I am a resident of Yonkers, NY, and the ongoing conflict in Gaza deeply affects me. Please sign our petition to the Yonkers City Council to pass a ceasefire resolution.

On October 7th, armed Hamas militants broke through the walls Israel had erected around Gaza (to try to prevent Palestinians expelled in 1948 and their descendants from defending their stolen homes, the killing of their family members, and the desecration of their holy sites), resulting in 1139 (?)   deaths of Israelis and foreign workers inside Israel that day.  Since then, Israel has kept the people of Gaza under constant bombardment while barring entry of food, medicine, and clean water and fuel, also turning off electricity and preventing sewage disposal, causing mass starvation and pervasive illness.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israel’s military actions have killed more than 30,000 people, the majority women and children.  Another 8000 are missing and presumed dead under the rubble of their homes, over half of which have been destroyed -along with two-thirds of Gaza’s hospitals, all of its libraries and universities and hundreds of mosques and churches - some hundreds of years old - razing Gaza’s history and cultural heritage.  In further assault on the future of the Palestinian people, Israel has assassinated many of Gaza’s leading writers, poets, physicians and educators. In an apparent effort to hide these crimes from the world, the Israeli Defense Forces have also assassinated nearly 100 reporters - including three Israelis.

Three courts have declared it plausible that in the name of self-defense, Israel is committing genocide. And now, having forcibly herded over half of the 2.3 million population of Gaza into the small southern city of Rafah, Israel has begun invading Rafah, too, while the world watches in horror - and the US continues to send weapons. 

This is not just an international issue; it's personal. It's about humanity and our shared responsibility to protect it.

This violence has resulted in countless innocent lives lost, families torn apart, and communities destroyed.

Please join us in urging the City of Yonkers to demand an immediate ceasefire by passing the following resolution: 

1. Calls for a permanent ceasefire to all hostilities in Gaza; and
2. Condemns the killing of civilians, collective punishment, and all forms of Islamophobia and antisemitism; and
3. Urges the Biden Administration to call for and facilitate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza; and
4. Urges the Biden Administration to send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza; and
5. Calls for the release of all hostages and political prisoners; and
6. Urges elected officials representing the City of Yonkers to call for a permanent ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the release of all hostages; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that upon passage, a copy of this Resolution shall be sent to the Office of U.S. President Joe Biden, the Office of U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Office of U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Office of U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, the Office of State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Office of State Senator Shelley Mayer, the Office of State Assembly Member Nader Sayegh, the Office of State Assembly Member Gary Pretlow and the Office of State Assembly Member Mary Jane Shimsky.