A humanitarian crisis is underway. For months, residents of our county have appealed to the Board of Supervisors and local city councils to agendize and support a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza. They refused, saying that it is not a local issue.
The bombs and bullets raining down on Gaza are stamped “Made in the USA.” Tens of thousands of innocent people are being maimed and murdered—a large percentage of them children. Their homes, schools, and hospitals have been turned into mountains of rubble. Access to health care, food, and clean water is denied. They face full-scale famine and disease brought on by the use of water contaminated with sewage.
Places of refuge used by displaced people are bombed. There is no safe harbor for them. Their world is in chaos, an ugly genocide is in progress.
In the West Bank, Israeli settlers are driving Palestinians off their land and killing hundreds—all with the support of the Israeli government.
Our tax dollars and weapons keep the war going. We have the leverage to change that. Our silence implies support for the genocide.
As a democracy, a government of “we the people,” we are obligated to speak up. We shape national policy and are shaped by it. The genocide of Palestinians is a local, national, and global matter.
Shirley Schaffer
Arroyo Grande
