“We are sounding the alarm: There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza. Considering statements made by Israeli political leaders and their allies, accompanied by military action in Gaza and escalation of arrests and killing in the West Bank, there is also a risk of genocide against the Palestine people,” the experts said. “There are no justifications or exceptions for such crimes. We are appalled by the inaction of the international community in the face of belligerent war-mongering,” the experts said.
“The Gazan population, half of whom are children, have already suffered many decades of unlawful brutal occupation and lived under the blockade for 16 years,” the experts said. “It is time to immediately cease fire and ensure urgent and unimpeded access to essential humanitarian supplies, including food, water, shelter, medicine, fuel and electricity. The physical safety of the civilian population must be guaranteed,” the experts said.
“The occupation needs to end and there must be reparation, restitution and reconstruction, towards full justice for Palestinians,” they said. (Read the full statement from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner here.)
I happen to have been born directly into a protest, and because of this my belief in putting my body where I stand is as strong as my belief that I can walk and talk at all. I admire people who have learned it. I have felt a noticeable absence of many of these people in the last 13 days, both in protests and in the world around me. When I walk around my neighborhood I do not see them. I see my parts of Brooklyn, the areas where I run errands and grab coffee, continuing. There are no signs in windows, there are no buttons on sweaters. In fact I cannot find buttons at all. It’s such a small phrase, Free Palestine, and it feels so easy to write on a button, and it feels so easy to pin a button to your shirt. I have seen people do it for dozens of other causes we believe in, including the Muslim ban Trump enacted, during which I happened to fly into Terminal 4 and directly into the heart of New York that I cherish. Looking back the message seems unreal - we welcome the displaced, but continue to support their displacement. I do not know how to reckon with people who feel that way, but I do think that many people do not, and for those people who don’t I would like to ask where you are, and what you are doing with your time right now.
The protest I was born into took place in Tennessee, and nearly three decades later I returned to a different one there, a full adult now, to stand up against the murder that had just taken place in Charlottesville. With the crowd’s guidance I used my body to shield families from the white supremacists attempting to scare them away from their homes, and here I learned a new way to use my body, not just to say what I believed in, to be the best proof of the world I wanted to live in, but to protect and stand up for the people whose bodies other people valued so much less than mine. This lesson took me through the Trump years, took me through the 2020 movement. It has taken me now to the rallies in New York, where I scream that Palestine will be free with thousands of people much braver than I am, while millions around us sit by and let our government say that actually it will die. That in fact, we will murder it. That what we Americans will use our bodies, our weapons, our money, and our words for instead of life is the destruction of an entire world.
I want to see the New York that shaped me shape itself into a place that does not allow this. Our leaders are groveling to the president, our governor missed her own father’s death to tell Israeli soldiers that she, a random, uninvited politician from Buffalo, adamantly believes they have a right to “defend themselves,” a right to commit a genocide, a right to do this. She said this in our name. I do not want to live in the part of New York that lets her speak for us like this. I want to live in Astoria, where last night I was surrounded by more babies and toddlers and children - families - than in any rally that I’ve ever marched in. I want my fellow New Yorkers to leave our homes, leave our dinners, leave your fears which I cannot understand, I am sorry but I cannot, of somehow losing something you believe you are owed - a job, a friend, a position in your world - in exchange for staying silent while your government murders in your name.
It is in these spaces that you will find the tools to stop the weapons, the money, and the words that America uses to kill. You need this solidarity as much - far more - than solidarity needs you.
Please come out. Please tell Palestine, as it exists in its land and as it is spread throughout the world, as it lives in the neighborhoods you visit and cherish and use for what they offer you, that you stand with them. Please tell our leaders that they do not act in our name. Please shout Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza with the people who can tell their family and friends that they heard it, they heard this city stand up for a place even our useless mayor is laying claim to ripping apart. Do not let him speak louder than us.
A list of groups to follow for actions in your area, and more to do in solidarity beyond marching, mostly via Lux Magazine and The New Inquiry:
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, endorsed by The Poetry Project and others.
BDS Urgent Action Alert (from October 8th) which includes a tool to find groups to join in your area
The New Inquiry’s weekly roundup, including a dispatch from the Palestinian Youth Movement
Decolonize Palestine, a fantastic resource to learn how it’s come to do this, and where to go from here
Action Network's Rally for Gaza, NYPL, Friday, October 20th
A list of tools to call your representatives, also via Lux Magazine:
#NoMoneyforMassacres Campaign from the Democratic Socialists
"Stop Genocide in Gaza" from Jewish Voice for Peace