I write as a Jewish Bloomingtonian to express my strong support for the resolution recently proposed by members of the community to the city council for an immediate and long-term ceasefire in Gaza.
I have relatives and dear friends in Israel and I want them to be safe and live free of threats of violence. I mourn the dead on both sides of this devastating war. But I am also sensible of the grotesquely disproportionate and vengeful violence and devastation that is being visited daily on the people of Gaza, people who have tried to survive and build lives and institutions under harsh and repressive conditions that have been imposed upon them for decades.
Casualty figures are abstractions, but it’s impossible to ignore the barrage of images and testimonies that greet us daily of wounded, starving, traumatized, displaced Palestinian people who are being systematically deprived of shelter, food, water, and medical treatment as they seek refuge in an ever-more devastated landscape. It’s heartbreaking to hear from Doctors Without Borders that they have had to come up with a new acronym to deal with current conditions: wcnsf — wounded child, no surviving family.
Conditions are so dire that the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the world body of global humanitarian organizations, has issued an urgent statement because they are being impeded from offering even minimal humanitarian aid and life-saving assistance to the people of Gaza.
It sickens me to have to realize daily that this destruction, loss of life, and burgeoning sense of despair are being significantly abetted by the policy of the U.S. government and supported with my tax dollars, tax dollars that could be used to solve pressing problems here at home. The state and federal governments need to hear that governmental bodies at the grass roots level feel a stake in this desperate situation and are willing to take a moral stand on behalf of the suffering people in Gaza.
I’ve done what I can to try to influence my representatives in the federal government, but thus far there are no clear signs that they are listening. The members of the city council are our closest political representatives. I urge them, on our behalf, to adopt a ceasefire resolution and join the more than 70 American communities which have done so.
Richard Bauman is a resident of Bloomington.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Columnist urges Bloomington council to pass Gaza ceasefire resolution
