A Statement from RootsAction on the Gaza-Israel War

We condemn the attacks by Hamas deliberately targeting Israeli civilians for killing and kidnapping. And we condemn Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza, which is again killing large numbers of Palestinian civilians. We grieve for all the lives lost and for all those injured and traumatized.

The root of today’s violence is the oppression and abuses suffered daily by Palestinian people as a whole under decades of cruel Israeli occupation and expansionism. Leading human rights groups -- from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch to Israel’s B'Tselem -- have concluded that Israel’s occupation policies amount to a form of apartheid..

Until Israel’s military occupation is ended, these cycles of terror and war and trauma will repeat. .

A huge obstacle to bringing an end to the Israeli occupation is the U.S. government. Under Democratic and Republican administrations, it has steadfastly made excuses for Israel as ever more Palestinian homes and villages have been destroyed or seized by right-wing settlers, as settlements have expanded, as Israeli soldiers have stormed Muslim holy sites, as Palestinian children have been militarily detained. And the violence from soldiers and extremist settlers toward Palestinians has worsened in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with the rise of the most openly racist, far-right government in Israel’s history..

We agree with Jewish Voice for Peace when it traces today’s bloodshed to U.S. complicity with Israel’s never-ending occupation: “The U.S. government consistently enables Israeli violence and bears blame for this moment. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the U.S. enables and empowers Israel’s apartheid regime. Those who continue calling for ‘ironclad’ U.S. support for the Israeli military are only paving the path to more violence.”.