Push for cease-fire as Gaza death toll grows
More than 50 current and former elected officials, community leaders, religious leaders and representatives of nonprofit groups called Thursday for Colorado’s congressional delegation to push more forcefully for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to stop the killing of civilians.
“We must demand a cease-fire,” State Rep. Iman Jodeh said on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol in Denver. “We cannot allow the word cease-fire to become taboo.
We cannot allow the word ceasefire to be the word that they fear the most.”
She added: “If we do, the next word that will be taboo is peace.”
Jodeh, an Aurora Democrat and Palestinian-american, penned an open letter earlier this month that has been signed by more than 100 leaders and groups in the state. It appeals for Congress to seek a “bilateral ceasefire, the return of all hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinian prisoners in Israel, full restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and ensure the role the U.S. plays is to be an honest peace broker.”
She sent the letter to the state’s Democratic representatives in the U.S. House and Senate on Thursday.
The renewed call for a ceasefire came on the 75th day of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has killed about 20,000 people. The campaign was launched in response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas in Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people, according to Israel’s official count, as another 240 were taken as hostages — more than 100 of whom are still believed to be in captivity.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Palestinian human rights activists and allies, including some of whom are Jewish, have met with members of Colorado’s congressional delegation to ask them to advocate for the United States to help negotiate a permanent cease-fire that includes the return of Hamas’ hostages and Palestinians who are detained in Israeli prisons without charges.
But they said they often have been met with trepidation or concerns about Hamas.
“While we’re not condoning Hamas, they need to understand that you can kill the man but not the idea,” Jodeh said in an interview. “And that what’s happening now in Gaza is breeding the next generation’s Hamas.”
U.S. officials helped negotiate a seven-day cease-fire late last month that resulted in the release of more than 100 hostages, but Israeli strikes have since resumed.
At the news conference, Jodeh
said U.S. Reps. Jason Crow, of Aurora, and Diana Degette, of Denver, “are moving in the right direction” but haven’t gone far enough in demanding a cease-fire.
Crow’s office did not respond directly to a question about the letter but pointed to his most recent statements, including one in which he shares at least one of Jodeh’s sentiments by saying, “You cannot destroy a terrorist ideology with military power alone. … How we fight — and how our partners fight — matters.”
In a statement, Degette spokesperson Sam Satterfield said: “Congresswoman Degette supports the heightened efforts of the Biden Administration to broker a new, mutual cessation of hostilities — with the hopes of a permanent deal.”
The Working Families Party, a liberal group calling for an end to military action, this week counted Degette among 63 members of Congress that it says have called for a cease-fire or a cessation of hostilities, either through statements or by signing onto a House cease-fire resolution. The resolution has 18 sponsors, none of whom are from Colorado.
Others who spoke at Thursday’s event included state Rep. Lorena García of Adams County, former state Rep. Jonathan Singer of Longmont and representatives from Elephant Circle, a reproductive rights group, and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.
Singer spoke about trauma caused by the violence and displacement faced by civilians and their families — as well as the Islamophobia and antisemitism triggered for Jewish and Muslim communities amid the most recent conflict.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye to the horrific devastation of thousands of innocent children and civilians,” he said. “As a person of Jewish faith, I know what it means to be called the nation of Israel, our home after millennia of diaspora and displacement. The Palestinian people have also experienced displacement. They deserve a sovereign state of their own to call home.”
The only way to broker that peace, he said, is to start with a cease-fire and the return of hostages.