For over two years we have witnessed a genocide in Palestine. Over 50,000 confirmed deaths of civilians from children to the elderly to cancer patients have been confirmed. there are thousands more buried under the rubble of the completely flattened civilian infrastructure. All of Gaza universities, operating hospitals, and even bakeries have been completely destroyed. The surviving civilians are under a forced blockade that prevents entry of necessary, food, water, and medical aid. Now the remaining civilian population is facing acute famine. Hunger is being weaponized and imposed intentionally by Israel. They have been strongly, funded, and provisioned with aid by the United States government, both under Democratic and Republican leadership. Billions of dollars have been passed by both the Biden and Trump administrations to continue funding this madness.  This is the worst war crime in modern human history made all the more painful by all of humanity's ability to witness it, live-streamed.

As social workers and mental health professionals, we say "No!" to genocide, and demand that our government stop aiding and abetting war criminals, and focus instead on using our taxpayer dollars to help our citizens, not to destroy others.

The United States government is currently discussing a bill to cut Medicaid support. Representative Joni Ernst of Iowa said “ we’re all going to die“ when explaining why he would vote for the Medicaid cut bill. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, when a hurricane hit the country, said that we needed to focus more on getting bullets to Israel. He also recently threatened Greta Thunberg, a young woman activist who a sailing on the freedom flotilla to get aid to Gaza, by saying he hopes she knows how to swim. For context, their ship was recently illegally attacked by Israeli forces on international waters. Representative Randall Fine of Florida, a former gambling executive, said that we should nuke Gaza and is invoking rampant Islamophobia by asking for organizations such as CAIR to be designated as terrorist groups. The list goes on and on.

Our leaders care more about funding a genocide than stopping it. It is up to the people to preserve the conscience of our country, and who better to do that then those on the frontlines of taking care of the most vulnerable in America. I call on all social workers of conscience, and everyone involved with the support of the struggling American population to sign this petition to demand that our government END this genocide and focus on helping its people rather than harming others!

Gaza’s entire population is facing imminent risk of famine, and are already unjustly being herded into concentration camps for basic aid, where they are being shot at and killed. If our government continues on this path, they will be responsible not only for destroying Palestine, but also, its own people.