The starvation of Palestinians …

The following letter was sent to the Annapolis Friends Meeting – Discuss List on April 14 2025 – and is shared with permission.

 

Dear Friends-

This AFSC news article greatly disturbs me, especially in the context of ever rarer reports from mainstream media about the crisis in Gaza: https://afsc.org/news/our-bodies-can-no-longer-hold-us The title is a metaphor for the personal experience of starvation by an AFSC staffer and her family try to stay alive there.

When the mainstream media do report, they confirm that the current blockade of food and water to Gaza has continued now for 6 weeks– and at a time when bombing of hospital & other civilian targets by the Israeli military has resumed: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/children-gaza-hunger-aid-blockade-israel-rcna201085 and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87p15q8d74o There seems to be little reason to expect that the President or the current Congress quickly can or will change the course that has led to this disaster.

At our recent BYM Networking Day, an online resource was provided for Friends / others who might wish to consider participation in a BDS (boycott / divestiture / sanctions) effort that could contribute to consumer pressure on businesses to curtail their support of the Israeli military’s slow-motion murder of Palestinian civilians. One webpage lists major U.S. companies supporting the Israeli military: https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies  including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Cisco & many others.

Also, one can insert the name of any mutual fund that holds corporate assets, click the “occupied” tab, then get a response to see whether the corporations are actively supporting this (or other) war effort(s): https://investigate.afsc.org/fund-search?keyword=friends%20&strict=0 If we find that we are mutual fund share-holders / beneficiaries, as  individuals, Friends and members of groups that hold such funds, we might speak out / write / urge the fund managers to divest — and, in turn, to publicly announce the reason(s) for divesting.

With South African apartheid, BDS turned out to be probably the most effective international tool to change the minds of the politicians leading that war & repression. Unfortunately, it may take much too long to create that impact. But, it still is a powerful tool.

What do others think? Are there more immediate tools that we can use to try to make a difference?

Co-clerk, AFM Peace & Social Concerns Committee