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by Alice Leibowitz, CT Mirror
May 14, 2025
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The Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group calls for the U.S. government to end its unconditional support of the Israeli government’s violence against the Palestinian people.
This call is in response to atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, in Gaza and the West Bank, during the past 19 months, and for decades prior. For over six decades, the U.S. has provided military aid totaling hundreds of billions of dollars (adjusted for inflation). This aid has supported Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people and its seizing of their land and land from neighboring countries.
The magnitude of attacks against Palestinian civilians since October 2023 has been determined to be genocide by Amnesty International and others, as well as ethnic cleansing. The U.S. has the moral obligation to stop providing aid to Israel in the form of military weapons and technology, and to support the rebuilding of Gaza’s infrastructure.
The ceasefire that began January 18 ended when Israel resumed military strikes in Gaza on March 18. It is essential that the U.S. use its considerable influence to ensure that a permanent ceasefire be established, which needs to include (as outlined by Jewish Voice for Peace): (1) withdrawal of Israeli military from Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon and Syria; (2) guaranteed unrestricted aid and reconstruction for Gaza; and (3) Israel being held accountable for its crimes against humanity.
Israel’s heightened military actions in Gaza during the past 19 months have created an outsized number of deaths and level of mass destruction. Israel has killed at least 50,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children. This is over 41 times the 1,200 deaths reported to have been caused by the October 7 Hamas attack. While no number of civilian deaths is ever acceptable, this is an unfathomable ratio.
Since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, at least 673 Palestinians have been killed. In addition to those killed, there have been over 110,000 Palestinians wounded, approximately 90% of Gaza’s population displaced, and 69% of structures in Gaza damaged or destroyed.
At least 169 journalists and media workers, and over 500 healthcare workers have been killed. The unprecedented and deliberate destruction of healthcare facilities, crops, livestock and water sources, and the obstruction of entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip have led to extreme hunger and catastrophic spread of disease.
Compounding the horror that is occurring in Gaza, for the past 19 months, the Israeli government has supported increased Jewish settlements (held to be illegal under international law) in occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank and ramped up violent repression of Palestinians living there, further destroying Palestinians’ ability to live peacefully.
Some hearing these numbers will say, “What about October 7, 2023? Isn’t this self-defense?” It’s true that Hamas and other armed factions attacked Israel that day, taking 241 captives and killing up to 1,200 people (mostly Israelis). This act has been rightly condemned internationally. However, the Israeli government’s extremely disproportionate response is clearly not justifiable as self-defense. It amounts to the annihilation of a people. Israel’s actions have been condemned as war crimes and crimes against humanity by the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, numerous humanitarian groups, and multiple countries worldwide.
While the October attack was not directly provoked by a single Israeli action, Palestinians have suffered much at the hands of the Israeli government prior to 2023. Since 1948, Israel’s policies – including massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of citizenship and equal rights to Palestinians — are considered apartheid under international law according to Amnesty International and others. For many years Gaza has been essentially an open-air prison.
The Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group advocates for a permanent ceasefire, a ban on weapons and other military aid supplied by the U.S. to Israel, and the end of U.S. support for Israeli acts that the world recognizes as genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The U.S. must convey to Israel that military and colonial expansion into Palestinian territory is not acceptable. The proposed clearing of Palestinian people from Gaza coupled with taking over the Gazan waterfront for luxury real estate development is abhorrent. This greed-fueled ethnic cleansing must be rejected.
Reconstruction of Gaza’s infrastructure will take many years and must be led by Palestinians. We believe that any solution to this crisis must be based on the commitment to secure the conditions for both Palestinians and Israelis to live with peace, dignity and justice.
Footnotes to materials used to prepare this commentary.
Alice Leibowitz is a member of the Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group.
