the region, triggering war that’s both nuclear and global. A single nuclear-armed submarine can carry the equivalent of 4000 Hiroshima bombs, enough to trigger a nuclear winter that would starve one-third of the world’s population across the globe.
In the face of this growing genocide and explosive regional tensions, the Netanyahu government is actually intensifying attacks and promising the war will go on for months.[xiii]
Eminent genocide scholars, including Israeli academics like Raz Segal [xii], and human rights officials like Craig Mokhiber who stepped down in protest from the UN High Commissioners Office for Human Rights, have described the assault on Gaza as a textbook case of genocide. This is further supported by over 800 experts in international law and genocide who sounded the alarm months ago about the possibility that genocide was underway in Gaza.[xiv]
For all these reasons we demand the Biden administration cease and desist from aiding and abetting the ongoing Israeli-US genocide of Gaza.
In addition, we demand that the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice conduct an investigation of all perpetrators of mass violence and that the ICJ issue arrest warrants against all perpetrators of mass violence, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.[xv]
Because the President and Congress are in full support of genocide, we support all peaceful means of pushing for these demands, including rallies, demonstrations, non-violent civil disobedience, boycotts, sickouts, and strikes targeting military and economic support for Israel.
Above all, we pledge to withhold political support from candidates promoting the genocidal war on Gaza. We will instead direct support to candidates who have committed to support freedom, dignity, equality, and security for all people in Palestine and Israel, and who support the demands listed in the Pledge to Stop Genocide.
[iv] Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza - 2023.12.23 Washington Post
[v] The UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are starving because of war – 2023.12.21 AP News
[vi] Gaza faces 'perfect storm' of deadly diseases – Reuters 2023.12.14
[vii] Gaza faces 'perfect storm' of deadly diseases – Reuters 2023.12.14
[viii] No 'functional' hospitals in northern Gaza, just 9 left in south: WHO - 2023.12.22 ABC News
[ix] Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza - 2023.12.23 Washington Post
[x] The UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are starving because of war – 2023.12.21
[xi] Gaza faces 'perfect storm' of deadly diseases – Reuters 2023.12.14
[xii] 'Textbook Case Of Genocide' Israeli Historian On Gaza - Breaking Points 2023.12.28 Raz Segal
[xiii] Gaza war to last months, Israel army chief says; escalation alarms UN 2023.12.27
[xiv] Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza 2023.10.17
