More than 500 former Democratic Party staffers have signed an open letter on Monday urging US President Joe Biden to “hold Israel accountable for its actions” in and over Gaza and take “concrete steps” to end Israeli occupation of the Palestine.
The letter was signed by staffers and organizers who worked either directly at Biden’s national campaign headquarters, at the Democratic National Committee or at state Democratic parties that worked to campaign for Biden.
“The very same values that motivated us to work countless hours to elect you demand that we speak out in the aftermath of the recent explosive violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, which is inextricable from the ongoing history of occupation, blockade, and settlement expansion. We remain horrified by the images of Palestinian civilians in Gaza killed or made homeless by Israeli airstrikes,” the letter added.
“We are outraged by Israel’s efforts to forcibly and illegally expel Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah. We are shocked by Israel’s destruction of a building housing international news organizations. We remain horrified by reports of Hamas rockets killing Israeli civilians.”
The former staffers argued that it’s ‘critical to acknowledge the power imbalance between Palestine and Israel.
“While Israelis had to spend nights hiding in bomb shelters, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had nowhere to hide. It is critical to acknowledge this power imbalance — that Israel’s highly-advanced military occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem and blockades the Gaza Strip, creating an uninhabitable open-air prison,” the letter argued. “While we should never reduce the loss of human life to numbers, Palestinians have suffered hundreds of casualties, demonstrative of Israel’s power over Palestinians and its penchant for disproportionate responses. Israel’s protracted refusal to consider a ceasefire also put Israelis in harm’s way, prolonging the violence of Hamas’s barrage of rockets and Israel’s air strikes — a cycle that is bound to repeat itself as long as we allow the status quo to stand, where Palestinians have no freedom and Israel controls their lives in perpetuity.”
“We appreciate your recent work to broker a temporary peace, and we also acknowledge that a temporary peace is not a suitable long-term resolution. We are firm in our belief that it is time for your administration to take concrete steps to end the occupation in pursuit of justice, peace, and self-determination for Palestinians,” the letter added.
The move, according to the Guardian, comes amid a deepening split in Democratic ranks, between some vocal members of its progressive wing – such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez – and more centrist figures including those who have taken a consistently pro-Israel stance in the past.
Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA