Continue to Press for a Permanent Ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel War

Members of the Peninsula/Palo Alto (CA) branch of WILPF holding some of the signs they have been showing to thousands of passing cars during their weekly vigil at a busy intersection in Palo Alto, CA. They have been calling for a ceasefire in the Ukraine-Russia war since March 2022 and for one in the Gaza-Israel war since mid-October 2023. Photo by Cherrill Spencer, used with her permission.

by Cherrill Spencer, Ellen Thomas and Dianne Blais
Co-chairs of DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

December 2023

This past Friday saw the end of a temporary 7-day truce that saw the release of more than 100 hostages held by Hamas and approximately 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Despite efforts by negotiators to extend the truce, the ceasefire ended Friday, December 1 and bombardments have since restarted in Gaza.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, said that when she briefed the SecurityCouncil on the situation in Gaza, she hoped the ceasefire would be the beginning of a permanent truce and lasting relief for the people of Gaza and all the hostages held by Hamas. “We have witnessed six rounds of violence in Gaza in the past 15 years. Yet, the ferocity and destruction that the Gazan people are being forced to endure under our watch has reached an intensity we have never seen before,” she said. “I have been consistent in my briefings to you, in reminding you that women and girls are paying the highest price of conflicts.”

Therefore, WILPF is asking members to continue to press for a full ceasefire with our Congressional reps.

The US government has been providing billions of dollars of cash aid to Israel every year since 1951 and most of that money is used by Israel to buy military equipment from US weapons manufacturers, including the F16 airplanes currently bombing all parts of Gaza. Congress passed a law some time ago that says our foreign aid cannot be used to buy weapons that are then used to kill or injure civilians. So, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced a joint resolution of disapproval on November 16th for the proposed export license for $320 million in Spice Family Guided Bomb Assemblies to Israel. These bombs have already been used in the siege of Gaza. 

This resolution has not been assigned a number yet but you can find its text here. We ask WILPF members to contact their own congressional representative and urge them to co-sponsor this resolution. Contact your legislators in Washington, DC, NOW and tell them to oppose appropriations for war and you want them to advocate for a ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel war. The U.S. Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

One of the resource guides we produced during our 2021 Call for Peace campaign was “How your U.S. tax dollars purchase weapons and enable wars in the Middle East and North Africa”. If you would like to learn more about this topic we recommend you click here to reach that resource guide. On page 11 of the guide, there is a sample letter to your congressperson to tell them you don’t want your tax dollars used to further the international arms trade.

Your DISARM/End Wars Committee continues its efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, and to that end we are sending a delegation of five DISARM committee members as part of the WILPF delegation observing the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in New York City from November 27 to December 1. The official acronym for this UN meeting is 2MSP to TPNW, and the popular name is ‘Nuclear Ban Week’.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is the coordinator for all the NGOs sending observers to the 2MSP and they will have MSP-TV on the web that will provide you a summary, highlights and insights from the Nuclear Ban Week events at the UN, and those organized by partners around the world, twice a day at 11:00 and 17:00 ET from Monday 27 November until 1 December 2023. Click here to find the link to MSP-TV and its recordings, if this eNEWS is published after this week. Some of the side events organized by NGOs will be live streamed via the web, click here to see the complete list of side events.

Please send us images and text from actions you are involved in so we can include the photos on WILPF SMART and in eNEWS articles. Our DISARM/End Wars Issue committee welcomes new members; we have many ongoing campaigns that need people to work on them.  Write to disarmchair@wilpfus.org to request information and to join the DISARM/End Wars Committee, which meets the second and last Sundays of the month.