Over 375 former Bernie Sanders staffers urge senator to introduce ‘ceasefire now’ Senate resolution

Over 375 former Bernie Sanders staffers urge senator to introduce ‘ceasefire now’ Senate resolution

Dear Senator Sanders,
We, the undersigned, worked for you in your 2016 and 2020 campaigns because we share your principles that all human lives are precious, and that all people deserve dignity, peace, and justice. We saw in your candidacy a chance to make life better for oppressed people in the United States, and all across the world. Working on your campaign was a seminal moment in all of our lives, and has profoundly impacted our politics and our sense of what is possible. In that spirit of deep admiration, we write today to ask you, as one of the strongest advocates for peace and justice in Congress, to once again stand for what is right and speak the truth when so many others will not.

Throughout your career, you have spoken with moral clarity on the issues in Israel and Palestine. We saw you bring the truth of the Palestinian reality under military occupation to the forefront in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, and in doing so, change public attitudes on these issues across the country. It is largely because of your advocacy that Democratic voter sympathies made a major historical shift this past year toward Palestinian rights. Today, we’re asking you to use your power, the respect you have across the United States and globe, to clearly and boldly stand up against war, against occupation and for the dignity of human life.

While your statements thus far have called for “the bombs and missiles from both sides” to end, we urge you to stand with those in the U.S. House of Representatives who have introduced a formal resolution calling for a ceasefire in the region. We know the violence did not begin on October 7, but that day, Hamas’ brutal attack killed more than 1,400 Israeli civilians, including children in their homes and young people attending a music festival.

But instead of seeking long-term peace and prioritizing the release of 200 Israelis held hostage by Hamas, the right-wing Netanyahu government is choosing to respond by indiscriminately bombing Gaza and cutting off access to food, water, and electricity. Gaza, home to 2 million people, most of whom are children, has been under siege for nearly two decades. In the weeks since October 7, Israel has launched airstrikes day and night, killing more than 5,000 civilians in Gaza. The Israeli military has wiped out entire families and killed thousands of people with hopes and dreams, children with their entire lives ahead of them, mothers, fathers, siblings, and grandparents who longed for freedom. Over 1 million people have been displaced in the already densely-populated Gaza Strip. Israeli officials, who use genocidal language calling Palestinians “human animals” and an Israeli President who suggested all the people of Gaza are guilty for the October 7 attack, are committing war crimes in broad daylight, including depriving Palestinians in Gaza of clean water, fuel, and food, as well as targeting air strikes on hospitals, schools, churches and UN shelters.

There is no justification for Israel’s actions over the past weeks. And recent news that Israel has escalated the conflict even further by arming settlers and launching an air strike on the West Bank for the first time since 2006, is a horrifying step towards a future in which the United States could get dragged into another protracted regional war in the Middle East. [Continue reading…]

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