Jayson Massey

April 9, 2024

Since November, I have been working to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. I have communicated with my elected officials. I have written them letters, postcards, and emails and got back tame, pale, and grey responses. I even sent them spicy tweets. I helped organize a weekly Gaza vigil. None of these things worked. And while I was doing that, over 32,000 Palestinians died, along with journalists and aid workers. Per U.N. Women, thirty-seven women are killed every day in Gaza. Israeli military decimated civilian buildings like apartment buildings, hospitals, and schools. Human rights violations under Israel’s punishing apartheid have escalated to not providing or allowing aid and food into Gaza.  

Meanwhile, President Biden has been critical of Netanyahu’s campaign of pain, yet authorizes more bombs for Israel. Senator John Fetterman is even worse. Fetterman has been an enthusiastic supporter of ethnic cleansing and Jewish Senators like Schumer and Sanders have been critical of Israel yet had wrapped themselves in an Israeli flag. John Fetterman’s support hangs its hateful hat on the pure disinformation that if somehow Hamas is destroyed, then all this bloodshed will end. Even if that were possible, the devastation already brought upon Palestine is immeasurable. So, an escalation is in order.  

Which is why on Thursday, April 11, I am participating in an non-violent civil disobedience action at Senator Fetterman’s office in Old City called Seeds for Peace. We will deliver 33,000 seeds and resolve to occupy the office until Senator Fetterman issues a formal, written statement calling for an immediate, lasting ceasefire in Gaza. Arrests could happen. The point is for peace and justice in Gaza, we must step up the pressure on our elected officials and for everyday people to speak up. 

One key issue in American political reluctance to participate in Gaza peace is AIPAC. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying for pro-Israel policies and is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States. It is also one that Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) described as “a cancerous presence on our democracy and politics in general”. AIPAC has given millions in donations to U.S. Congresspeople, including $5,736,701 for former Senator and current President Joe Biden and $244,100 for current Senator John Fetterman. Also, AIPAC has arranged trips for Republican Congresspeople to visit Israel while the bill for the trip goes unmentioned. AIPAC plans on spending $100 million dollars on politicians who oppose them, including non-white progressive Congresspeople like Rashida Tlaib of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.  

A second part of this fear of fighting against Israeli revenge is the disinformation machine the Israeli government has employed to cover up the dire situation in Gaza and the war crimes alleged by the United Nations. AIPAC and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say that starving Palestinians are fake news while the United Nation says that famine is imminent. UNICEF gravely states that at least 23 children have died from malnutrition in the northern part of Gaza and that 13,450 children have been killed since October 7.  Netanyahu blames Hamas for the paucity of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, instead of admitting to reality. The Israeli government keeps a 20-foot-high wall around Palestine and run Palestinians through many hours of waiting at checkpoints just to go to work across the border. The Israeli military denies water access to Palestinians, and shoots at people who are dying to get air drops of needed supplies, like the “flour massacre,” when Israeli soldiers gunned down hundreds of people trying to get flour to feed their families. There have been many other atrocities, including imprisoning thousands of Palestinian children for the horrid crime of…throwing rocks.  

On Friday alone, I saw two other Gaza protests. One was students against the School District Of Philadelphia’s suppression of speech regarding Palestine. Another was a protest against Day and Zimmerman, which sells ammunition to Israel. Specifically, 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds, fired by Israel’s Merkava battle tanks. Rounds of these shells hit a UN school in Gaza in November and killed Hind Rajab, a six-year-old looking to flee from violence. These protests not only point out the brutality of this genocide, this is mass murder of a specific group of people to eliminate them from the earth. 

This third point is the amount of money that this genocide is providing the U.S. companies, even local ones. Yes, there are the politicians with their AIPAC funds, and Day And Zimmerman. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) uncovered an international cabal of corporations profiting from Israel’s regime of rage. And lots of this is funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Per AFSC: 

“The scale of destruction and war crimes in Gaza would not be possible without this continued flow of weapons from the U.S. Despite massive public protests, the Biden administration has been working to give Israel over $14 billion to buy more weapons. This is on top of the $3.8 billion the U.S. already gives to the Israeli military annually. Israel is required to use this money to buy U.S.-made weapons.” 

This blood money has found itself in the clutches of companies that don’t directly even make weapons, like Toyota and Ford, providing an incentive to keep this murder machine going. This is similar to Russia, which is fighting a long, drawn-out war with Ukraine to boost it’s flailing economy. 

Is there any hope for Palestine? If we are talking about active hope, we must get a clear view of reality. “We identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed.”  In this case, we want to move to a

permanent ceasefire. This requires people power to demand it and political power to agree to it. Lastly, we should take steps to move ourselves and situation in that direction.”  That for me is the action discussed. For you, dear reader, it may be a different action. The AFSC has suggestions.  Call and email your Congresspeople. Pen a letter to the editor demanding a cease-fire. Participate in Gaza protests. Lastly, donate to organizations like AFSC so they can continue their Gaza emergency response efforts.