“U.S. military aid going in is pouring gasoline onto a fire. It encourages that there be military solutions, and military solutions will get more people killed.”
JEFF SCHUHRKE AND SARAH LAZARE OCTOBER 13, 2023
https://inthesetimes.com/article/gaza-palestinians-israelis-jews-unions-labor
As the Israeli military relentlesslybombards 2.4 million Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and a ground invasion appears imminent, one storied, national union — the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) — is opposing U.S. military aid for the state of Israel whose assault on the besieged strip has already taken the lives of at least 1,800Palestinians (a number that is quickly rising) and displaced more than 420,000 others. The Israeli government’s overwhelming violence comes on the heels of a surprise attack by Hamas militants on October 7 when 150 were taken hostage and more than 1,300 people, almost entirely Israelis, were killed.
“We certainly don’t support any killing, whether it’s in the form of bombs, guns, starving people through blockades, or through apartheid, from any side,” says Andrew Dinkelaker, the UE’s general secretary treasurer. “U.S. military aid going in is pouring gasoline onto a fire. It encourages that there be military solutions, and military solutions will get more people killed.”
In opposing U.S. military aid to Israel, the UE — along with some organizers, elected representatives and rank-and-file workers from other unions, as well as just a few progressive members of Congress like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D.-Mich.) and Rep. Cori Bush (D.-Mo.) — is striking in a U.S. political climate defined by unqualified bipartisan support for Israel’s newly formed, hawkish “unity” government as it uses white phosphorus and cuts off fuel, food, water and electricity to Gaza’s entire population, which is about half children.
A video has been circulating of Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying, “We are fighting against human animals.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Friday, “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’état.” In an article published Friday by Jewish Currents, Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, writes that “the assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes.”
“We certainly don’t support any killing, whether it’s in the form of bombs, guns, starving people through blockades, or through apartheid, from any side,” says Andrew Dinkelaker, the UE’s general secretary treasurer. “U.S. military aid going in is pouring gasoline onto a fire. It encourages that there be military solutions, and military solutions will get more people killed.”
After destroying roads, entire blocks and other infrastructure, the Israeli military ordered the entire population of northern Gaza — 1.1 million civilians — to evacuate to the south within 24 hours, something the United Nations says would be “impossible.”
A growing chorus of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli group B’Tselem, have said the Israeli government has embedded the conditions of apartheid and many have been sounding the alarm about the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza — which has been under a land, air and sea blockade enforced by the Israeli military since 2007. “Military action, total war, expulsion, and carpet bombing will not solve anything. They will make things worse. The immediate priority should be a ceasefire,” tweeted Jehad Abusalim, co-editor of Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire. Many have also warned about the dire situation in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers have been violent and frequently attacked Palestinians. The scope and impact of Hamas’s attack was unprecedented and hundreds of Israeli civilians, including children, were killed. Some organizations and social movement groups, and even the brother of slain Israeli Hayim Katsman, are urging that the killing of Israeli civilians should not be used to justify more civilian deaths.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/gaza-palestinians-israelis-jews-unions-labor
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