Three-hundred thirty<\/u> delegates to the Democratic National Convention who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids sent a letter to the senator urging him to introduce a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter<\/a>, sent on Wednesday, urges Sanders to introduce a Senate companion bill to a ceasefire resolution introduced last month in the House of Representatives. The Sanders convention delegates also called on him to support an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, the occupation of Palestinian land, U.S. military funding for war crimes against Palestinians, and the expansion of Israeli settlements.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve progressed beyond the stage of seeking mere condemnations or symbolic gestures,\u201d the delegates wrote. \u201cWe concur with your assertion that these \u2018unspeakable crimes\u2019 must cease and that \u2018the bombs and missiles from both sides<\/a>\u2019 should be halted. But Palestinians require more than just a \u2018humanitarian pause<\/a>.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The House resolution was introduced by by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Andr\u00e9 Carson, D-Ind.; Summer Lee, D-Pa.; and Delia Ramirez, D-Ill. The House resolution now has 18 co-sponsors<\/a>. So far, at least 31 members of Congress, including Sen. Dick Durbin<\/a>, D-Ill., have come out in favor of a ceasefire \u2014 although Durbin and others conditioned their calls on the release of Israeli prisoners in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter comes three weeks after hundreds<\/a> of Sanders presidential campaign alumni sent a letter urging the senator to back a ceasefire. Since that letter\u2019s release, Sanders has all but supported a ceasefire: calling for a humanitarian pause; to \u201cstop the bombing<\/a>\u201d; and saying<\/a> Congress, the Biden administration, and the world \u201cmust take action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Sanders\u2019s delegates delivered the letter to the Vermont senator one day after more than 115 former staffers for President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama \u2014 including former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain and former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Lawrence Summers \u2014 applauded<\/a> Biden for his \u201cstaunch support of Israel.\u201d The former top administration officials lauded Biden\u2019s proposed $14.3 billion in military aid for Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also follows a decision by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D. N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to join Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, at Tuesday\u2019s March for Israel in Washington, D.C., where the quartet proclaimed, \u201cWe stand with Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Hours later, Israel invaded Al-Shifa hospital, the Gaza Strip\u2019s largest hospital, where thousands of displaced and injured civilians were trapped, including dozens of premature babies<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wednesday is the fifth consecutive day that the Gaza Ministry of Health has been unable to update its death toll, owing to a lack of fuel and power that has totaled the health care system, making tallying the dead and communications nearly impossible<\/a>. The last time the ministry updated the death toll, on Friday, Israel had killed 11,078 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a Jewish person of conscience watching Israeli genocide in real time, I say, not in my name, not with my tax dollars, shall Israel bomb and deprive a trapped population, half of them children, of water, food, medicine and fuel,\u201d said Marcy Winograd, a 2020 Sanders delegate from California\u2019s 24th congressional district, and a co-founding member of the Los Angeles chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. \u201cAs a Jewish member of Congress, Senator Sanders\u2019 voice would be particularly persuasive in demanding an end to Israel\u2019s violations of international law that shock the world to leave us feeling unmoored from our own humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The latest letter adds to a growing opposition among Democrats against unconditional U.S. support for Israel. Over a dozen former Sen. John Fetterman<\/a>, D-Pa., campaign staffers, 411 current congressional staffers<\/a>, 400-plus<\/a> current Biden administration employees, 500-plus<\/a> former Biden campaign alumni, 133 Obama<\/a> staffers and appointees, and 260 former presidential campaign staffers for Sen. Elizabeth Warren<\/a>, D-Mass., issued statements demanding support for a ceasefire. More have since signed on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom coastal cities to rural valleys like mine, millions of young people turned their attention to politics for the first time in 2016 and 2020 because we shared Bernie’s vision for peace and justice,\u201d said Taran Samarth, a student organizer and 2020 Sanders delegate from Pennsylvania. \u201cWe need him now, more than ever, to champion those values once more and call for a ceasefire in the face of the Biden administration’s unconditional support for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n The post More Than 300 DNC Delegates for Bernie Sanders Push Senator to Call for Ceasefire in Gaza<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The letter is the latest push from Democratic Party insiders to bring recalcitrant leaders around to calling for a ceasefire. <\/p>\n The post More Than 300 DNC Delegates for Bernie Sanders Push Senator to Call for Ceasefire in Gaza<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1333050,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333032\/revisions\/1333050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“Palestinians require more than just a \u2018humanitarian pause.\u2019\u201d<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe Need Him Now, More Than Ever\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n