Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including bombings of schools, hospitals, and murder of innocent civilians in Israeli-declared “safe zones,” is an abomination. We also condemn Hamas’ obscene massacre and hostage taking of more than 1,000 innocent Israeli civilians. Both are war crimes against civilians, and one cannot justify the other.
We repeat our call of October 8, 2023, for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages and prisoners of war, and for negotiations leading to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the bases of mutual recognition of the rights to national self-determination and security for Palestinians and Israelis. In making this appeal, we join with the International Court of Justice which has ordered a ceasefire, and with the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for cessation of hostilities, return of at least some prisoners, and for negotiations toward a more complete settlement.
More than 70% of Palestinian dwellings in Gaza have been destroyed. More than 40,000 Gazans – the majority of them innocent women and children – have been killed. Three times that number have been wounded and maimed. Israel’s enforced famine is starving to death Palestinian children.
Netanyahu and his racist extreme right-wing government have severely isolated Israel and placed its leadership and Israel in a no-win situation. The IDF cannot completely destroy Hamas along with militant Palestinian nationalism, nor can Netanyahu politically afford to lose the war. This has led some Israel leaders to try transforming the war into a broader regional conflict that would bring U.S. forces more completely behind the Israeli Defense Forces. At this writing there are growing concerns about increasing military tensions on the Israeli and Lebanese border. Neither the Netanyahu government nor Hamas have fully accepted the U.N. Security Council’s June 10 resolution that requires an unconditional acceptance of a ceasefire, release of hostages, and longer-term negotiations leading to a permanent end to hostilities.
Despite its efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, the Biden Administration is deeply complicit in what is increasingly recognized as genocide. The U.S. continues to provide Israel’s extremist government with diplomatic cover by refusing to endorse most ceasefire resolutions in the U.N. Security Council, and it has opposed South Africa’s International Court of Justice charge of genocide as well as the ICJ’s ceasefire order. Contrary to the limits imposed by the Leahy Law prohibiting arms sales to military units responsible for human rights violations, the U.S. continues to provide the IDF with offensive weapons. It refuses to exercise its enormous leverage over the Israeli government to force a ceasefire and to end Israel’s near-complete blockade of food, water, and fuel to Gaza.
CPDCS calls for:
- Immediate and enduring ceasefire
- Urgent delivery of food, water, and fuel to the people of Gaza
- Release of all Israeli hostages and Palestinian political prisoners
- End to settler violence and land seizures
- End to U.S. shipment of offensive weapons to Israel
- Diplomacy leading to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis mutual recognition of the rights to national self-determination and security, with reference to U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338