Our Revolution Cambridge continues the political revolution ignited by the Bernie2016 primary campaign. We are an affiliate of the national Our Revolution and Our Revolution Massachusetts. Our mission centers on ending the root causes of inequality and oppression in our society by empowering and uplifting the 99%. We are active at the local, regional, state, and national levels through electoral and legislative politics, community education, mass mobilization, and mass organizing. We are a constantly evolving, open, and democratic community.

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Our Revolution Cambridge is horrified and heartbroken by the recent violence in Palestine/Israel.  Our thoughts are with all of the innocent victims affected, and we condemn all forms of violence against civilians, without reservation: Israeli’s 50+ years of occupation and apartheid(1) regime in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on October 7th that killed over 1,200 Israelis, and Israel’s genocidal(2) attacks against the civilian population of Gaza that have killed over 40,000 Palestinians. 

First, we welcome recent news of a pause in the violence, which will help allow for the provision of humanitarian aid to the nearly 1.6 million internally displaced Gazan residents, and the return of some of the Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.  We, however, recognize that Israel’s top ministers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defensive Minister Yoav Gallant, and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, have committed to renewing the violence after the pause. Therefore the top priority must be enacting a permanent ceasefire, and the continued provision of substantial humanitarian aid to Gazan residents who have been undergoing immeasurable human suffering.  Of the over 40,000 Gazans who have been killed, ⅔ of whom are women and children. At least 70% of the housing stock in Gaza has been destroyed or extremely damaged.  Access to food, water, electricity, health care, and fuel has been either extremely limited or nonexistent. Israel’s actions that have led to this humanitarian catastrophe are a clear example of collective punishment and a war crime.

In addition to an immediate ceasefire, we also call for the unconditional release of the remaining civilian hostages taken by Hamas, the taking of which is a clear war crime, and the unconditional release of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners, many held without charge, by Israel. Our thoughts are with all families whose loved ones’ whereabouts are unknown, and whose grief and pain are unimaginable.

We note that our call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the release of hostages is not alone.  It is the call of the United Nations General Assembly, and the call of hundreds, if not thousands, of human rights organizations across the Globe, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, United Nations Population Fund, United High Commission on Human Rights, World Health Organization, World Food Programme, Save the Children, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights, Norwegian Refugee Council, International Federation for Human Rights, and many, many more.

Second, while a permanent ceasefire is the most urgent step, we also urge all parties to recognize that the status quo cannot be maintained.  We call for an immediate end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and its system of apartheid in Israel and the Occupied Territories.  To this end, we demand the United States end its unconditional military aid to Israel, which contravenes the 1997 Leahy Laws that forbid U.S. support of war crimes.  A just and lasting peace can only come after the occupation ends.

We were heartened to see our local Cambridge CIty Council, on the second try, did pass a policy order supporting US Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s ceasefire resolution.  Detroit, Providence, Rhode Island, Oakland, and Seattle have joined the internationally supported ceasefire calls and passed ceasefire resolutions. We encourage the Massachusetts’ federal delegation to push for an immediate, durable ceasefire by supporting Rep. Pressley’s resolution.  We thank Councilor Zondervan and Mayor Siddiqui for introducing and supporting the ceasefire policy order.

Finally, we denounce ongoing attempts to censor or silence individuals and groups who express moral outrage, through written statements or nonviolent protest, at the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza.  We reject the claim that opposition to Israel’s policies is antisemitism and note that many Jewish people around the world and in Cambridge oppose Israel’s policies. At the same time, we are alarmed by the increase in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab hate crimes over the past month, and oppose each of these forms of bigotry in Cambridge and around the world. 

We urge the Cambridge community to support a call for peace and justice in Palestine/Israel while treating each other with empathy and compassion.

1. This term is not used lightly, and is the unanimous assessment of major human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.
2. We again do not use this term lightly.  Hundreds of leading scholars of Holocaust and genocide studies have made the same assessment, based on statements by leading Israeli officials and the horrific civilian toll in Gaza.