Israel’s assault on Gaza proceeds unabated, and upward of 2 million Gaza citizens are experiencing severe food and medicine deprivation, with hundreds of thousands, including children, now fully starving.

The U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has taken over distribution of food and medicine but, in close collaboration with the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces, has offered only a small fraction of the food needed for Israel to fully address the food and medicine needs of 2 million starving Gaza citizens.

Israel and the nefarious GHF have continued a regime of only allowing minimal food supplies into Gaza, while creating an IDF shooting gallery in which hundreds of innocent Palestinians have been killed while simply trying to reach food supplies.

For months, Israel has blocked legitimate U.N.- sponsored organizations from distributing the ample aid available that could end Palestinian hunger in a short period of time. The whole situation continues to be a massive war crime, perpetrated by a military armed by U.S. taxpayers. While the Trump administration continues to overwhelm public attention with attacks on democracy and war-mongering, the plight of 2 million souls has dropped from public view.

The time has come for Maine’s political and civic leaders to speak loudly and with one voice that this must come to an end. The U.S. government holds the purse strings financing Israel’s military. This is leverage that we can use to stop the atrocity of our times.

Michael Hillard
Portland