Submitted by DAVID MONKAWA,cerita lucah guru perempuan Save Our Seniors Network

SOSN is a grassroots healthcare advocacy organization whose aim is to promote the health and well-being of all people, in particular of low-income seniors in the Japanese and Japanese American communities.

Our hearts are heavy with the ongoing tragedy to the health and welfare of the Palestinian and Israeli people. We condemn the violent actions of Hamas killing 1,400 Israelis, including Americans and kidnapping civilians, including children, as hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. Nothing justifies harming innocent civilians.

We also condemn Israel’s retaliatory acts of bombing and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people within Gaza and beyond. The recent bombing of hospitals and clinics and denial of water and power has made healthcare delivery and life impossible. Each day the bombing claims hundreds of lives, 60% of them children.

These tensions have fostered a post 9-11 atmosphere in the U.S., where anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate crimes have spiked again. Building unity through a common desire for peace becomes even more important for ethical, moral people.

The Palestinian people have struggled for 16 years in an open-air concentration camp with barbed wire and guard towers, something Japanese Americans have seen and felt on a smaller scale during World War II and what Native indigenous people in the U.S. have endured for years in U.S. reservations and “Indian schools.”

Never again! Are the words we all share and care for deeply.

We urge Congress and President Biden to support HR 786. Call for an immediate cease-fire now, de-escalation and access to food, medicine and supplies!

Current local groups calling for cease-fire:

18 Million Rising – Asians for a Cease-Fireletter to API Congress members to support Resolution 786 (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/asians-for-ceasefire-a-letter-urging-asian-american-congresspeople-to-endorse-ceasefire-resolution)

AAPI Equity Alliance(formerly AP3CON) statement on Hamas-Israel and call for cease-fire centered on increase of domestic hate crimes (https://stopaapihate.org/2023/10/30/stop-aapi-hate-calls-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/)

UCLA Asian American Studies Department“Statement of Solidarity with Palestine” issued during the Israeli spring offensive in 2021 (https://asianam.ucla.edu/2021/05/21/asian-american-studies-departments-statement-of-solidarity-with-palestine/)

Update on HR 786:Bending to pressure, Biden softens and calls for humanitarian “pause” (not cease-fire yet) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwgiKQ6FnhM)

MAGA House Speaker Mike Johnson “concerned that democrats are talking about a ceasefire…No way.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq-w5rKKtDE)

HR 786, Oct. 16, 2023

118^thCongress, 1st Session

Calling for an immediate de-escalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.

Whereas all human life is precious, and the targeting of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law;

Whereas between Oct. 7 and Oct. 16, 2023, armed violence has claimed the lives of over 2,700 Palestinians and over 1,400 Israelis, including Americans, and wounded thousands more;

Whereas hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk if a cease-fire is not achieved and humanitarian aid is not delivered without delay; and

Whereas the federal government holds immense diplomatic power to save Israeli and Palestinian lives:

Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the House of Representatives —

(1) Urges the Biden Administration to immediately call for and facilitate de-escalation and a cease-fire to urgently end the current violence; and

(2) Calls upon the Biden Administration to promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

Original sponsors: Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Rashida Talib (D-Mich.), Andre Carson (D-Ind.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.)

Since Oct. 18: Reps. Gregorio Casar (D-Texas), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Alma Adams (D-N.C.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.)

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