“There is Nothing Controversial About a Ceasefire”

I find it absurd when people refer to what’s happening now in Gaza as something that started on October 7. It’s been 75 years of occupation, ethnic cleansing, murder, imprisonment and torture. For me, as the daughter of Palestinian refugees who were ethnically cleansed from Palestine in 1948, the reality has a context and a history that requires the attention of the world.

The editorial: “Wrong Sided Resolution” published in the Blade is a clear attempt to intimidate city council members and coerce them to change their support for the ceasefire resolution.

How has the call to stop the killing of innocent civilians become so controversial? What does that say about our humanity? There is nothing complicated about asking for lives to be saved.

October 7 did not happen in a vacuum, but the fact that it happened highlights a major problem; the incompetence of the government of Israel which has been draining our tax money year after year to end up being defeated by a group of militants who have been under siege for 17 years.

Where is the accountability for Israel’s crime against humanity? According to Israeli investigations and media reports, the government knew about the attack about to happen on October 7th but they ignored the warnings. Israeli reports indicate that many of the people killed on October 7 were killed by the IDF, sparking questions about the reimplementation of the Hannibal directive.

The US has been giving Israel billions of dollars over the years for their military. We have been told for years that Israel has one of the most powerful and technically advanced military in the world, yet they are using “dumb bombs” to kill people indiscriminately in Gaza while saying that they are only targeting Hamas.

People of Gaza are being ethnically cleansed and we as humans cannot watch and do nothing. Our responsibility is to help stop the killing of civilian men, women and children. Our own city council can do what other cities have done over the last three months—pass a ceasefire resolution. This is a genocide by all definitions, and everyone in their right conscience should stand against it and call for it to stop. A ceasefire now will help save lives. The city of Toledo should be remembered as a city that stood against injustice and listened to its constituents, not a city that cowered to the pressure of foreign institutions and a foreign government that does not have the best interest of Americans.

*Thoughts and opinions expressed by authors of these letter are that of the author alone.