Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in Common Dreams.
The activist organization Veterans For Peace, with chapters in over 100 US cities and several countries, is calling for urgent action to end the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, to defend the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, and to free a disabled veteran kidnapped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Israel’s deliberate and systematic genocide in Gaza is taking a critical turn to even greater death and destruction, with Israel’s full onslaught of Gaza City and the displacement (again) of millions. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been martyred. Children are starving to death while the whole world watches in horror.
Why won’t the United Nations or the countries of the world put a stop to the daily bombing and cruel starvation? In the United States, the Zionist lobby is strong and ensures bipartisan political support for Israel, no matter what it does. The US is a full partner in the genocide, as well as in the Israeli attacks on many neighboring countries. It provides the bombs, the planes, and military “intelligence,” and even joins in the bombing, as in Yemen and Iran. It also provides political cover for Israel in international forums. The US has repeatedly used its veto in the UN Security Council to block any actions to censure Israel and end the genocide. US companies continue to profit from doing “business as usual” with Israel.
In the absence of any meaningful action by the world’s governments, a global citizens’ movement has arisen and is currently gathering steam. The Global Sumud Flotilla, with people from 44 countries, is boldly sailing toward Gaza with the intention of breaking the Israeli naval siege and delivering humanitarian aid. Significantly, this humanitarian armada includes a Veterans’ Boat, with members of Veterans For Peace and About Face onboard.
September 18 is the deadline that the UN General Assembly has given to Israel to end the occupation of Gaza. Thousands of people will gather outside the United Nations in New York to demand concrete steps to isolate Israel and end the genocide.
Veterans For Peace (VFP) chapters and members are actively engaged with many such efforts at the local level–exposing complicit US companies, protesting at military bases, and reaching out to our sisters and brothers in the military, many of whom do not want to be complicit in genocide, or to take part in occupying US cities and terrorizing entire communities.
ICE Kidnaps Disabled Veteran and Denies Him Much Needed Medical Care
Zahid Chaudhry, president of the Rachel Corrie VFP Chapter in Olympia, Washington, has been kidnapped by ICE and is being denied the medical care he urgently needs. Without immediate treatment, he could permanently lose his peripheral vision. Please follow this link for more information and to sign a petition calling for GEO Group and the Northwest Detention Center to provide the necessary medical care immediately.
Veterans For Peace encourages all its members, friends, and allies to join in the urgent activities over the days and weeks ahead. See VFP Action Alert for details.
We ask everybody to go the extra mile at this critical moment. As VFP member Phil Tottenham wrote from the Veterans’ Boat on the Gaza flotilla, “This is not a drill. We need all hands on deck!”
Gerry Condon is a Vietnam-era veteran and former president of Veterans For Peace.
