#i shouldn't be shocked at the horrific things our leaders do anymore - but somehow I still am

[highfantasy-soul]

Just sent a message to the UN ambassadors for the USA:

It is with the deepest disgrace that I call myself an American. The thought that the US was the ONLY nation that VETOED an Israeli ceasefire on the Palestinian people is disgusting. Israel is committing genocide and the US is supporting it. The US is ignoring the international community's outcries over the humanitarian crisis the Palestinian people are facing and have been facing for years - all funded by the US. Every international agency is calling for a ceasefire - for Israel to stop its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that is slaughtering civilians. Yet the US has consistently ignored the screams of dying Palestinians for no other reason than they are 'brown' from the Middle East - Muslims that must be savages not deserving of basic human rights. It makes me sick to know that you are the one 'representing' the US on the world stage and you would happily condemn Palestinians to genocide. Luckily, you are in a position of authority to do something about the slaughter of Palestinians: Call for an immediate ceasefire - do not let Israel continue their ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Send aid to Palestine - AND MAKE SURE IT GETS IN! Force Israel to turn back on water and power to Gaza and open the crossings. STOP sending aid to Israel - they are only using our 'aid' to murder civilians. The treatment of Palestinians by Israel is abhorrent. You are supporting their genocide. You have been supporting this apartheid state in their operation of the open-air concentration camp called Gaza for years. It isn't too late to stand up for what is right. Be on the right side of history and stop this destruction. Slaughtering civilians indiscriminately is against international law - hold Israel accountable for their crimes. You cannot continue to hide behind your flimsy 'fear' of Hamas to justify such atrocities. Hamas is simply the excuse you use to 'justify' wiping out an entire people group. It is sick. It is wrong. Carpet bombing Gaza does nothing to 'save' the hostages taken - all it does is murder men, women, and children who have been brutalized by Israel their entire lives. Palestinians deserve justice. Palestinians deserve freedom. Palestinians deserve to live. If you are going to continue to vote the way you have, at least be honest about it. Say that you think Palestinians are less than human and deserve to be exterminated. It is what your actions have been saying loud and clear this whole time. History remembers.

I don't know how to express how gutted I am that the US has been responding to the genocide of the Palestinian people the way it has. How the US is the ONLY country that vetoed the ceasefire, how they are denying aid and acting like it's the greatest victory when 20 trucks get through a crossing that was promised to be opened days before.

It's pathetic. It's disgusting.

This is so clearly not about fighting 'terror' or 'Hamas'. It's about leveling Gaza and leaving nothing but rubble. It's about breaking an entire ethnicity of people.

I am so often disturbed by how people can see all the facts about what is going on in a situation and STILL choose the obviously incorrect path - the path that leads to destruction and inequality and atrocities. I've been fighting for criminal justice reform in America for so long - for racial justice, queer rights, against Islamophobia and yes against antisemitism too. I have been fighting against xenophobia and sexism and abelism.

It feels so hopeless when our 'leaders' continue to bolster the system that creates such inequities. When they fight AGAINST justice rather than for it.

But the amount of people I've seen taking to the streets, sharing the truth, getting the stories of Palestinian people out there - their joy, their love, their lives - it renews my hope. Our leaders may be horrific, but our people - so many of them - they know the truth. They choose love and justice and they fight for it.

Thank you to everyone who has lifted your own voice, or uplifted others' voices during this tragedy.

Never Again means never again for ANYONE. It means we must not LET IT happen again. We MUST speak out when we see such atrocities. We must be able to recognize when it is happening.

Do not turn a blind eye and say "never again means it can't possibly happen again - that's the past". History is being written every day. What will the generations after us say about Palestine? Will they look back in horror at what we allowed to occur like they do when learning about the history of Native Americans, Chinese immigrants, Japanese Americans during WWII, the treatment of Jewish asylum seekers turned away at the US' borders just before WWII? Or will they be able to say "Thank goodness Palestine survived. Thank goodness we did something to help them. Thank goodness we didn't aid in that genocide, but rather fought against it."

It's not very common for Americans to be able to say we were on the right side of history. But every single day is an opportunity for us to change that.

We have to.