Israel Killed More than 100 Members of My Family. President Biden Must Demand a Ceasefire To End Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
By Adam Abosheriah
On January 26, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling in favor of the government of South Africa, which had filed a petition accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. I was gratified as I read the decision, calling on Israel to take all measures to avoid killing civilians in Gaza and to prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide by Israeli officials..
The ICJ decision will hopefully save lives and help end the catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s cutting off food, water, and other humanitarian aid. But it can only end the killing and the suffering of the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza under one of the deadliest bombing campaigns in history if President Biden heeds its conclusions and calls for an immediate ceasefire.
The court’s decision came too late to have any chance of saving the lives of 104 members of my family who were killed by Israeli airstrikes in November. It was the middle of the night. My parents, brother, nieces and nephews were in our family home in Gaza City, along with other relatives who had been driven from their homes further north and were sheltering there. My cousin Fathi’s home was attacked first. Then, as my brother, cousins and other family members rushed to Fathi’s house to rescue the injured, the Israeli military bombed the house again, killing all the survivors and those attempting to rescue, and carpet bombing nine other homes of my relatives.
My cousin in the US alerted me by phone. I immediately tried calling my parents, but communications were severed. It took me nearly 12 excruciating hours to find out who was killed, wounded, had managed to escape, had been pulled from the rubble and survived.
Dozens of my family members’ bodies remain underneath rubble, including my parents and brother. My 83-year old father was the salt of the earth. A man who loved life, peace, his family, nature, and most of all, his grandchildren. My cousin Yaser, like a brother to me, along with his wife, six children, and two grandchildren. I think about them continuously, my pain magnified because I can’t give them a proper burial.
It’s more than two months since over 100 relatives were wiped out by Israeli bombs, and Israel’s relentless assault on Palestinians in Gaza has surpassed 100 days. More than 26,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military, most of them women and children, and 65,000 others wounded. Nearly 8,000 more are missing, or buried under rubble. 1.7 million people–75% of the population of Gaza Strip–have been driven from their homes. The overcrowding and lack of adequate sanitation in shelters for displaced people, coupled with Israel’s refusal to permit more than a trickle of the necessities of life such as food, clean water, medical supplies, and fuel to enter Gaza, means that hundreds of thousands more are at risk of death from deliberately-imposed starvation, disease, or, for those forced into the squalid tent cities on beaches in southern Gaza, exposure from winter cold and rain. The World Health Organization reports alarming rates of acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, scabies and lice.
This is all happening in the context of 56 years of brutal Israeli military occupation, 16 years of a suffocating, illegal Israeli siege and blockade of Gaza, and 75 years of a racist Israeli system of oppression of Palestinians that human rights groups say amounts to apartheid. These are the root cause of all the violence in Palestine/Israel.
I appreciate South Africa’s brave moral stance in bringing their case against Israel to the ICJ. President Biden, on the other hand, has unconditionally supported Israel’s merciless assault since day one, despite his admission that Israel has been engaged in “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza — a serious war crime. President Biden could pick up the phone and demand that Israel implement an immediate ceasefire. Instead, he continues to send Israel’s far-right government weapons and money, even bypassing Congress to do so.
President Biden’s support for Israel’s attack on Gaza is out of step with the views of Americans, a majority of whom support a ceasefire. He should listen to his constituents and end his administration’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, and do all that is in its power to bring about a permanent ceasefire.
Adam Abosheriah is a Palestinian-American pharmacist from Gaza living in Springfield, New Jersey.
