More than 300 former staffers from Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns released an open letter Tuesday urging the Vermont Independent to sponsor a cease-fire resolution in the U.S. Senate as Israel’s bombing campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip continues unabated.
Sanders said last week that “the bombs and missiles from both sides must end” and has accused Israel of violating international law with its blockade on Gaza, but he has yet to express support for the cease-fire resolution led by progressive Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in the House.
The senator’s former campaign staffers want him to spearhead a similar cease-fire effort in the Senate, where the Democratic leadership has thus far been in lockstep with the Biden administration’s unwavering support for Israel’s attack on Gaza.
“Your voice is needed now more than ever, because cooler heads must prevail and prevent further suffering and bloodshed,” wrote the Sanders campaign alumni. “You are the strongest voice in the U.S. Senate on progressive foreign policy. We need you to stand up forcefully, as you always have, against war and bombs, and for peace, freedom, and justice.”
The letter specifically calls on Sanders to:
- Introduce a Senate companion to the Bush-Tlaib “Ceasefire Now” resolution;
- Support an end to U.S. military funding for war crimes against the Palestinian people, the expansion of settlements, and the occupation of Palestinian lands; and
- Support an end to the blockade of Gaza.
“We’re asking you to use your power, the respect you have across the United States and globe, to clearly and boldly stand up against war, against occupation, and for the dignity of human life,” wrote the former Sanders staffers, who joined a growing wave of campaign alumni and current congressional staffers demanding support for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The letter came on the heels of what was described as the deadliest 24-hour period for Gazans since the Israeli military’s latest bombing campaign began on October 7, following a massive Hamas attack on Israel. Between Monday and Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes killed an estimated 700 people in Gaza, bringing the total death toll since October 7 to roughly 5,700 — including around 2,300 children.
Human rights groups and the United Nations have accused Israel of indiscriminately bombing civilian areas of the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.
Asked about the rising death toll in Gaza, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a press briefing Tuesday that “we have and will continue to talk to our Israeli counterparts about the importance of avoiding and minimizing civilian casualties and respecting innocent life and trying to prevent collateral damage as they go after legitimate Hamas targets.”
“This is war. It is combat. It is bloody. It is ugly, and it’s going to be messy. And innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward,” Kirby added. “And that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it dismissible. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to still express concerns about that and — and do everything we can to help the Israelis do everything they can to minimize it. But that’s — that’s, unfortunately, the nature of conflict.”
Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist and one of the former Sanders staffers who signed the new open letter, accused the White House of “shrugging at thousands of Palestinian civilian casualties at the hands of the U.S.-funded far-right Israeli government.”
Late last week, the Biden administration requested that Congress approve $14 billion in additional military aid for Israel, which already receives roughly $4 billion a year in assistance from the U.S. The request came days after a group of attorneys warned that President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials could be complicit in genocide if they continue unconditionally supporting Israel’s assault on Gaza.
In their letter on Tuesday, the former Sanders staffers wrote that “many of us… share your Jewish heritage” and had “entire sections” of their families “erased from existence by Nazi barbarism in the Holocaust.”
“It is our duty,” they wrote, “to stand up and say that our pain and sorrow at the losses on October 7 will not be weaponized to justify the ethnic cleansing or genocide of Palestinian civilians.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today during our fundraiser. We have 9 days to add 500 new monthly donors. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.