Jewish Voice for Peace

We will not stand by as forced starvation becomes a weapon of mass extermination. LET AID IN NOW. END THE BLOCKADE. STOP STARVING GAZA.

We are here at the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, refusing to leave, because our government has the power to stop the flow of weapons, lift the siege, and let unconditional and demilitarized aid into Gaza.

Israeli officials have even announced plans to forcibly transfer hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a concentration camp. As American Jews, we will not stand by as a Holocaust is carried out in our name and paid for with our tax dollars. Never again is now.

Over 100 Palestinians have died of malnutrition, and thousands more are on the brink of death. The echoes of the past are not lost on us. The images of starving Palestinians fleeing gunfire and crowded into cages awaiting aid invoke the suffering of the Nazi Holocaust.

Now, Palestinians are collapsing in the streets and dying of hunger, with the majority of Gaza experiencing the 5th stage of malnutrition — the most dangerous phase that leads to irreversible harm, even if food becomes available.

For five months, the Israeli military has imposed a total blockade on Palestinians in Gaza. Hundreds of aid trucks are lined up at the border, prevented from entering. The US-Israeli aid distribution sites have become massacre sites, as Israeli forces shoot starving Palestinians lined up for food.

Gaza is at a tipping point. The Israeli government is using starvation as a tool of genocide, and deliberately manufacturing conditions meant to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people.

Earlier today, police arrested mass numbers of Jews and people of conscience at the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand in New York City as they chanted, "Let Gaza Live," "End The Siege, and "Let Aid In Now."

STOP ARMING ISRAEL. STOP STARVING GAZA.

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, it's time for you to stop the blank check for Israeli genocide and forced starvation of Palestinians. As Jews, many of our own families were murdered or starved to death in a different genocide. We know the price of silence. We will not be silent now.

Even as the Israeli government's genocide in Gaza is more dire than ever before, the tide is shifting, and more and more people are rising up around the world.

Just yesterday, 25% percent of the US Senate voted to take action to stop the starvation of Gaza. Recent polls have shown that a majority of voters, including Jewish voters, support candidates who speak up for Palestinian freedom.

We are refusing to leave Schumer and Gillibrand's office because we know that the U.S.'s unconditional support is what enables the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

From US-made bombs destroying Palestinian homes, hospitals, and schools, to the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation overseeing the deadly aid distribution plan — which only serves to perpetuate forced starvation — at each step the US government backs the mass extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.

At every stage of the genocide, the U.S. has funded and armed Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

The four aid distribution sites in Gaza are both insufficient and lethal; Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians seeking aid.

The Israeli government's genocide has reached a tipping point, and starvation is being used as a weapon of war against more than two million Palestinians in Gaza. After five months of total Israeli military blockade, widespread hunger has escalated into a manufactured famine.

Protestors are banging empty pots and pans, answering the call from Bisan and other journalists in Gaza, as well as the National Day of Action called by the @palyouthmvmt.bsky.social, to protest the US government bankrolling Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Over 150 Jews and people of conscience are staging a sit-in at the offices of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in New York City to demand that the U.S. stop starving Gaza immediately.

Register today at:
peoplesconferenceforpalestine.org/register

We invite JVP members from across the country to join this powerful gathering of organizations, movement leaders, community members, students, artists, cultural workers, and organizers committed to the struggle for a free Palestine.

Through panels, workshops, exhibitions, and cultural performances, the conference offers an opportunity to learn, connect, and sharpen the strategies needed to advance our fight.

We will join together for a three-day gathering of organizations, collectives, movement leaders, community members, students, artists, cultural workers, and activists. This convening is a space to reflect, exchange, and strengthen our collective commitment to the struggle for a free Palestine.

That’s why JVP is honored to endorse and participate in the upcoming People’s Conference for Palestine, convened by Palestinian movement leaders from August 29–31 in Detroit, Michigan.

Join us at the People's Conference for Palestine!

As we work to break open the cracks in U.S. support for Israeli genocide, it’s all the more critical that we continue to deepen our collective strategy and keep building the mass movement for Palestinian liberation.

It is our responsibility as people of conscience to do everything we can to end the preventable suffering for millions of people and future generations of Palestinians.

The legacy of this genocide will last beyond any of our lifetimes. We’ve arrived at this point after decades of the US doing everything in its power to defend and fund the Israeli government’s policies of ethnic cleansing, land theft, and now starvation and genocide. This depravity must end.

This trauma and permanent damage may also persist and pass on to future generations in the form of poor physical and mental health.

Phase 5 of starvation means that even if starved Palestinians are given access to adequate nutrition, their bodies may never be the same and could face disease and illness for the rest of their lives.

The majority of Palestinians in Gaza, already struggling to survive the Israeli military’s incessant dropping of American-made weapons, are now at Phase 5 of starvation, a category determined by Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).