Trump and Netanyahu are sabotaging the ceasefire.

_{Photo: A mural reading “Ramadan brings us together” with a crescent moon was painted onto one of the walls left standing. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]}

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The Israeli government blocked all humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday, announcing to the world that it is using starvation as a weapon of war — a day after the first phase of a fragile ceasefire agreement expired, and right as Muslims across Gaza were welcoming the holy month of Ramadan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to derail the ceasefire deal from the outset. In the month and a half since the agreement was reached, the Israeli government has violated it again and again, blocking critical aid from reaching Gaza and killing dozens of Palestinians through bombs, starvation, and disease. 

At the same time, Israel has ramped up its violence across the Occupied West Bank, ethnically cleansing entire Palestinian cities and laying the groundwork for the permanent theft of Palestinian land.

The genocide never ended in Gaza — and it was never limited to Gaza. Israel’s aims across historic Palestine are the same: Maximum land, minimum Palestinians.

Meanwhile, even as repression mounts in the United States, there are also key openings for us to organize around right now.

The genocide never ended in Gaza…

For Palestinians, Israel’s genocide never really ended. Hundreds of thousands are still sheltering in makeshift tents. Disease is rampant. Nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals have been systematically destroyed. Critical infrastructure lies in ruins. 

The Israeli government and the Trump administration have undermined the ceasefire agreement at every turn. Even before it cut off the entirety of humanitarian aid to Gaza over the weekend, the Israeli government had repeatedly violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement by preventing critical aid from reaching Gaza.

In the weeks since the ceasefire went into effect, the Israeli government has blocked hundreds of thousands of tents and mobile homes from entering Gaza, as well as equipment desperately needed to clear debris and recover the thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children still buried under the rubble. 

And in the last month and a half, Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians across Gaza — deaths that would undoubtedly make headlines if they were Israeli lives lost. Some were murdered by the Israeli military, while others died indirectly from starvation and disease: dire conditions the Israeli government created over the last year and half by destroying Gaza’s hospitals and critical infrastructure, restricting aid to barely a trickle, and killing dozens of humanitarian workers. 

While the Israeli government and military repeatedly violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu deliberately stalled negotiations from resuming and repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the agreement entirely. 

During the first week of February, Netanyahu declined to allow Israeli negotiators to begin talks on phase two of the ceasefire, instead traveling to the United States to meet with President Trump, who has made clear his skepticism that the ceasefire agreement would hold. 

Those doubts were only compounded when Trump announced during Netanyahu’s visit that he expected to forcibly remove (ethnically cleanse) 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza, in the hopes of transforming it into the so-called “Riviera of the Middle East.” 

Now, the American and Israeli governments have aligned behind an entirely new deal. Israel has cut off all humanitarian aid to Gaza, using the illegal act of collective punishment and starvation of a population as a negotiating tactic. What was already a fragile ceasefire is now at imminent risk of completely collapsing. 

…and now, Israel is expanding the genocide to the West Bank

Israel’s aims in Gaza were clear: Kill and displace as many Palestinians as possible, to make way for the theft of Palestinian land. Last week’s Wire explored how Israel is turning those genocidal tactics on the Occupied West Bank.

In the last weeks, the Israeli military launched a massive military incursion into the northern West Bank refugee camps, killing dozens of Palestinians and ethnically cleansing entire Palestinian cities, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. 

At least 20,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes in Jenin refugee camp. Another 20,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee from the Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and Al-Far’a refugee camps. Like clockwork, as soon as it forcefully displaced the Palestinians who lived there, Israeli bulldozers began tearing up streets inside the camps while Israeli forces destroyed critical infrastructure.

“What is happening now is much worse than the Second Intifada,” Abu Rmeleh says. “It’s just like Gaza — none of the houses in the camp are livable anymore. But we won’t go anywhere. We’re ready to live in tents if necessary. We’ve done it before.”

_{–“West Bank refugees reel from Israeli offensive”}

This is the Gaza playbook in action: ethnic cleansing followed by wanton destruction, to ensure Palestinians are never able to return.

Key openings for our movement

Enormous challenges lie before our movements. Conditions on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank are dire. Repression and attacks on our communities in the U.S. is only escalating. President Trump has embraced the U.S.-Israel alliance that Biden upheld, and is now making an already dire situation worse, meeting with Netanyahu at the White House and moving to send billions more in weapons to Israel.

But Palestinians have been resisting despair for over 75 years. Even after a year and a half of genocide, Palestinians in Gaza are choosing life: They are setting the table for iftar and breaking fast with their neighbors amid the rubble and bombed out buildings. This is the essence of Palestinian sumud, or steadfastness. In the words of JVP’s Executive Director Stefanie Fox, “Our solidarity must be just as tenacious.”

There are key openings for us to organize around right now in the U.S. Last November, a historic fifth of the Senate voted to block $20 billion in U.S. weapons to Israel after JVP Action members mobilized across the country, including making over 100,000 calls to our Senators. Now, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Rashida Tlaib have introduced legislation that would block Trump’s $8.5 billion in U.S. weapons to Israel — and we’re organizing to pressure our elected officials to support that legislation now.

Last week, Ohio’s Cuyahoga County suspended its investments in Israel bonds until September. Three million dollars in investments are set to expire during that time. This is a major win: Ohio is one of the biggest state investors in these unrestricted loans to the Israeli government and military. Across the U.S., however, billions of dollars remain invested in Israel — by state governments and local governments, synagogues and churches, and cultural and educational institutions across the country. But we can win when we build pressure for divestment, especially as Israel’s economic and political situation becomes more precarious.

And in NYC, JVP Action has endorsed an unapologetically pro-Palestine, working class-aligned candidate for mayor who is currently polling ahead of a field of establishment candidates, including the sitting mayor Eric Adams. Zohran Mamdani’s campaign shows us that supporting Palestinian freedom is popular, despite what the anti-Palestinian lobby would have our elected officials believe — and that Palestinian rights will be core to any truly progressive, anti-Trump agenda. We are building power starting at the local level across the country. 

Tell Congress: Block $8.5 bn in weapons to Israel.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Rashida Tlaib have introduced legislation to block Trump’s $8.56 billion weapons giveaway to the Israeli military as it continues to carry out war crimes against Palestinians. 

Tell your member of Congress to join this urgent effort to block the bombs today.

What we’re learning.

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