Statement: USCPR Responds to Israel’s Genocidal Ground Invasion Plans for Rafah
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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This is genocide and the continued ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people
WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 9, 2024—This morning, the Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued the following statement regarding Israel’s military operations in Gaza:
“It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah. On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat. Therefore, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the IDF and the security establishment to submit to the Cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions.”
Since mid-October, Israel has consistently ordered Palestinians in Gaza to “evacuate” to the south. Israel’s plan entails continued genocide against people who are now crammed into “safe zones” like Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced to. This plan is part of Israel’s decades-long desire to steal Palestinian land by killing and removing native Palestinians.
The following is a statement from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Executive Director Ahmad Abuznaid:
“There are currently 1.9 million Palestinian refugees in Rafah, who Israel lured there with lies that it was a safe place to shelter. They have nowhere else to go. Israel plans to massacre them, continuing the genocide we have watched unfold in horror for the last 126 days.
Despite the International Court of Justice’s orders against further acts of genocide, our U.S. elected officials have offered nothing but empty words of concern while actively sending arms to Israel. They are failing in their legal duty to stop the genocide we see happening live on social media. U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby’s warning yesterday that the U.S. would not support an Israeli assault on Rafah was clearly too little, too late, as Israel continues operating with total impunity to proceed with its genocidal plans.
The collective power we have witnessed from millions of people rising up in their communities against this U.S.-funded genocide has created a powerful force that our elected officials cannot afford to ignore. As our movement grows stronger every day, we will hold our politicians accountable for their complicity, and we will keep fighting until there is a permanent ceasefire, an end to U.S. military funding to Israel, and a free Palestine.”
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About the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is a national network of activists and organizations who are committed to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and who work to end U.S. complicity in their oppression. USCPR is a political home for all who believe that freedom for the Palestinian people is an integral part of achieving our collective liberation. USCPR provides resources and strategic support to the U.S.-based Palestine solidarity movement, channeling grassroots power into positive change in U.S. policy and public opinion. USCPR works with local organizers and activists, policymakers, movement leaders, media, and advocacy organizations to advance a rights-based, accountability and justice-oriented framework from the U.S. to Palestine.
