Open Letter to Mike Thompson, As Growing Yolo Numbers Demand Advocacy for an Immediate Cease-fire

Creator: Steve Eason
Creator: Steve Eason

by Nora Oldwin & Dean Johansson

On Tuesday, dozens of us gathered to demand that our Representative, Mike Thompson, acknowledge global and local opinion in opposition to the continued attacks on Gaza. As his constituents, we reiterated our expectations that our views will be represented in calling for an end to the Israeli bombing of Palestinians. With signs, and dolls representing Palestinian deaths (most have been children), we raised our voices in support of peace and justice for the Palestinians living in Israel. Our action is part of the world-wide opposition to Israel’s horrifically disproportionate response to the Hamas attack on October 7. Mike Thompson, as our representative in Government, we will continually call on you to recognize the global opposition to what Israel is doing to the Palestinians which cannot continue and must be opposed. We call on you to represent our views and act in our name by advocating for a Ceasefire Now.

We understand that Israel is a sovereign nation, and that the United States has little power to influence its decisions except through withholding arms and money. (We realize that Congress just took military aid to Ukraine and Israel out of the new bill to fund government spending, so part of that decision has been made for now.) But public opinion is critical. In aligning itself with Israel’s disproportionate response to the events of October 7, the U.S. is risking its position in the court of global public opinion. And this alignment will further erode whatever good standing we may have to exert an influence elsewhere and in the future.

We know that the US historically has seen itself as a country representing the new idea that people of every religion, race, and ethnicity could live together in a society based on concepts of individual freedom and justice, with a system designed to provide checks and balances for those in power. Our constitutional rights of speech, of expression, of the press, of worship, and of the right to criticize government represent a standard of freedom and justice upheld by law, admired as a model for democracy around the world. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is grossly antithetical to these standards. Continuing to align ourselves with the Israeli Government considering their cruel and inhumane treatment of Palestinians is deeply hypocritical and signals to the world that we are unwilling to abide by the very ideals on which we say our own country is built.

Mr. Thompson, as our representative, and as a United States Government official, we call on you to uphold the values this country enshrined in its foundational documents, and repeat our demand that you advocate for Israel to immediately, unconditionally and permanently stop the bombing of innocent Palestinian civilians.

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6 comments

  1. Gaza’s main hospital has become a ‘death zone’, says WHO
    Dar al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, has become a “death zone”, the World Health Organization has said, with a mass grave at the entrance and only 25 staff left to care for 291 seriously ill patients after orders from the Israeli army to evacuate the complex.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/19/gazas-main-hospital-has-become-a-death-zone-says-who#:~:text=Dar%20al%2DShifa%2C%20the%20Gaza,army%20to%20evacuate%20the%20complex.

        1. It simply makes no sense that 200 bodies burned beyond recognition that Israel thought were Israeli civilians could turn out to be Hamas fighters unless Israel killed people indiscriminately.

          That is the testimony of Yasmin Porat, an Israeli civilian who survived a massacre by Israeli forces at Kibbutz Be’eri.

          And the Israeli air force has admitted that it sent up more than two dozen attack helicopters which fired huge amounts of heavy cannon shells and Hellfire missiles on 7 October, even though in many cases the pilots could not tell Palestinians apart from Israeli civilians.

          “Shoot at everything,” one squadron leader told his men.

          https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-admits-burning-hundreds-people-7-october

        2. Eyewitness accounts of Israeli military shooting and shelling its own hostages in vain attempts to kill Hamas terrorists. This is on top of the mass murder of over 15,000 Palestine civilians including women and children. If the US was shooting and shelling American citizens and thousands of innocent civilians that President would be tried for impeachment.

          Leaked audio of heated meeting reveals hostages’ fury at Netanyahu

          Ynet also reported that Netanyahu’s efforts to respond to the hostages and relatives were met with tense and angry remarks.

          A female abductee freed with her children – but without her husband, who remains in captivity – is heard on one recording saying: “The feeling we had there was that no one was doing anything for us. The fact is that I was in a hiding place that was shelled and we had to be smuggled out and we were wounded. That’s besides the helicopter that shot at us on the way to Gaza.”

          Who are the hostages released during the Israel-Hamas truce?

          She adds: “You have no information. You have no information. The fact that we were shelled, the fact that no one knew anything about where we were… You claim that there is intelligence. But the fact is that we are being shelled. My husband was separated from us three days before we returned to Israel and taken to the [Hamas] tunnels” under Gaza.

          Israel has launched intense air bombardments on Gaza since Hamas’ October 7 attacks on the country, which resulted in the capture of more than 240 people. The conflict has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and led to the deaths of more than 15,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which cites sources from the Hamas-controlled enclave.

          https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/middleeast/leaked-audio-of-heated-meeting-reveals-hostages-fury-at-netanyahu/index.html

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