ICYMI: Congresswoman Simon Calls for End of Genocide in Gaza and Passage of the Block the Bombs Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) joined Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), other members of Congress, actors Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector, Mahmoud Khalil, Dr. Adil Husain, other Members of Congress and advocates to call for the passage of H.R. 3565, the Block the Bombs Act, to save lives.

The Block the Bombs Act withholds the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel and demands Israel's compliance with U.S. and international law.

"I come to Congress from a lineage of folks who know that war does not make us stronger. From a lineage of Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee, who were very clear that we as a nation cannot kill and slaughter our way to peace, that we cannot fund the machinery of death, and that safety is found in care - and not conquest. I am proud to stand with my colleagues today and say clearly that the genocide against the Palestinian people must end. I am proud to co-sponsor, along with my colleagues, the Block the Bombs act. It's clear, let us stop the murder and the slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza."

You can watch the full press conference here and read Congresswoman Simon's full remarks below:

"I come to Congress from a lineage of folks who know that war does not make us stronger. From a lineage of Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee, who were very clear that we as a nation cannot kill and slaughter our way to peace, that we cannot fund the machinery of death, and that safety is found in care - and not conquest. I am proud to stand with my colleagues today and say clearly that the genocide against the Palestinian people must end.

"More than 60,000 people have been slaughtered by the Israeli government, and we cannot send bombs, we must not send bombs to a government that uses the access to food as a weapon of war and clearly -daily- bombs civilians. These are clear international human rights violations, and I am proud to co-sponsor, along with my colleagues, the Block the Bombs act. It's clear, let us stop the murder and the slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza.

"The Block the Bombs Act would require the withholding of weapons to Israel and ensure and demand Israel's compliance with both U.S. and international law.

"Now, I want to be clear about this. We grieve deeply and profoundly the children of Gaza, whose bodies, as we speak, are being torn by shrapnel. We grieve them, and we can, in the same moment, deeply grieve the families in Israel who lost loved ones and who were killed. We can grieve them. We can refuse simultaneously; we can refuse the trap that tells us that we must choose whose pain is real. There are no two sides when we're talking about tens of thousands of children, slaughtered. We must demand and insist that the genocide that is happening in this moment not be committed in the name of anyone who has been murdered; and that we all must - in this building- be committed to the moral Act of working towards a just peace.

"I'll end by saying this, [we need] a just peace everywhere from Washington D.C. to Haiti to Sudan to Gaza. The people of this nation and the people around the world are counting on the folks at the highest levels of government to act with the morality that is deeply written in scripture. We must block the bombs, the United States government can no longer be complicit in the murdering of children. We can no longer be complicit in supplying and funding two-thousand-pound bombs to hit hospitals, to hit orphanages, and tent cities. I'm hoping members of the House of Representatives of the 119th Congress step up with their moral beings and stop the carnage. Thank you very much."

###