Jewish Voice for Peace denounces Israeli killings in Gaza
The death toll in Gaza is rising literally as I write – 38 people have been killed already today. By the time you’re reading this, I don’t even want to guess.
Meanwhile the US Embassy officially opened in Jerusalem: a cynical, dangerous celebration of annexation.
This is the Nakba (“catastrophe”) happening before our very eyes. All of it – the Embassy move; the very fact that 2 million people in Gaza, mostly refugees, live in essentially unlivable conditions; the sniper attacks on unarmed demonstrators and journalists.
Palestinians attacked by Israelis in the Gaza Strip. Friday Oct. 23, 2015. Copyright (C) 2015 Mohammed Asad. All Rights Reserved
It’s not just a 70th year anniversary: Palestinian human rights are being trampled at this very moment. Palestinians are being killed for defending those rights, as we speak.
Can you take 3 minutes to call your congresspeople and tell them what you think:
Take your pick of emotional reactions: rage, sadness, shame, despair – they all make sense.
Our representatives need to hear our hurt and outrage now, and they need to commit to stop Israeli attacks on unarmed demonstrators.
For my part, I want to respond with hope and resolve. It might be small, but I know I have a degree of power in this situation. And I am going to flex it.
We all have power. And we all need to be using it.
Can you take 3 minutes and click here to tell your Members of Congress what you think?
I commit to you that everyone else at JVP is working as fast and well as we can to mount a principled and effective response – changing US policy, pressuring Jewish institutions, and organizing thousands of people who will (finally) leap off the sidelines today.
No matter where you live, we are going to create ways for you to make a difference. Today, of course, tomorrow as the actual 70th year of the Nakba arrives, and as long as it takes.
But the most important thing is that we start acting now. We need to keep it simple, impact-oriented, and principled. So please, join me and call your representatives and tell them to do something to stop Israeli violence and respect basic Palestinian human rights.
Can you take 3 minutes and click here to tell your Congressperson what you think?
We’ll have a lot more to share in the coming hours and days – ways to be out in the streets, more focused legislative work, and support for reaching the people in your families and communities.
Onward,
Ari Wohlfeiler
Deputy Director
PS: Ready for the next step? Visit jvp.org/nakba-at-70 for a map of JVP actions nationwide and many many more resources.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
Click here to send Ray Hanania email.