Never Again is now.

On October 18th, Israeli Prime Minister Nethanyahu announced that the Israeli government would not allow food or medicine into Gaza. Yesterday, Medical Aid for Palestine announced that in Gaza, children are starving at the fastest rate that the world has ever known. This morning, as hundreds of starved Palestinians waited in line for humanitarian aid, including flour for bread, the Israeli military opened fire, killing over 100 Palestinians, and wounding over 700. They massacred people seeking bread for their families.

The Israeli military has killed over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, destroyed entire neighborhoods, most hospitals and water and electricity grids, and forcibly displaced over 2 million Palestinians out of their homes. Palestinians in Gaza have nowhere to go, cannot seek shelter, cannot access food. This is unconscionable. This is what genocide looks like. These are the same tools of intentional starvation and mass slaughter used in past genocides, and which we, as Jews, recognize as used by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust. Many of us grew up on the images of emaciated people, starved in ghettos and concentration camps. Today’s images from Gaza are a rattling echo.

We will not look away, and we will not be silent. We know the role of our government in actively enabling the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians, from sending billions of dollars in unconditional military funding and deadly weapons, to blocking the international community’s calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. 

The only thing greater than our horror is our determination. We will continue to join Palestinians and all people of conscience in pressing our demands everywhere: Ceasefire now, stop the siege on Gaza, and end Israeli apartheid and occupation. It is our moral obligation to make business as usual utterly impossible until people are restored their most basic rights — like the right to seek bread.

Never Again is now.