Dear Editor,
I have been horrified by what I have seen live-streamed from Gaza for more than 20 months. It is outrageous that our local representatives in Congress, Mr. Cline and Mr. Griffith in the House and Sen, Warner, have not publicly condemned our government’s complicity in the unrelenting slaughter of people in Gaza by the Israeli government. Most of of the world’s governments, the United Nations, and religious leaders, including Pope Leo and the late Pope Francis, have condemned Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Our Congressional representatives have all professed themselves asChristians, with Sen. Warner a Presbyterian, Rep. Cline a Catholic, and Rep. Griffith an Episcopalian. The heads of these denominations have condemned Israel’s “war.” Why don’t these Christians representing us stand up against Israel’s crimes against humanity? Sen. Warner’s Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for example, has explicitly condemned what they termed Israel’s “genocidal bombardment of Gaza” and “systematic ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. In July 2024, Presbyterians voted to divest from Israeli bonds and condemned Christian Zionism.
Reports say that the Palestinian death toll in Gaza is 54,400, with more than 124,000 injured. In the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem, a total of 926 Palestinians, including at least 196 children, have been killed. Israel’s military has killed over 16,800 Palestinian children in Gaza, including 171 newborns and 710 infants under 12 months of age. Over 4,000 children are missing, likely dead under the rubble.
Israel has maintained a blockade of the Gaza Strip, restricting movement and goods, since 2007, following Hamas’ election to govern Gaza. But since the beginning of March, Israel has completely blocked all food, water, medicine, and fuel from entering Gaza. This blockade has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, creating a famine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza are starving, sick and dying from this aid blockade. The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University has estimated that at over 62,000 people in Gaza have died from starvation, most of them young children. Despite easing its blockade in late May, Israel has allowed only minimal amounts of aid into Gaza. Humanitarian organizations have called this limited access as “ridiculously inadequate” – failing to meet the basic needs of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), created by Israel, has shifted aid distribution away from traditional UN channels and is heavily militarized, with Palestinians to undergo identity checks and screenings for Hamas affiliation to access food. UN officials have condemned this approach for endangering civilians and violating humanitarian principles. We have seen that Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinians at aid distribution sites. On June 3, at least 27 were killed by Israeli fire at an aid hub in Rafah. Israel’s aid distribution has failed to reach the most vulnerable populations, leaving out the elderly, injured, or those with mobility issues.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, collective punishment of civilians is strictly prohibited. Israel’s blockade, which blocks essential supplies to Gaza, has been described by Human Rights Watch, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other organizations, as collective punishment. International Humanitarian Law mandates that occupying powers must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.
I am greatly concerned that Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Ben Cline, and Rep. Morgan Griffith continue to side with the perpetrator of this worsening situation. I ask them to call for a US blockade of arms to Israel, an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and an end to the long and onerous occupation of Gaza and the West Bank territories.
Sincerely,
Michael Bentley
Salem
