I “Preventing genocide is an achievable goal that requires a level of government organization and commitment that matches the brutality, efficiency, and intensity required to carry out genocide.” I know a decent man who said that. Often, these efforts miss the best and lowest-cost opportunities to prevent it, until it is too late. ”
That was said by then-Vice President and now President Joseph Biden. And he was right.
I would like to say that now is such a time. At this moment, as we speak, 1.1 million innocent people in Gaza are at risk of starvation. A famine that is being intentionally caused by the withholding of food and global humanitarian aid by Israeli government leaders.
This is a planned and orchestrated mass starvation of the people after killing another 30,000 people (70% of them women and children).
There are almost no hospitals left. And all this was achieved with US resources and weapons. If you want to know what the ongoing genocide is like, open your eyes. It’s like forced starvation of 1.1 million innocent people. Thousands of children can be seen grazing and wasting away as food trucks slow and stop just a few miles away. He seems like a good and decent person who doesn’t do anything. Or too little. too late.
It is against U.S. law to provide weapons to forces that block U.S. humanitarian assistance. And that’s exactly what’s happening. The president himself even said in his State of the Union address that the United States must and will build its own ports to channel aid. It’s already too late.
Now is the time to enforce compliance with U.S. law and humanitarian standards. And fulfill your obligation to the American people to suspend the transfer of U.S. weapons to the Israeli government to deter and deter further atrocities.
Respecting alliances does not mean promoting genocide. We can no longer run away from our responsibilities. Blocking aid from our closest allies to starve a million people is not unintentional.
We have a responsibility to demonstrate the global democratic values enshrined in civil society, the rule of law, and a commitment to human and civil rights.
This is not just an issue for Israel and Gaza. This is about us. The world will never be the same. And we will never be the same. And we have to write the story of what that means and who we are as Americans in this moment. And our story is not that we were good people who did nothing. But we were committed democrats who accomplished something.
And now I have to prove it. With that, I give in. thank you.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, US Representative for New York’s 14th District
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This editorial is speech Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez speaks to Congress on Friday
