'The Israeli government is using genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians ... We as Jews know all too well how dangerous this rhetoric is, the way in which the unthinkable becomes acceptable when we deny people their humanity.' —Stephanie Fox Jewish Voice for Peace thenation.com/article/world/…

Fady Joudah.

What can we do about Israel & Palestine? Call your reps! Oppose our complicity with genocide. It is dire that Biden & Congress demand a ceasefire & insist on humanitarian aid & stop arming the Israeli government. The tool on Jewish Voice for Peace makes it easy to call: jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/urgen…

Ordering 1.1 million Palestinians to relocate is ethnic cleansing. This is a genocide in the making. nytimes.com/live/2023/10/1…

'For people who feel like their pain is being devalued, it’s because it is; and that devaluation is itself a hallmark of the cycle of the diminishing value of human life.' — truly incredible letter from Jewish Currents & Arielle Angel

We also mourn for Israeli civilians - our families, friends, partners. Yet we find it shocking that our members of Congress cannot treat the deaths of Palestinian civilians with a single ounce of humanity. It is utterly disgusting.

Breaking: Human Rights Watch has confirmed—based on verified video & witness accounts—that Israel used white phosphorus in Gaza & Lebanon. White phosphorus causes excruciating burns—causing lifelong suffering—& can set homes afire. Its use in populated areas is unlawful hrw.org/news/2023/10/1…

What kind of times are these when compassion is viewed as compromise?

Just an incredible piece from Israel's oldest running newspaper, Haaretz. The kind of writing that would certainly result in accusation of anti-semitism in the US. It's paywalled so I cut and pasted the whole op-ed into tweets below. It's worth the read. THREAD

If your political side keeps you from grieving over the deaths of innocent children, or if you spend your time & intellect rationalizing their murder as a type of necessary collateral damage, then you're spiritually & morally lost & fail your cause, regardless of its legitimacy.

'This is the work I see for us now ... never to bend toward or consent to be rewarded for trivializing ourselves, our people, or each other.” —Adrienne Rich

The struggle for human rights does not differentiate between blood. The legitimacy of the struggle for rights of one nation cannot be an excuse to decimate the rights of another. That is a basic principle: not only of international law, but of simple moral decency.

We have been sold a lie: that hardening our hearts to the humanity of others will keep us safe. That our hearts cannot hold multiplicities of loss and grief.

We won't close ourselves off to the cries of fellow human beings who feel just as deeply &love just as fiercely as we do

This all feels so painful.

It seems like you have two choices:

Justify the abduction and mass murder of Israelis by Hamas?

Or 'stand with' the Israeli government's starvation and vengeance on 2 million Palestinians, most of them children, caged in an open air prison?

No.

1/

We should hold each other more
while we are still alive, even if it hurts.

- Robin Beth Schaer, 'Holdfast' 🖤