Statement on President Biden’s airdrop of food and supplies to Palestinians in Gaza

Mar 4, 2024

Statement on Humiliation of Airdrops for Palestinians Being Starved in Gaza

Justice for All denounces the humiliation of Palestinians being systematically starved in the besieged enclave of Gaza and forced to run after paltry aid being dropped in unsafe places with no orderly distribution.

The United State’s symbolic airdrop of aid on Saturday provides cover for their complicity in Israel’s genocide through their continued supply of munitions to kill the very people they seek to feed. Experts and aid officials have made clear that these airdrops are not an effective way to alleviate the starvation of 2.3 million people in Gaza deliberately caused by Israel, with the full backing of the United States.

The famine in Gaza continues to deepen due to Israel’s refusal to let in humanitarian aid trucks waiting at the Rafah border and the failure of the United States to use its diplomatic influence on Israel.  The US must force Israel to immediately open all crossings, immediately allow every day the number of humanitarian trucks that the UN states is needed throughout Gaza with immediate focus on areas of highest starvation, restore UNRWA funding, and call for a permanent ceasefire.

Dave Harden, the former USAID director has said that the airdrop of the US is equivalent to the aid that is within only half of one truck. He says it is embarrassing.

Thus, we note that to virtually the entire world, it is too little, too late.

Justice For All demands the following immediate actions:

• Demand Israel immediately open every crossing so humanitarian aid trucks go throughout Gaza from every direction
• Facilitate the entry of UN food trucks daily into Gaza at or more than the specific number of trucks that the UN says is necessary by exerting pressure on Israel, ensuring that aid reaches those in need through an organized international effort. Immediate priority needs to focus on areas of worst starvation such as North Gaza.
  
• Immediately implement the sealift capability that five US Senators [Democrats Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Peter Welch (Vt.] call for in the Washington Post Op-Ed where they name the immediately needed effort as Operation Gaza Relief.

See here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/16/israel-gaza-aid-senators-merkley-durbin-warren-vanhollen-welch/

• Demand that any agreement between Israel and Hamas must state that Israel is required to never hinder and never restrict the number of humanitarian aid trucks that the UN says is needed every day and that Israel would be in violation of the agreement with any deficiency of aid reaching those in need in any part of Gaza
• Immediately reinstate the UNRWA funding that has been halted, demonstrating a commitment to alleviating hunger and the absence of other services.
• Immediately restart the water at full flowing rate in North Gaza and any other places in Gaza that Israel has not turned it on
• Pass a UN resolution that transfers responsibility of inspecting the trucks to the UN instead of Israel as was what the UN Security Council was going to pass before it was blocked by the US Ambassador to the UN. Since the Biden Administration blocked that needed language, every Palestinian child and adult dying of starvation from the date of that UN Security Council resolution in December to now and beyond falls on the responsibility of the Biden Administration.
• The UN Security Council resolution needs to condemn any intention of Israel to attack Rafah and the UN resolution must demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
• Restart the hospitals that are not destroyed and install field hospitals throughout the entirety of Gaza
• Immediately deploy a US Navy Hospital Ship to treat wounded civilians in Gaza as called for by Senator Jack Reed (Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee) and Senator Angus King (a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee) in their letter to President Biden published at:

https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-king-urge-white-house-to-send-a-us-navy-hospital-ship-to-treat-gaza-civilians

• Support the deployment of UN peacekeepers to safeguard Palestinian civilians, promoting safety and security.
• Establish a no-fly zone over the entirety of Gaza
• Do not send anymore offensive weapons or munitions or anything that can be used for offensive military capabilities to Israel. Any military aid going to Israel clearly violates five US federal laws.
• Publicly state that the US calls for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel’s 57 year old brutal and illegal occupation just like the US calls for the release of Israeli hostages.  Just because Palestinians held by Israel (many held for multiple years) are called prisoners by Israel does not make their detention any more acceptable than the detention of any Israeli hostages.
• Advocate for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, laying the groundwork for lasting peace.
• Commit to the freedom and immediate statehood of Palestine, respecting its security, rights, and sovereignty.