Two Year Anniversary

After Two Years of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, Connecticut Palestine Alliance Cautiously Welcomes Cease-Fire Negotiations

(Hartford, CT, 10/6/2025) — The Connecticut Palestine Alliance (CTPA) welcomes the slight diminishment of bombings and blockade of Gaza over the past few days after nearly 2 years of Israel’s active genocide against the Palestinian people. The current, apparent lull in fighting has only occurred because of the pressure on the Israeli and American governments by domestic and international public pressure (e.g. attempted siege-breaking flotillas). However, the lull is incomplete, because of Israel’s apparent flouting of the Trump administration’s directive to fully stop the bombing of Gaza. The state of Israel had already killed more than 186,000 people, the majority of whom were civilian women and children, in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to July 2024 estimates by the medical journal The Lancet. Israel had already turned Gaza into an open-air concentration camp before October 7, 2023, and has since conducted an intentional ethnic cleansing campaign. We hope these negotiations represent the beginning of a permanent respite and mercy for Palestinians, addressing both the occupation and genocide, before and after October 7, 2023. Immediate, unimpeded access to food and medical aid must be ensured for Gaza, and reparations for reconstruction must be provided by Israel and its accomplices, including the United States. We also encourage the United States to allow the United Nations (U.N.) to use its charter to conduct a “peace enforcement” operation in Gaza to save the lives of the Gazans through U.N. General Assembly approved a multi-nation military force, U.N.R.W.A., W.H.O., etc. The United States should rejoin the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to allow them to monitor the recovery from mass starvation.

The Connecticut Palestine Alliance has weekly vigils against the genocide and starvation of the Gazans in front of hospitals in New Haven and Hartford, CT, specifically Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), Saint Francis Hospital (Hartford, CT), and UCONN Health Hospital (Farmington, CT). We also hold vigils at some of the UCONN home games in front of Raytheon’s Pratt and Whitney stadium in East Hartford. We hope the local media would be more cognizant of and report on all these efforts, including of the overwhelming pro-Palestine sentiment at the various ongoing pro-democracy, anti-fascist (e.g. No Kings) demonstrations. In addition, we are calling on all Connecticut elected officials to co-sign an open letter to President Trump calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire here: https://palestineCT.com/officials .

The armed violence in Palestine has claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian lives, millions of people displaced, and homes, neighborhoods, schools, universities, hospitals, churches, and mosques destroyed. Already at least hundreds of lives have been taken by Israel’s deliberate policy of mass starvation, and thousands more at imminent risk, barring an immediate ceasefire and prompt delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza. The so-called “aid” currently delivered by the “Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF)” is a literal death trap and public relations ploy attempting to provide political cover for the ongoing mass starvation despite GHF’s limited and separate functionally useless, dangerous airdrops of food. Additionally, there must be an end to violations of international law, including of Israel’s and the Trump administration’s proposed ethnic cleansing of Gaza, under the guise of sea-side development or not.

We further urge the prioritization of the safety and well-being of all detainees, recognizing their right to freedom and unconditional release. In addition, we uphold the right to self-determination for all peoples including and especially the people of Gaza, meaning that no foreign power or entity, such as Israel, United States, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or any other country shall determine the fate of or rule over the people of Gaza. We also support the concept of equal rights for all peoples in the region, and believe that recognition of separate states or statelets for different peoples will not contribute to this concept of equality and freedom for all peoples.

In the coming months, we must advocate for legal accountability for the Gaza genocide of the past 16 months, including for those in the American government who were complicit by supplying all the necessary weapons, financing, and diplomatic cover Israel needed to conduct this genocide. Besides supporting the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) full formal determination of whether genocide occurred and the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) pursuit of war crimes cases against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, we must support the enforcement of American law, which forbids aid to countries that block U.S. assistance, engage in major human rights abuses, or violate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). We also call for peace in the broader region, especially by stopping Israel from initiating another war against Iran, with or without American involvement.

We call upon all public and private entities with investment portfolios, especially the state of Connecticut’s Treasury and public unions, to divest from the state of Israel because of Israel’s continued apartheid and occupation. These divested funds must be redirected back into Connecticut to serve the many urgent needs of the state, rather than in Israeli military and spyware companies in particular.  We call for an end to Israeli political and intelligence interference in the domestic United States, including in the training of American police and its relationships with organized crime. We call for a complete arms embargo against Israel, the right of return for all Palestinians, and an end to the occupation of all Palestinian lands, including Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, which is under threat of destruction by the current Israeli government and its ideology. Only with progress towards a binational, single state solution, with equal rights and self-determination for all people, is peace and justice possible!

Contact: Omar Scott Antar, Email: info@palestineCT.com, IG: @palestineCT, Web: palestineCT.com

pdf version here.