Huge explosion in Gaza. Editorial credit: Gershberg Yuri / Shutterstock.com.

By Tura Campanella-Cook, Ellen Rosser, and Odile Hugonot Haber 
For the Middle East Committee

September 2020

The WILPF-US Middle East Committee Gaza Declaration:
 
As our own presidential elections approach, we are anxious that elections be fair and free of outside influence. We would not want the outcome of an election challenged or to be collectively punished for the outcome. This is what happened in 2007 when Israel enforced an air, sea, and land blockade on Gaza following the election of a Hamas government. That election was deemed fair and democratic by international election observers such as The Carter Centerbut Israel and the US disapproved. The world community has decried the harsh economic and humanitarian impacts of the blockade, but with US backing, Israel maintains the blockade and periodically bombs Gaza with impunity.
 
Gaza has been under daily fire from Israeli bombs for more than two weeks in retaliation for what the press calls “incendiary balloons” or “rockets” launched from Gaza into Israel. Rocket or balloon versus many ton-size bombs: what would be an appropriate response in war, and what does international law – or your conscience and heart – have to say about collective punishment of an imprisoned civilian population?
 
To help us visualize, consider that Manhattan (22.8 square miles including Central Park) has a population density of 71,000 per square mile, 14% of whom are children under the age of 18. The Gaza strip  (140 square miles) has a population density of 124,000 per square mile, 60% of whom are children under 18 years of age [2019 population estimates from US Census and UNRWA respectively]. Gaza youth have suffered intensely with disfiguring injuries, persistent trauma, or death. Many have known life only under siege with their homes, hospitals, schools, and water treatment facilities destroyed by repeated Israeli bombings, frequent blackout periods without electricity, and rising unemployment – 45.5% as of March, before the impacts of COVID-19.
 
Yet again the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-US calls urgently for an international conference on Palestine to end current attacks on Gaza. Multinational negotiations must be resumed to end the Israeli occupation, and come to pragmatic and principled agreements for both Palestinian and Israeli security and self-determination. No one is safe until everyone is safe.

In addition, the peace treaty should designate the Middle East region as a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone as has been discussed previously by Iran and Egypt. Israel, which is the only Middle East nation possessing nuclear weapons, has not been a party to these talks. Between 1967 and 2006, Nuclear Free Zones have been established successfully in Latin America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central Asia.

Actions: Please call your representatives in the US Congress and at the United Nations, to implore them to bring attention to Gaza and find some solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.