All Eyes on Rafah

My post content

It’s impossible to overestimate the horrors facing 1.4 million Gazans huddled together in tents under constant bombardment in Rafah on the border with Egypt.

Gazans have now suffered more death, more deprivation, and more crimes against humanity than Palestinians ever have. This, for a population that has endured three-quarters of a century of ethnic cleansing and military rule.

And the worst may be yet to come.

If there was ever a time to come together to end this genocide and US support for it, it is now.

Israel has planned a ground invasion that has boxed in so many people that tens of thousands of lives are in jeopardy.

Israel is pushing Egypt to open its gates for permanent depopulation in camps in the Sinai. Satellite imagery indicates Egyptian bulldozers have already cleared land for such an eventuality.

We must not be witness to a continuing death march or a killing field or Palestinian removal on the order of other eradications of entire peoples during the modern era.

Here are four actions I’m going to ask you to take right now:

Attend either of the two events happening this week.

• DSA sponsored Labor for Palestine: https://actionnetwork.org/events/labor-for-palestine-assembly/

  • Accessibility notes: please reach out to DSA for any questions - the action network link includes more information

• Protest on 2/25, 3:30pm in Maryland Plaza (tap the poster below for more information)

  • Accessibility notes: Masks will be available (thanks to @maskblockstl) and are encouraged. There will be a car available for handicap support that can hold 3-4 passengers and is mask required. Reach out to maskblocstlouis@gmail.com to be connected to handicap support.

2 . If you have a U.S. address, write to your representative in Congress. The Senate is expected to vote on sending another $14 billion to Israel this week. Demand they stop funding this genocide and demand a ceasefire now.

3 . Post about Rafah on social media and ask your networks to keep paying attention. You can repost or interact with these posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok

4 . Join STL-PSC or any other pro-Palestinian group in our local community to organize even more events for Rafah. Get together with your neighbors and friends and work together to take local actions.

Since the beginning of its assault on Gaza last October, the Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate one part of Gaza for another, from north to south. The road to Rafah began a week into Israel’s assault on Gaza. Initially, the Israeli military ordered 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya Refugee Camp, and Gaza City, to evacuate within 24 hours. Over the next months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced into “safe zones” which were nothing of the sort. 

Multi-story family homes and whole neighborhoods were obliterated. Schools and hospitals were besieged and attacked forcing people to march further and into new dangers. So many children have lost their families that a new acronym has entered the medical vocabulary, WCNSF, Wounded Child with No Surviving Family. 

On Sunday February 11, Israel launched the “Super Bowl Massacre” which took place while American viewers were distracted, killing at least 67 people holed up in the hospital. On February 15 Israeli forces stormed Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s largest functioning hospital, in Khan Younis near Rafah. About 10,000 people had been sheltering there before Israeli troops began a siege. On Sunday February 11, Israel launched the “Super Bowl Massacre” took place while American viewers were distracted, killing at least 67 holed up in the hospital. 

The fact that Israeli planners would orchestrate an attack under cover of distraction exposes an important feature of American public opinion. Never before have so many Americans (and others worldwide) joined in to support the Palestinian struggle. Growing American opposition to the Biden administration’s unwavering support for Israel’s onslaught could determine the fate of his reelection campaign. 

We are caught between despair and hope. The outlook from Rafah is about as grim as it could be after more than four months of ongoing genocide. As a growing and more diverse and far-flung movement calling for a ceasefire shows no sign of letting up, the bankrupt and murderous nature of the Zionist project is plain for all to see. 

Additional Resources

Al Jazeera Live Tracker: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker