Open Response to Senator Tammy Duckworth
Dear R,
Thank you for contacting me about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza following Hamas’ shocking terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023.
Like so many, I feel immense pain over the unspeakable violence that resulted in the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, and the subsequent intense suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza, particularly children injured or killed from Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas Commanders and infrastructure. Hamas’ vicious and coordinated terrorist attacks against civilians, continued firing of thousands of rockets at Israel and refusal to release every hostage has triggered a tragic war and heartbreaking humanitarian crisis in Gaza. While aid has begun to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt, the amount received so far is deeply insufficient to the scale of the humanitarian crisis, and the global community must do more to accelerate the speed and scope of aid delivery and distribution.
I support the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts to bring relief to innocent Palestinians, including the President’s request for emergency supplemental funding to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. I also am calling for humanitarian pauses in hostilities so that humanitarian aid may be efficiently delivered into Gaza and safely distributed to innocent civilians. I called for this on the Senate floor and joined my colleagues in advocating for the immediate provision of necessities like food, water, fuel for hospitals and medicine to Gaza; a pathway for sustained aid to enter the territory; and a substantial U.S. contribution to the United Nation’s work to address the humanitarian crisis. Moving forward, we must also restore essential services and utilities, especially water, while continuing to support diplomatic efforts to provide hostages with urgent medical treatment and most importantly, secure their safe release.
As Israel wages a war against the foreign terrorist organization Hamas, it is critical that the Israel Defense Forces take all necessary precautions to minimize civilian deaths and casualties. Innocent life must be protected consistent with the laws of armed conflict. This is a moral imperative and a responsibility that all democracies must uphold, even in the most difficult circumstances. As President Biden rightfully noted, “…democracies like Israel and the United States are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law.”
Rest assured, I will continue supporting our Nation’s efforts to enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which includes securing humanitarian pauses that are required to safely distribute assistance.
Sincerely,
Tammy Duckworth
United States Senator
Dear Senator Duckworth,
Thank you for your answer to my email, I appreciate your concern for your constituency.
When I think about what it must have felt like to be a Palestinian peasant in early 20th Century, living peacefully among people of many faiths, and still, seeing the United Kingdom occupying my land, not setting up any form of democratic infrastructure through which I could voice my concerns, facilitating illegal land sales and massive migrations affecting my community (See Britain and the Nakba: A History of Betrayal by Avy Shlaim), I do not see those sentiments any different than the ones American Revolutionaries had about a century before. Could we label those patriotic revolutionaries as terrorists? England certainly would have and did.
This was the context where the project of the Israeli state was created, an already boiling and stirred cauldron where the rights of the local population had been steadily ignored and suppressed. Learning this information has helped me understand so much more why this conflict is not abut religious fervor and blind hatred towards the Jewish population, but about displacement and frustration with foreign interference that distorted the peace and harmony that already existed.
I throughly believe that lasting peace is only possible when we listen carefully to other people’s needs and take them to heart, this is the very call I hear from my Palestinian brothers and sisters: not death to Israelis or destruction of the Jewish faith, but for us to recognize Palestinian humanity, their needs, and their rights. Humanitarian pauses and aid are not enough, displacing people into more refugee camps is not either. People deserve their land and dignity and lives.
You are in a unique position as senator in the most powerful country in the world and you can help to create lasting solutions that truly honor human life of all kinds. It is not too late to call for a ceasefire and take the path of restoration. Maintaining peace at gunpoint is not only exhausting, but a miserable existence that will only create more of the monsters we are fighting if we do not recognize them as human. Not only can our planet no longer sustain this, but neither can we as principled beings.
Yours,
R
