By World BEYOND War, March 25, 2024
World BEYOND War’s Fairfield Chapter in Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S., held a rally in Norwalk, CT, for Gaza that made the news.
Here’s a video and article from News 12 Connecticut.
Here’s an article from Nancy on Norwalk.
These were chapter coordinator John Miksad’s remarks:
Our Government is funding, arming and providing political cover for war crimes. Western media is assisting them by telling the American people only part of the story. Despite this, a majority of our fellow citizens want an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Young people in particular, are demanding an end to the carnage. They are seeing an ethnic cleansing, genocide and war crimes with their own eyes streaming over their phones and want it to end immediately.
The statistics are horrific. The IDF’s indiscriminate bombing had killed 32,000 people, mostly women and children and injured an additional 75,000 people. An estimated 13,200 children are dead, a 1000 children have needed amputations of 1 or more limbs, and thousands more are buried under rubble. Thousands more children are now orphans. The IDF has destroyed mosques, churches, universities, schools, UN facilities and 75% of homes in Gaza.
In addition, the Israeli’s promised at the start of their invasion that they would blockade food, water, fuel and medical supplies into Gaza and they have been true to their genocidal words.
One million Palestinians are in danger of famine and many have died from disease, starvation, and their wounds because of the blockade.
Almost the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians are displaced. A refugee population are now 2nd order refugees.
Most US citizens want a ceasefire. The rest of the world wanted a ceasefire months ago as they watched this horror unfold. The US government could stop the massacre and war crimes anytime, but has allowed (and assisted) the slaughter.
We know that the ICJ determined back in January that South Africa made a plausible case that Israel was committing genocide. Israel has thumbed its nose at the ICJ and has doubled down on its illegal and immoral campaign in Gaza (and, by the way, in the West Bank as well- where 400 Palestinians have been killed since 10/7).
None of this is normal, just, or humane. Israel is now a rogue state and the U.S. is its accomplice.
We demand:
- a permanent ceasefire
- release of the hostages and of uncharged Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons
- sufficient humanitarian aid to prevent famine and start rebuilding/assisting the Palestinian people to recover from this devastation.
- a permanent solution to this 100 year old conflict, this 75 year occupation, this 15 year siege.
Our government is on the wrong side of history. It is up to us, the people, to push our government to get in line with international law, U.S. law, and humanitarian values.
One more thing. In this Orwellian world in which we live, we do not fall for the lies that genocide is self defense, that criticism of the Israeli government is racist, and the US government, Israel’s largest backer and the most powerful nation in the world, is helpless to stop the slaughter. We know that Joe Biden could end this slaughter tomorrow with strong action, rather than the empty words he has used.
