SAN JOSE — Community leaders and activists gathered Wednesday outside the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building to call on the United States government to stop sending funds to Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas.
The protest and press conference was hosted by the Solidarity and Unity Network, a network of 24 nonprofits in the Santa Clara Valley. Ahead of the speakers, a group of a dozen protestors walked in circles holding signs reading “Help end genocide act now!!” and “Stop U.S. military aid to Israel.”
“What is happening in Gaza is undeniable and unconscionable,” said Salem Ajluni, a board member of Human Agenda, one of the groups represented. “For more than 22 months, Israel has subjected Gaza to some of the most intensive bombing and siege ever inflicted on a civilian population.”
The group called on the U.S. government to halt funding for the Israeli military and for local elected officials to “do their parts in ending U.S. material and political support for Israeli crimes,” Ajluni said. They also called on media organizations to “fulfill their public interest function” by “highlighting and challenging those directly and indirectly complicit in crimes against humanity in Palestine.”
“Silence on this matter, especially on the part of those with the power to stop Israel’s siege and starvation, is tantamount to complicity,” Ajluni said.
Ajluni also read a message from State Assemblymember Alex Lee: “The genocide and war crimes inflicted on Gaza by the war regime of Israel is horrendous.”
Celeste Walker, district director for Assemblymember Ash Kalra, read a statement on his behalf, calling the war in Gaza the “greatest brutalization of children that any generation has seen.” Kalra called for a “complete end” to the war in Gaza, adding it is “the least we can do until a permanent, free, secure Palestine becomes a reality.”
“We are not just complicit in this. We are the perpetrators. It is American bombs that are destroying Gaza, that have killed over 19,000 children and tens of thousands in total,” Kalra’s statement read. “The Gaza Strip is smaller than San Jose, and yet, even amongst the rubble, the Israeli military is killing those showing up for aid, providing medical care and even those who are reporting on the atrocities.”
Zahra Billoo, director of the Council on American Islamic Relations’s Bay Area office, said that “we cannot and we will not be silent.”
“Let’s be clear, this is not a conflict. This is not a war. This is a genocide, and yet our government continues to fund it, while right here in our neighborhoods in California, people cannot access housing or medical care,” Billoo said. “This is not about security. This is not about democracy. This is about our government and our elected officials repeatedly putting Israel first. U.S. policies, U.S. weapons and U.S. dollars are enabling Israel’s war crimes.”
Raj Jayadev, coordinator of Silicon Valley DeBug, lead a chant of “free Gaza now.” He discussed how Silicon Valley is a “strategically valuable part of the world” that was “born from contracts for military equipment” and “has a history of arming wars,” adding that residents are duty bound to call out the complicity of those with political and economic power in the region.
“There is no struggle that will say more about us, those that lived through this time period, regardless of age, status, where you live on this planet, about how we acted to defend the rights of the Palestinians, and how we spoke and acted for the fight of not only just the survival of the Palestinian people, but their liberation as well,” Jayadev said.
Will Armaline of the SJSU Faculty Association called the war in Gaza “a humanitarian catastrophe choice.”
“The U.S. government has the power to stop it. It’s our responsibility, particularly those of us in Silicon Valley,” Armaline said. “This valley is at the heart of the global military industrial complex, whether it’s raining (bombs) down in occupied territories or raining down later in Latin America, as we’re now threatening to do today, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that this is stopped immediately.”
Wendy Greenfield, the co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace’s South Bay chapter, encouraged attendees to turn “grief into action” by contacting congressional representatives. She urged support for HR 3565, which would withhold weapons transfers to Israel until it complies with international and U.S. law, HR 2411, which would restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, and HR 3045, which would impose sanctions on individuals who threaten the security of the West Bank, she said.
“Please thank the co-sponsors of these bills and urge the other representatives to save lives by co-sponsoring them immediately,” Greenfield said. “We have the power to make them move. All of us who are here need to spread the word. Let’s use it.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
