Free Palestine: My letter to the President and Why I have been saying this for years

First, here is the letter I sent to the President today and will call to read to his office tomorrow (Monday between 11:00–3:00) You can call too — 202–456–1111

We cannot support an ally that is abusing others. There MUST be limits to what we support. Finding and punishing Hamas should NEVER involve killing the innocent people of Gaza.

You are currently on the wrong side of history and I know you never wanted to be that person.

Maybe you are listening to the polls but those polls only tell you about people over the age of 60 and not the rest of us. We do not want this.

In fact, BEFORE Hamas attacked that concert, we were begging you to help the people of Gaza for what Israel was doing to them. You have to be aware of the refugees that the Israeli army killed this very Summer?

How and why should we continue to support a government that is so directly and clearly guilty of human rights violations? We have known this for decades. Be the first president who says “Enough!”

You will always gain far more when you support a just cause than when you follow the errors of those who came before. Let justice be the legacy that lives on with your name, President Biden.

Now here is my Why:

Hamas has committed horrors and deserves punishment under international law. But the part some people forget is — the IDF (Israeli army) has also committed horrors and deserves punishment under international law.

When it comes to human rights, you either “are” or “are not” violating those rights. There is no grey area here.

Imagine if someone kicked your grandparents out of their house and their businesses. Forcefully removed them from their ancestral villages, and forced them to relocate.

Let’s imagine that you in your current state in the United States, were forced to leave and move to another state with nothing but your clothing and loved ones.

Then every time your grandparents try to get your home and business back, you are beaten and the world tells you that this land is not yours.

Imagine that your parents go to the United Nations and beg for the return of their land and then agree to a treaty that will give back some but not all of the land. Imagine that your parents agree to this treaty even though they long for home back.

Your parents follow the treaty until your oppressor comes back and takes the land again. Your parents only had 50% of the land your grandparents did, but now the oppressor is taking that 50% again!

Now you are the adult.

You have watched your grandparents cry over their lost home and business. You watched your parents try and be denied security to keep even half of their homeland.

Now, it’s 2023, you are left with 25% of the homeland that your grandparents had in the 1940s.

The oppressor attacked your neighbors and cut off water and electricity to your home whenever they feel like it.

Your child wakes up thirsty and crying. You and your spouse could not even take a bath tonight because there was no water.

THIS is what the people of Gaza and the West Bank have been living with for years.

What would you do?

Many Jewish Americans do not support the abuses that the IDF has done, nor the Israeli government’s civil rights abuses. Because they, like most of us, have a conscience.

But this is also why certain political figures do not want History taught to its fullest extent. Because the reason so many of us support the safety of the Palestinian people is because we had access to the facts.