Dear Mr. President:

We, the undersigned elected officials of Connecticut, value human life, dignity, equality, safety, and peace for all, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. We stand in solidarity with our Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities, reaffirming our commitment to their safety, security, and well-being both here in Connecticut and to their families and friends in Palestine. It is in this spirit that we join with voices of conscience in Connecticut and around the world in recognizing the imperative need for an immediate, mutual, and permanent ceasefire in the assault on Gaza.

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. All religious sites, including the Al Aqsa complex, must be protected from encroachment and destruction.

We further urge you to prioritize the safety and well-being of all detainees, recognizing their right to freedom and unconditional release. We call on you to exercise all available diplomatic leverage towards such an end. 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.

The current genocidal approach has proved counterproductive resulting in unnecessary deaths and prolonged suffering. There is much to do to secure a peace that ensures safety, freedom, justice, and equality for all people in the region. These efforts include an arms embargo of Israel, as per U.S. law, forbidding transfer of weapons to countries engaged in human rights abuses, and nuclear weapons proliferation. Crucially the United States must de-escalate the threat of world-ending nuclear war by ceasing any repeat of its bombing of Iran and its nuclear sites, in collaboration with Israel. However, the immediate priority must be to stop the mounting death and destruction in Gaza.

Sincerely,

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1. CT State Representative Travis Simms, Deputy Speaker of the CT state House, 140th CT state House District, Norwalk, CT

2. CT State Representative Anne Hughes, 135th CT state House District, Weston, Easton, and Redding, CT

3. Alderman Nathan Simpson, Ward 1, New Britain, CT