Permanent ceasefire in Palestine

Whereas I could’ve but didn’t broach the subject of “genocide” the absence of this term from the Apology and its rephrasing as “conflict” for example;
–Layli Long Soldier,Whereas (2017)

Whereas one genocide does not justify nor excuse another and Never Again means never again for anyone, and Never Again is now;

Whereas “genocide” is “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group” and first appeared in English between 1940 and 1945 from the Greek geno(s) “race” + cide “the act of killing”;

Whereas an estimated 750,000 people of Palestine were forcibly removed from their homes and permanently displaced and dispossessed of their land, culture, and society between 1947 and 1948;

Whereas an estimated 15,000 Palestinians were murdered in 1948 alone;

Whereas an estimated 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered since October 7, 2023;

Whereas Israel controls the water supply in Gaza and over-extracts the water supply in the Occupied West Bank for illegal Israeli settlements in the region;

Whereas water is life, and Palestinians consume an average per day of 20 liters, well under the 100 liters per day recommended by the World Health Organization;

Whereas each Israeli consumes an average of 300 liters of water per day;

Whereas 95% of the water supply in Gaza is contaminated and unfit for human consumption;

Whereas Israeli checkpoints, blockades, and daily and nightly home invasions without just cause leave Palestinian men, women, and children unable to live freely without terror of persecution and murder;

Whereas Israel targets Palestinian doctors, journalists, writers, poets, mentors, and teachers, like Dr. Refaat Alareer, and annihilates libraries, schools, and hospitals;

Whereas Israel has ignored the UN’s International Court of Justice’s “emergency ruling” that it must “take all possible measures to prevent genocidal acts, to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to genocide, and to take immediate and effective steps to ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza”;

Whereas over a million internally displaced are currently sheltering in Rafah with nowhere to go, nothing to eat, facing endless Israeli bombardment and assault, and IDF’s blockades of incoming international aid;

Whereas the Biden Administration enables this genocide by sending seemingly endless billions of dollars in aid to Israel’s genocidal regime, yet simultaneously and publicly praise resistance to oppression in other parts of the world;

Whereas the Biden Administration has continued Obama’s “War Crimes Rewards Program” for whistleblowers of genocide and oppression and call it aid, as if War Crimes were analogous to a Walgreens cashback for buying soap;

Whereas children are burying children;

Whereas we collectively lose pieces of our humanity by allowing the killings of civilians to continue;

Therefore be it resolved that we as poets, writers, artists, humans call for:

1. an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a resolution to the ongoing violence,
2. an end to the mass murder and displacement of the people of Gaza in accordance with the ICJ ruling
3. an end to the sharply escalating settler colonial violence in the occupied West Bank,
4. an end to the Occupation of Palestine and to the system of Apartheid enacted by Israel,
5. and an end to US aid to Israel, effectively ending the US’s active support for this genocide.

Sincerely,
SF Poets for Palestine

Links:
Donate (PCRF): https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate
Contact your reps (JVP): https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/email-congress-support-ceasefire/
More info (AROC): https://www.araborganizing.org/page/gaza/

In this petition:
Palestinian water supply: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/the-occupation-of-water/
Dr. Refaat Alareer: https://lithub.com/poet-and-scholar-refaat-alareer-has-been-killed-by-an-israeli-airstrike/
War Crimes Rewards Program: https://www.state.gov/war-crimes-rewards-program/