By People’s Organization for Progress
Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress, protested U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza at the White House, Washington D.C. yesterday, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. His reasons for doing so were outlined in the letter below that was emailed to President Biden yesterday morning. Hamm was also a U.S. Senate candidate in last week’s NJ Democratic Primary Election.
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President Joseph R. Biden
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
President Biden:
The People’s Organization For Progress (POP) demands an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Israel’s war against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Towards that end we demand that you immediately halt all military and foreign aid to Israel.
Israel is waging a genocidal war in Gaza. It is committing war crimes, human rights violations and crimes against humanity. In doing so, it is violating U.S. law, international law, and United Nations conventions.
However, Israel is not alone in this endeavor. Its war is made possible by the billions of dollars of military assistance and other aid from the United States and other western nations.
In other words, the U.S. is underwriting the genocide that is being carried out by Israel in Gaza. This is in direct violation of U.S. law which prohibits the provision of foreign and military aid to countries that violate human rights.
The assistance that the U.S. is providing to Israel makes our country a partner in the genocide being carried out in Gaza. Because the U.S. is complicit in the genocide against the Palestinians it can also be held accountable and found guilty of this crime against humanity.
This war must be brought to an end immediately. The United Nations has called for it to end. The majority of the nations of the world have called for it to end. The majority of Americans have called for it to end. People in Israel have held protests for an end to the war.
President Biden, you have said that you are working to bring the war to an end. You have also said that you want a ceasefire. On the one hand you say you want peace but on the other you keep sending billions in military aid and weapons to Israel.
How can you expect to bring about peace if you keep providing money and weapons to Israel to carry out genocide against the Palestinians? It doesn’t make sense. Israel has announced that it plans to continue the war to the end of this year.
It is clear that Israel plans to continue this war until it has driven the Palestinians out of Gaza. This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against the Palestinians. It is a war of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and disproportionate force.
Mr President, we demand that you change course. You must call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. You must halt aid to Israel. And you must take whatever measures are necessary to get all the humanitarian aid that is needed into Gaza.
What Israel is doing in Gaza is an abomination. To call it war only obfuscates what is really happening there. It is slaughter. The carnage is unspeakable. The numbers of dead, wounded, orphaned, and dislocated, together with the levels of destruction, famine, and disease is to say the least apocalyptic.
For the past eight months, the People’s Organization For Progress has protested against U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. We want an end to the war and an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
I will be in Washington today to continue that protest. And we will continue to do so until the change in policy we seek is realized.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Hamm
Chairman
People’s Organization For Progress
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