It's nearing one year since Hamas operatives crossed from Palestinian Gaza into Israel, killing 1,200 residents and security forces, taking 251 Israelis and international visitors as hostages back into the 25-mile-long strip with over 2.5 million Palestinians residing inside the open-air prison.
Since Oct. 7th, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to rescue the hostages. However, according to Israeli media, 12 months later, the prime minister continues to disrupt cease-fire talks. The Hamas leader responsible for negotiations was assassinated in Iran back in July with no confirmation on who conducted the assassination. However, the Israeli press office posted on social media a picture of the Hamas leader with the word eliminated — it was subsequently deleted. Before the assassination, both the Hamas leader and Benjamin Netanyahu, among other officials in both groups, received word of arrest warrants. The United Nations International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in May 2024 for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
One of the Quad Cities Coalition for Palestine members, Rachel, whose last name is being withheld for family safety, says the international community is calling for Israel to end what human rights organizations are calling acts of genocide on the Palestinian people.
"A vast majority of the nations in the United Nations have condemned Israel's actions," Rachel said in a phone interview with WVIK. "You know, even large portions of Western countries are now condemning Israel's actions, specifically their aggression into Lebanon. The United States is becoming a standalone supporter of Israel's continued violence. And I think that points to the importance of us, you know, reevaluating our arms transfers and our support of Israel since they're clearly able to continue with our support."
Israel targeted members of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and military group, last month in what international human rights experts call an act of terrorism by blowing up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies, killing dozens, and injuring thousands primarily civilians. Since the attack, Israel invaded the nation of Lebanon and continues to strike the capital and other parts of the nation with airstrikes.
According to the Lebanese foreign minister, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed to a 21-day ceasefire days before his assassination by Israel.
Rachel says the group has spoken to some area representatives, including IL 17th District Congressman Eric Sorensen and Christina Bohannan, who is running for Iowa's 1st Congressional District. According to her, the democrats were not agreeable to ending military aid to Israel.
"So I would say, you know, it's not a matter of, you know, if we end up in a full-blown regional war or a world war that it's going to start impacting Iowans. It's impacting us now," Rachel said. "It's impacting us now every day. Those are funds that could be used. You know, here for schools to pay teachers better. Those are funds that could be used to fund projects here for housing the homeless. Grants for affordable housing. There's no shortage of problems here at home that we could be using those funds for."
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States of America has sent over $12 billion in military aid to Israel since Oct. 7th, 2023. Congress is no longer in session until after the November general election. However, President Joe Biden is considering calling Congress back to approve funds to help with disaster relief after Hurricane Helene.
Rachel mentioned ProPublica's reporting that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is aware of Israel blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza but told Congress the U.S. has no evidence back on May 10th. The report says two government groups, The U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department's Refugees Bureau, alerted Blinken of aid being withheld from Gaza before his statements to Congress.
"You can say he lied. You can say, you know, he omitted the truth, whatever you want to say. That information was not relayed to Congress," Rachel said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in America, released a statement yesterday, Thursday, October 3rd, condemning the Biden administration. The news release says in part, "While other nations organize evacuations for their citizens, Americans and U.S. residents in Lebanon are largely left to their own devices to protect themselves and their families under the Israeli government's expanding attacks on civilians." This comes after State Department representative Matthew Miller told the press on Sept. 30th that American citizens in Lebanon can leave the country by purchasing their own tickets on a commercial flight.
Rachel says she is working with the Quad Cities Democratic Socialists of America to collect Moline residents' signatures to deliver to the Moline City Council, asking them to pass a ceasefire resolution.
"There's no gray area there. Israel is committing war crimes. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. We see it every day with our own eyes," Rachel said. "And I think that saying that you don't want to take sides because you're afraid of losing business or creating division is a misalignment of priorities. Our priority should be to do the right thing and to stand on the side of human rights and justice."
The group is holding a rally at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5th, at 4000 Avenue of the Cities in Moline.
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