CAPA strongly condemns Israel’s ongoing, genocidal assault on Gaza which, since October 2023: 

• May have killed several times the 39,000+ whose bodies have been recoverable from beneath Gazan rubble; 
• has orphaned 17,000 children 
• has maimed 85,000 civilians still trapped in the conflict zone without medical care, 
• and includes, perhaps most terribly, a U.S.-Israeli campaign of deliberate starvation set to astronomically raise the already grim death toll.  

We believe this aggression must be seen in the context of seven decades of brutal repression of the Palestinian people, as must the October 7th surprise attack led by military elements of Gaza’s Hamas government. We demand an immediate cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel pending a resolution of Israel’s longstanding campaigns of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.   

We lament the real atrocities committed by Gazans, including Hamas militants, on October 7th.  Although tales specifically of beheadings and of systematic rape/torture have been discredited as racist propaganda by outlets such as Electronic Intifada and the Grayzone, killings of unarmed civilians, even if enacted at lower numbers than officially reported, remain a crime; as do civilian abductions.  

Consequently, CAPA staunchly opposes U.S./Israeli efforts at regime change in Gaza.  Eliminating Hamas from Gaza is an impossible goal short of ethnically cleansing the region, as too many Israeli officials have indeed promised to do:  but it is also an utterly unconscionable goal. If Israel has a right to defend itself, Palestine has that same right, although all parties must respect civilian lives.  As part of a lasting ceasefire, all surviving Israeli hostages must be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held without charge in quadruple figures since before Oct 7. Israeli officials must be held accountable for war crimes just as members of Gaza’s Hamas government must be:   We applaud the ICC’s independence in issuing an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.

We see, as an immediate goal, a permanent ceasefire to be followed by the international campaign of relief, reconstruction and peacekeeping necessary to make Gaza livable once more for its inhabitants with the same human rights and benefits for all Palestinians and Israelis – an end to apartheid.  

Israel must be prevented from expanding the war to countries like Lebanon and Iran.  We must work for some resolution of the circumstances which began long before the Oct 7 attack, that are not merely unsustainable and unconscionable, but arguably unsurvivable as a destabilizing provocation in a perilous nuclear age. 

Once the Palestinian people are able to start rebuilding their livelihoods, health and homes, their lives –  negotiations and elections can occur as they, as a people, have the right to democratic self-determination.