Hell on earth: Two years of genocide.
We have arrived at an unspeakable place: two years of genocide.
From the very beginning, the Israeli government made plain that it intended to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza. “We are fighting human animals,” Israeli minister Yoav Gallant declared on October 9, 2023, “and we are acting accordingly. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel.” They have stuck to their plan, turning every means of life into the machinery of death. In the two years since, there is hardly a horror that the people of Gaza have not been subjected to, that the Israeli military has not committed, and that the U.S. has not backed.
Every single day for the last two years, the Israeli military has made Gaza hell on earth. Aerial footage of what was once apartment buildings, schools, markets, people gathering and chatting in the streets next to the wide sea now shows a decimated, flattened landscape. Emaciated children are dying every day in what is now a man-made famine, orchestrated by the Israeli government’s policy of blocking aid as a form of genocide. Old family photos, everyone in them killed by U.S. weaponry, show us parts of the infinity of what has been lost: the lives of millions destroyed by endless death, mass starvation, disease, siege, displacement.
We remember when the mainstream media denied that the Israeli government would destroy a hospital — and then we watched as they destroyed the entire healthcare system in Gaza and burned people alive in their hospital beds. We remember Hind Rajab, the 5-year-old Palestinian girl, on the phone with the Red Crescent surrounded by Israeli soldiers, who fired 335 rounds at the car she sheltered in, murdering her along with the paramedics who attempted to save her. We remember the hundreds of starving Palestinians shot and gassed by Israeli soldiers as they sought food aid at so-called “humanitarian” sites. We know that there are aid trucks carrying thousands of tons of lifesaving food, baby formula, and medical supplies sitting idly at the border in Rafah, blocked by Israeli forces from entering Gaza as millions starve on the other side of a fence.
The Israeli military’s “widespread and systematic targeting of children,” wrote a United Nations commission recently, is “part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza.”
This is what we’re up against: the Israeli state wants nothing less than to destroy the possibility for a Palestinian future, for Palestinian existence. But for the last two years, we have seen the people of the world refuse to turn away from the people of Gaza. Standing in solidarity with Palestine, people across the world have shut down streets, bridges, schools, and ports to demand an end to the oppression of Jewish supremacy and Palestinian dehumanization, an end to the bombs, and an end to the genocide.
The possibility of ceasefire
After two years of Israel’s genocide, with Gaza obliterated and an unimaginable death toll, ceasefire negotiations have resumed, with the possibility of a deal going into effect even as soon as this week. If agreed upon, this deal could stop the bombs from dropping on Gaza, allow life-saving aid in, and allow for Palestinian and Israeli hostages to be returned to their families.
While the single most important thing right now is saving Palestinian lives, we are very clear that Trump’s proposal is a dangerous set-up for ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This deal grants Israel continued, ongoing military control over millions of Palestinians across all of historic Palestine. It allows Israel to carry out a genocide without being held to account for its atrocities, while continuing to deny Palestinians self-determination, freedom, or justice.
The Trump administration has been the driving force behind the most recent round of negotiations, applying real pressure on the Israeli government to accept a deal — proving, as we’ve known, that the U.S. president had the power to end this genocide at any point over the last two years. Instead, the Biden and Trump administrations have backed, aided, and funded the Israeli government as it commits the crime of crimes, choosing their callous political calculus over the lives of millions.
On the table now is Trump’s 20-point ceasefire proposal, one which would end the war but deny Palestinians the right to determine their own futures, with no end to Israeli occupation and control over Palestinian life. Under the proposed deal, the Israeli government would face no accountability for its genocide, continuing the system of impunity that has allowed Israel to carry out horror after horror for decades.
The plan also puts self-determination for Palestinians out of reach. Under Trump’s plan, Gaza won’t be run by Palestinians for the benefit of the Palestinian people. Instead, it would be placed under international control, led by a board of directors, including Trump himself and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in pursuit of Trump’s criminal plans to exploit Gaza to enrich himself and his billionaire real estate cronies.
How has this genocide lasted two years?
This genocide has been able to continue unabated because Israel has had the full backing of the United States — the most powerful economic and military force in the history of the world. Leveraging their massive institutional power in every corner, the U.S. and Israeli governments have spent billions on the mass murder of Palestinians while overthrowing the rule of law in order to crush the growing dissent against their brutality.
The work of Palestinian journalists has spread far and wide during the genocide, opening people’s eyes around the world to the atrocities of the Israeli military. To silence them, Israel has murdered more than 270 Palestinian journalists and media workers over the last two years.
In the U.S., the Trump administration has been hunting down students and other anti-war protestors in their attempt to sow fear and crush dissent — the first step in Trump’s outright repressive, authoritarian takeover. The Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther details a comprehensive plan to dismantle the Palestine solidarity movement, including the civil society that supports it. Project Esther also proposes using the same tactics to then dismantle all groups that it deems “anti-American” — meaning, all those opposing its authoritarian agenda.
All this has meant, at a practical level, that Israel and two U.S. Presidential administrations continue to pursue wildly unpopular genocidal policies, expecting to use their institutional power to withstand the storm they have created.
Until Palestine is free
And yet, over the last two years, the world has risen up for Palestine, with new alliances and strategies forming in the process. Just this week in Italy, mass protests and a general strike in solidarity with Gaza shut down public transit and grounded flights in major cities, with dockworkers in port cities like Genoa refusing to load or unload ships with weapons bound for Israel. Historic numbers of Congresspeople support legislation to block the U.S. from sending bombs to the Israeli military. The majority of people in the U.S. now have an unfavorable view of Israel — and internationally, it is more isolated than ever before.
We have built real power and we must continue to leverage it, escalating the fight not only for an end to the bombing or an end to the genocide but an end to the oppression and subjugation of Palestinians, being done in our name as Jews, fighting until Palestine is free.
Act now: Demand investigation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
One of the Israeli government’s genocidal strategies is its war on aid, replacing the internationally-run aid system in Gaza with the shadowy, U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have since been killed by the Israeli military at its so-called “aid distribution sites.”
GHF is registered in Delaware, but the Delaware Attorney General has so far failed to take action to investigate its abuses. Write to the Delaware AG now to demand she investigate and act to dissolve GHF’s corporate charter.
Take Action: Block the Bombs.
For two years, the U.S. government has sent the Israeli military billions of dollars in weapons and bombs that it has used to carry out its mass slaughter of the people of Gaza. Now, more U.S. congresspeople than ever before support legislation to block the bombs.
We’re not letting up. Use this tool from our sister organization JVP Action to email your reps today and tell them to stop arming Israel’s genocide.
What we’re reading: Resisting Erasure.
In this new release from Verso Books, authors Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox and Rafeef Ziadah put forth a succinct and far-reaching critique of the socio-economic and political forces that sustain the Israeli settler-colonial project. Challenging mainstream narratives on Palestine, Resisting Erasure places Israeli settler-colonialism within the broader historical arc of imperialism, race, and fossil capitalism in the Middle East.
This book is a perfect introduction for anyone looking to understand what Palestine reveals about the world – and what it demands of us today.
What we’re doing: Yizkor 5786.
This sacred time of the Days of Atonement demands that we recommit to the work of tikkun olam, repairing the world. In this spirit, JVP members joined Rabbis for Ceasefire and other partners in New York City on Yom Kippur to participate in a public memorial ritual called Yizkor. We turned our holiest holiday into a day of mass mourning, collective atonement, and a dignified action to demand that Israel end its genocide of Palestinians and that the U.S. stop funding this massacre.
After the memorial service, we staged a peaceful protest, blocking access to the Brooklyn Bridge for over an hour. 9 Rabbis and Jewish clergy, along with 50 other members of our community were arrested as part of this non-violent demonstration.
With nearly 100,000 subscribers, the Wire is one of the largest American publications dedicated to justice. Every week, we cover important news from Palestine, the United States, and the Palestine solidarity movement — and provide ways to take action.
Get The Wire
With nearly 100,000 subscribers, the Wire is one of the largest American publications dedicated to justice. Every week, we cover important news from Palestine, the United States, and the Palestine solidarity movement — and provide ways to take action.