Photo credit: Noam Amir, Shatil Stock

Yesterday, December 13, a group of Israeli organizations—many of them NIF grantees—published a major letter to President Biden urging him to insist that the Israeli military change its strategy to avoid further civilian deaths and the perpetuation of the increasingly disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The groups, which include Academia for Equality, Akevot Institute, B’Tselem, Bimkom, Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace, Gisha, HaMoked, Jordan Valley Activists, Looking the Occupation in the Eye, Machsom Watch, Parents Against Child Detention, Psychoactive, PWG, Rabbis for Human Rights, Re’Acha Kamocha, Social Workers for Peace and Welfare, Yesh Din and Zazim-Community Action, took out an ad in the New York Times and published the letter online, which you can read here.

Zazim also launched a petition making similar demands of the leaders of Israel’s war cabinet Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot last week (Eizenkot subsequently lost both his son and his nephew in combat). The petition was launched first in Hebrew and was signed by hundreds of Israelis and is also available to read and sign on in English here. 

As the situation for civilians in Gaza worsens and as the remaining hostages remain out of reach, Israelis are beginning to speak up and seek alternative strategies. In Israel, weekly protests against the war are growing and broadening even as they remain small against a sea of grief and increasing demands by the public for the government to bring all the hostages home.