Dear Representative: Condemn human-induced starvation and fund orgs to prevent it
It’s time for another episode of WRITE TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. Find your Representative here.
Write in your own style with your own words to make it clear that human-induced starvation is never acceptable.
Dear Representative,
I’m writing to you as a concerned constituent to ask that you take immediate action to condemn human-induced starvation in Gaza and other places, and that you work with the US executive branch and relevant foreign governments to ensure people have access to food.
The World Food Program (WFP) has announced that it’s ending food aid for half a million Palestinians in Gaza due to lack of funding. Most of Gaza’s population currently relies on food aid. The WFP describes the situation in Gaza as ‘brutal’ despite slashing provision to Palestinians.
Compounding this suffering, Israel is currently blocking food from entering Gaza. According to Geneva-based human rights group Euro-Med Monitor, “Israel is using starvation as a tool of genocide.”
This is the third time Israel has deliberately starved the people of Gaza. With families facing a fourth consecutive winter, and a third starvation campaign, I urge you to restore critical US funding to UNRWA and call for unrestricted access to lifesaving humanitarian supplies to repeat further suffering.
There are immediate actions you can take. Gaza needs the massive institutional scale that only UNRWA can sustain. UNRWA, the United Nations and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, is the main supplier of education, healthcare, emergency food, and camp improvements to the 5.9 million UN registered Palestinian refugees, the world’s largest refugee population.
Critically, the International Court of Justice recently ruled that:
- Israel’s obstruction of UN relief for millions of Palestinians in Gaza is part of its crimes of weaponized starvation and forced displacement that must end immediately.
- Israel has no sovereignty in Gaza or the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and has no right to prevent the UN from operating there.
- UNRWA is neutral and indispensable, and Israel’s claims against it are baseless.
- Israel is legally obliged to respect the UN, including UNRWA, and its immunities.
Please sign onto the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act, H.R.2411 / S. 898.
Thanks again for your representation,
