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ethnic cleansing
The Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza Must End Now
How does a genocide end? And specifically, how do people of conscience, acting with majority support of the U.S. public, organize to end it?
May 23, 2025
The horrific images of children starving in Gaza, due to Israel's cruel, inhumane blockade of all humanitarian aid since early March, shock the world's conscience. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recently announced plan to distribute aid, while forcing Palestinians in Gaza to move yet again, is a spurious cover for his and U.S. President Donald Trump's ethnic cleansing scheme.
Yet concrete action to end this calamity is hard to organize. How does a genocide end? And specifically, how do people of conscience, acting with majority support of the U.S. public, organize to end it?
The lack of true democracy in the United States, so evident in domestic policy on many issues, is even worse in terms of foreign policy, especially regarding the mostly ironclad support for Israel. However, cracks are showing, and they must be exploited quickly.
Will any of these efforts, along with many others, overcome powerful political forces that perpetuate genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid against the Palestinian people?
Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) brought his S. Res. 224, calling for an end to the humanitarian blockade on Gaza, to the Senate floor. The resolution had the support of all Democrats, except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and the two Independents who caucus with the Democrats, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Angus King (I-Maine).
The resolution was predictably blocked from getting a vote by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch (R-Idaho), but was significant as no other legislative measure in the year and half since the war on Gaza began has garnered such widespread, albeit partisan support (no Republicans supported it, nor have any called for a cease-fire or cutting off U.S. weapons to Israel).
A companion resolution in the House of Representatives will be introduced very soon, and while both would be nonbinding, they represent progress in the long struggle to exert pressure on Israel, and Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem are keenly aware of U.S. political developments. Additionally, the Senate will likely soon vote on Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) to stop specific U.S. weapons transfers to Israel. Sen. Sanders forced such votes twice since November, and while they failed, the upcoming votes should attract more support, and add to the pressure on the Israeli government, which of course is opposed by most Israelis.
Legislative initiatives are far from the only strategies and tactics being employed by peace and human rights activists. Other recent and upcoming events and opportunities include the following:
Activists led by Montgomery County, Maryland Peace Action showed up at new U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks' (D-Md.) "Sick of It" rally protesting the Trump-Musk cuts to health programs, and had a strong showing about also being sick of the Gaza genocide, including confronting the senator. It may have had some impact, as she later signed onto Sen. Welch's resolution, after having been largely silent on the genocide in Gaza, and voting against Sen. Sanders' most recent JRDs.
The impressive anti-genocide commencement speech by George Washington University student Cecelia Culver has received significant media coverage. She is now shamefully being investigated by the university. Similarly, New York University student Logan Rozos condemned the Gaza genocide in his commencement speech, and the university is withholding his diploma. Both students, along with other students similarly persecuted for speaking out for an end to the horrors in Gaza, deserve support and solidarity.
Reprising and expanding an effort from last year, New Hampshire peace activist Bob Sanders is conducting a cross-country bike ride to raise awareness of the dire situation in Gaza.
Veterans for Peace and other allies are supporting a 40-day fast for Peace in Gaza.
Groups in Philadelphia will hold a People's War Crimes Tribunal on May 31, building on the difficult but necessary advocacy aimed at Sen. Fetterman.
Lastly, Do Not Turn on Us is a new initiative calling on military and National Guard personnel to refuse unlawful, fascist orders. While more aimed at stopping fascism in the United States, it certainly is a contribution to the overall movement to establish peace, human rights, and the rule of law, domestically and internationally.
Will any of these efforts, along with many others, overcome powerful political forces that perpetuate genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid against the Palestinian people? No one can know for sure, but all are worthy of support and persistence. As Ms. Culver stated, none of us are free until Palestine is free.
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How Many Dead Palestinian Children Are Enough?
This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple. The goal is to eliminate Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jerusalem.
May 20, 2025
How many dead children is it going to take before Israel and its Zionist supporters are satisfied? What is the number that needs to be met before governments in the West intervene? When will the United States and other countries stop selling weapons and funding the genocide of children? This is a serious question.
Because after 19 months of genocide, Israel has reportedly killed17,400 children. Many more are buried under rubble and presumed dead, but not included in this running total of children killed.
Clearly, 17,400 is not enough dead children, since Israel continues to kill one child in Gaza every 45 minutes, an average of 30 children killed every day.
As a Jew, I am well aware that Israel has been systematically killing children for 77 years. This is not new. What is new is the world is watching children blown to literal pieces.
As of March 2, Israel has cut off all aid to Gaza. Israel has blocked food, water, and medicine from reaching the 2.3 million people in Gaza. “A million children in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid. Their lives are hanging in the balance,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The United Nations’ emergency relief coordinator said the halting of humanitarian aid amounts to “cruel collective punishment.”
The human beings under siege in Gaza are not starving; they are being deliberately starved. There is a very clear distinction between the two.
But apparently, it’s still not enough dead children. Israel broke the latest cease-fire agreement on March 18. The Gaza Health Ministry says2,326 people, including732 children, have been killed since that day when Israel shattered the truce. The overall death toll since the war broke out is at 52,418.
Again, how many dead children are enough?
Zionists answer that they want their hostages back. And yet Israel continues to break cease-fires and fails to agree to further “prisoner”-for-hostage swaps. Does anyone honestly believe that Israel’s intentions are to bring home the hostages? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently admitted that it’s not about the hostages, it’s about eliminating Hamas.
This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple. The goal is to eliminate Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jerusalem, the same goal Israel has had since 1948 during the Nakba, translated as the catastrophe, referring to the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Before the Nakba, Palestine was a multiethnic and multicultural society. Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. To this day, a large portion of the Palestinian population remains refugees, living in camps.
As a Jew, I am well aware that Israel has been systematically killing children for 77 years. This is not new. What is new is the world is watching children blown to literal pieces, and having limbs torn off by United States missiles, while watching on their smartphones. They are watching schools and mosques being bombed. Hospitals. Bakeries. Journalists. NGOs providing food and aid.
Again, how many dead children is enough?
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Condemnation of Israel's Starvation and Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza Intensifies—Even From Within
"A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population," said one formerp Israeli lawmaker.
May 20, 2025
International outrage over Israel's intensified Gaza onslaught is mounting along with the death toll from airstrikes and forced starvation as a trio of Western leaders threatened "concrete actions" if the genocidal assault and siege on the Palestinian enclave don't stop—and as even prominent Israeli voices denounced their country's actions.
On Monday, the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, and Canada issued a rare joint statement strongly opposing the expansion of Israel's latest offensive, dubbed Operation Gideon's Chariots, which aims to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population, possibly to make way for Jewish recolonization as advocated by many right-wing Israelis.
"Yesterday's announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate," the statement asserted. "We call on the Israeli government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza."
Five truckloads of humanitarian aid entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Monday, The Times of Israelreported. Israeli authorities gave the United Nations permission for about 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza on Tuesday. This is a mere fraction of the at least 500-600 daily trucks needed to fulfill Gaza's tremendous humanitarian needs.
"Yesterday's announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate."
"The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching international humanitarian law," the leaders added. "We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law."
Numerous Israeli officials have endorsed the forced starvation of Palestinians as a means to coerce them into leaving parts of Gaza. After calling for the "total annihilation" of Gaza earlier this month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sought to soothe those who decried his government's decision to allow a trickle of aid into the strip by assuring them Monday that "we're destroying Gaza."
The three leaders' statement stresses that "we will not stand by" while the government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "pursues these egregious actions."
"If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response," the leaders warned.
Shifting to the illegally occupied West Bank—where Israel is pushing ahead with a major land grab and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and civilian settler-colonists are killing, wounding, and forcibly displacing Palestinians—the joint statement added: "We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians."
"We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions," the leaders vowed.
"Further action" was afoot Tuesday as the U.K. announced it is suspending negotiations with Israel on a free trade agreement, explaining that "it is not possible to advance discussions on a new, upgraded FTA with a Netanyahu government that is pursuing egregious policies in the West Bank and Gaza."
U.K. Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer reiterated the "government's opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza and emphasize that the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible."
The U.K. also announced sanctions targeting three far-right Israeli extremists, including settler leader Daniella Weiss, as well as three illegal settlement outposts and two groups "that have supported, incited, and promoted violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank."
The British move stands in stark contrast with the Trump administration's reversal of sanctions imposed on a handful of Israeli settlers during the tenure of former President Joe Biden. Both Trump and Biden have lavished Israel with billions of dollars in armed aid and staunch diplomatic support. Trump has proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza and the transformation of the razed strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Netanyahu hit back at France, the U.K., and Canada on Tuesday, accusing the allies of "offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities."
More than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed and over 250 people taken hostage by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023. An unknown number of Israelis were also killed by so-called "friendly fire" and under the Hannibal Directive, which authorizes lethal force against IDF soldiers in order to prevent them from being taken prisoner by enemy forces.
Also on Tuesday, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin urged Western governments to "economically and strategically isolate" Israel over Operation Gideon's Chariots.
"After the reoccupation of Gaza, the second step will be deportation," de Villepin said. "The political objective of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government is the deportation of the population of Gaza, which is the hallmark of ethnic cleansing."
De Villepin said that "there are three things that must be done immediately," including the suspension of the European Union's trade and cooperation agreement with Israel, an arms embargo, and referral of Israeli officials to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"If you want to stop what is happening today, you must make it clear to Israel that there will be a before and an after," de Villepin added.
The Hague-based ICC has already issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including extermination and forced starvation. Israel is also facing a genocide case before the International Court of Justice.
The E.U.—which is Israel's largest trading partner— said Tuesday that it would review the wide-ranging trade and cooperation pact, citing a provision stating that relations "shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles."
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said she would push for more punitive measures, including "sanctions against individual Israeli ministers."
"Israeli forces have begun a full-scale invasion to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from Gaza."
In the United States, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress,
said Monday on social media that "Israeli forces have begun a full-scale invasion to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from Gaza."
"War criminal Netanyahu announced plans to forcibly expel the entire population and permanently occupy the land," she added. "This is the final stage of their genocide. World leaders must impose sanctions and a full arms embargo."
More Israelis are also condemning their country's actions in Gaza. On Monday, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem accused Israel of "carrying out a deliberate, systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip" in a
social media post showing that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent days.
Overall, more than 53,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 121,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since October 2023, with at least 14,000 others missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Millions more have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened by Israel's assault and siege.
Israeli Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh said Monday that Israel's planned location of humanitarian aid distribution centers suggests a more sinister motive:
The idea... is that anyone who comes from the north of the Gaza Strip to the dividing center will not be able to return north of the Netzarim corridor, but will be forced to stay south of the Netzarim corridor. This will be a "one-way ticket," and it will effectively force the Gazan population to come south of the Netzarim axis if they want to receive food. In this way, Israel intends to expedite and promote the evacuation of the Gazan population from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south. In this way, Israel believes, it will be possible to completely empty the northern Gaza Strip of its population.
"Despite dozens of evacuation notices, there always remained in the northern Gaza Strip a hard core of 200-300 thousand Gazans who refused to leave the south of the Netzarim axis," Kadosh added. "This time, Israel believes, it is a plan that will leave the Gazans no choice—and will force them to evacuate south."
Progressive former Israeli lawmaker Yair Golan—a decorated general who once served as deputy IDF chief of staff—faced sharp rebuke Tuesday after calling for the ouster of Netanyahu's "vengeful, unintelligent, and immoral" government.
During an interview with public broadcaster Kan, Golan said that Israel is "on the path to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa once was, if it does not return to acting like a sane country."
"A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population," Golan asserted.
Netanyahu responded by calling IDF troops "the most moral in the world."
"Golan and his friends on the radical left are echoing the most despicable antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel," the prime minister added.
Meanwhile, United Nations experts warned that Israel's forced starvation—which has already killed at least scores of Gazans, mostly children and the elderly—could kill as many as 14,000 infants in the next two days unless the amount of aid entering the strip increases dramatically.
"We are witnessing, in real time, the deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare," Human Rights Watch
said Monday. "Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine."
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