On May 14th, 2024, Representative Claudia Tenney emailed me, “On April 20, 2024, I voted for H.R. 8034, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. This bill provides Israel with $26.38 billion." Senator Chuck Schumer released a statement on April 20th, 2024 parroting similar remarks, "Today’s vote is a watershed moment for the defense of democracy, and I applaud the House for stepping up." Senator Kirsten Gillibrand shared the same sentiment, "I was proud to vote for the bipartisan national security supplemental." 

Here's the problem with our two Senators and Representative praising the billions in military aid, economic aid, and weapons that would go to Israel: On May 2nd, as reported by Amnesty International, "250 humanitarian and human rights organizations... have signed a letter calling on all states to immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups." Five months prior on December 5th, 2023, Amnesty International was "calling for a comprehensive UN Security Council arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and other armed groups that covers the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of arms and military material, including related technologies, parts and components, technical assistance, training, financial or other assistance." A month earlier, on November 6th, 2023, Human Rights Watch drew the same conclusion, "Israel’s key allies—the United States... should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel so long as its forces commit widespread, serious abuses amounting to war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity." On April 4th, 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council wrote, "The Council called upon all States to take immediate action to prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within or from Gaza, and to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel."

We the people should petition Senator Gillibrand, Senator Schumer, and Representative Tenney to increase the aid to Gaza and implement an arms embargo on Israel. The same petition signed by 134,000 Americans called on the US Congress to immediately stop sending weapons to Israel. The same petition that Jewish Voice for Peace called for. The Israeli Non-Profit and Legal Organization, Gisha, and "five human rights organizations in Israel filed a petition calling on Israel’s High Court to order the Israeli government, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to enable access of all humanitarian aid, equipment and staff to Gaza [and]... to significantly increase the volume of aid to Gaza."

It's a simple ethical point, we're responsible for the predictable consequences of our actions. What we can affect. The United States has provided Israel with military aid, economic aid, and ideological support as Israel has turned Gaza into a humanitarian disaster where there is "full-blown famine" all across the Gaza Strip. It would not happen without American taxpayer money.

On July 9th, 2024, 10 independent United Nations Human Right Experts, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, reported, "The recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition leaves no doubt that famine has spread across the entire Gaza strip... When the first child dies from malnutrition and dehydration, it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold... We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza." On June 25th, 2024, Save the Children reported, “Nearly the entire population of the Gaza strip, or 96% of the population, are facing acute food shortages, with more than 495,000 people including children facing starvation due to an extreme lack of food ...We’re seeing increases in children with diarrhea, jaundice, and respiratory conditions, which are all the illnesses that, when combined with extreme hunger, can kill a child in days. In a way it’s very simple… children [are] dying from starvation and malnutrition… all children in Gaza are at risk of famine.” On June 24th, 2024, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported, “A total of 49 child deaths in the Gaza Strip have been attributed to hunger and food insecurity, and an additional 3,500 children are at risk of death from malnutrition… They are currently suffering greatly from thin bodies, unusually pale faces, and dull eyes due to the widespread phenomenon of emaciation, acute weakness, and epidemics… The United States Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) stated on 31 May that northern Gaza has been experiencing a famine since at least 1 April.” On June 18th, 2024, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at the 56th session of the Human Rights Council stated, “[In Gaza] Killings and injuries of civilians have become a daily occurrence. Destruction of vital infrastructure a daily occurrence... Children shot at. Hospitals bombed. Heavy artillery launched on entire communities." On June 11th, 2024, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr stated, “Almost 3,000 children [with] moderate and severe acute malnutrition in southern Gaza [are] at risk of death… Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes due to the continued lack of food, nutrition supplies, and the destruction of healthcare service… these 3,000 children, they are at immediate and serious risk of … joining the growing list of boys and girls who have been killed by this senseless, man-made deprivation… Our warnings of mounting child deaths from a preventable combination of malnutrition, dehydration and disease should have mobilized immediate action to save children’s lives, and yet, this devastation continues… With hospitals destroyed, treatments stopped and supplies scant, we are poising for more child suffering and deaths.” On June 12th, 2024, Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) said, “In Gaza, half of the population – more than one million people – is expected to face death and starvation by the middle of July… Only technicalities prevent famines from being declared, as people are already dying of hunger.” On June 17th, 2024,  Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for OCHA wrote in the New York Times, “Israel and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza… has turned the blockade-impoverished enclave into hell on earth…  the obviously appalling impact of the war on civilians.” On June 4th, 2024, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Hanan Balkhy, said that “some citizens in Gaza are now reduced to drinking sewage water and eating animal feed… Children can barely eat... The UN has long warned that famine is looming in Gaza, with 1.1 million people, around half of the population, facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.” On June 5th, 2024, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported, “Karin Huster, a nurse with MSF [said] we have seen hospitals being bombed. We have seen refugee camps being bombed. We have seen humanitarian warehouses being bombed. The situation is apocalyptic… These repeated mass casualty incidents that happen day after day after day—especially in Al-Aqsa Hospital… This is a manmade catastrophe.” On June 5th,  the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned, "Catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with starvation and death already taking place, alongside the unprecedented death toll, widespread destruction and displacement of nearly the total population of the Gaza Strip… In mid-March 2024, famine was projected to occur by the end of May… Over one million people – half the population of Gaza – are expected to face death and starvation (IPC Phase 5 - Famine) by mid-July." On May 28th, 2024, 20 aid agencies including CARE International, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, and Save the Children International reported, “Aid agencies now fear an acceleration in deaths from starvation, disease and denied medical assistance… Gaza’s health system has been effectively dismantled [by Israeli bombadment]… Medical workers across Gaza say patients are dying daily due to a shortage in medical supplies, as doctors, nurses, and other health workers continue to be killed or forcibly displaced [by Israeli bombadment].” On the same day, May 28th, 2024, Chris Lockyear, the Secretary-General for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated, “Civilians are being massacred. They are pushed into areas designated as safe for them, where they are subjected to relentless airstrikes… Hundreds of thousands of civilians are victims of collective punishment that has lasted for [ten] months.” On May 26th, 2024, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported, “All relevant official authorities and competent UN and international institutions should officially declare famine in the Gaza Strip in light of the current rapid spread of famine and the rates of acute malnutrition and its expansion geographically and among all groups, especially among children, said 70 organizations in a joint statement on Saturday… The majority of Gaza's population already suffers from extreme hunger… Hundreds of thousands of children and elderly individuals, in particular, are experiencing emaciation. While health authorities have officially recorded 30 deaths due to famine, estimates suggest that famine-related deaths occur nearly daily, compounded by bombings and inadequate medical treatment.” On May 26th, 2024, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) stated, “Half of all people in Gaza are at risk of imminent famine, including an estimated 15,000 pregnant women.  This is incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable… the doors to aid are closed, the gates to starvation are opened.” On May 20th, 2024, UN News reported the words of Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "We are running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these and worse… More than [38,700] people have been killed and [89,100] wounded." On May 6th, 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “Gazans continue to be hit with bombs, disease, and even famine… This is inhumane. It runs contrary to the basic principles of international humanitarian and human rights laws, which have the effective protection of civilians as their overriding concern… women and children [make] up over 70 percent of the more than [127,800] killed, wounded and missing. Enough of the killing.” On May 3rd, 2024, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, said during an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC's ‘Meet The Press’, “parts of the Gaza Strip are experiencing a ‘full-blown famine’ that is rapidly spreading throughout [Gaza].” On May 5th, 2024, The Times of Israel, the New York Times, and CNN reported, “Northern Gaza is experiencing a ‘full-blown famine’ which is rapidly spreading across the strip… ‘What I can explain to you is – is that there is famine – full-blown famine,’.” On March 21st, 2024, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child reported, “Children in Gaza are starving to death... Children in Gaza can no longer wait, as each passing minute risks another child dying of hunger as the world looks on… Famine… is expected to occur anytime between now and May 2024, experts from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projected. The IPC also estimated that half of the population of the Gaza Strip, approximately 1.11 million people, will face catastrophic [levels of hunger and starvation].” On April 16th, 2024, United Nations (UN) Women reported, “UNICEF have called Gaza the ‘most dangerous place to be a child’. The people of Gaza are in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe. Four in five Gazans already face hunger and starvation, according to the World Food Programme, and there is risk of famine… 10,000 Palestinian women in Gaza have been killed, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned. Women who have survived Israeli bombardment and ground operations have been displaced, widowed, and facing starvation. This devastating differentiated impact continues to make the war on Gaza also a war on women... More than one million Palestinian women and girls in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger, with almost no access to food, safe drinking water, functioning toilets or running water, creating life-threatening risks.”  On April 5th, 2024, The President & CEO of Save The Children said, “In Gaza… [more than 16,000] children have been needlessly and violently killed, thousands more are missing, presumed buried under the rubble… children are now dying from malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza. Denied food and water by a brutal and illegal blockade, they have been starved to death… Almost 350,000 children under the age of 5 are at risk of starvation as we speak.” To quote James Elder, “[In Gaza] young people… tell me that they hope a missile hits their tent and ends this.” 

Sign for an Arms Embargo to Stop the Famine in Gaza 

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