100 signatures reached
To: TO: Members of Congress and President Biden
Israelis, Jews, and Palestinians for Bilateral Ceasefire
We demand that Congress and the President advocate for:
- A long-term, bilateral cease-fire between Israel and Hamas effective immediately.
- Release of all Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians, especially children.
- The immediate restoration of water, fuel, electricity, and other basic services and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
- In addition, we demand that Congress require and the President support conditioning military aid given to Israel. American aid should only be given under the condition that international law is upheld. Israel is breaking multiple laws by committing war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including continuous settlement expansion and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
- Finally, we demand that the U.S Government work to create the conditions for direct peace negotiations for a political solution to bring about the end of the military occupation of the West Bank and blockade on Gaza. All Palestinians and Israelis must be able to live with security and free from oppression.
Why is this important?
We are a group of Jewish Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians of the greater DC area, calling for the end of the cycle of violence and an immediate bilateral ceasefire.
We stand with all the people of Palestine and Israel and reject the zero-sum framework that we are seeing around us. We are outraged and sickened both by the massacre, kidnapping, and rape of Israelis by Hamas and by Israel’s ongoing massacres and collective punishment in Gaza, creating a severe humanitarian crisis. In our own communities in the United States, we are shocked and saddened by those who continue to justify, encourage, and glorify the killing, destruction, and cycle of blood. We reject all anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia in our community.
We call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire as a first step to a long-term political solution. There is no military solution to this conflict. As long as the ideology of Hamas exists, Hamas cannot be completely eliminated. And as long as military occupation, settler terrorism, and economic blockades are in place over Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, peace will not be feasible.
During the temporary truce, it was made clear that the only way to bring the hostages home alive and to save the lives of Gazans is through negotiation. Continued bombing, siege, invasion, and occupation of Gaza – inflicting incalculable death and harm on innocent Palestinians - is immoral. Violence begets violence, both in the immediate and in future generations. It is time to end this dynamic in the interest of everyone in the region.
In the words of activists from the Parents Circle, an organization bringing together over 600 bereaved families from both sides of the conflict:
“The arc of history is long. Germany once tried to wipe out Jews and now exchanges ambassadors with Israel. Some day, Israel and Palestine will coexist as states, and the question is simply how many corpses will pile up before that happens. We must share this land as one state or two states or five states; otherwise, we will share this same piece of land as the graveyards of our kids.”
- Bassam Aramin, whose daughter was killed by the IDF.
“Revenge is not going to bring my parents back to life…We must break the cycle.”
-Moaz Inon, whose parents were killed by Hamas on October 7th.