From: City Council
To: F
Subject: RE: Ceasefire Resolution
Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 8:43:00 AM
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From: Foxtrot
Sent: Monday, April 1, 2024 11:06 PM
To: City Council <[email protected]>; Mary Gourley <[email protected]>
Subject: Ceasefire Resolution
Councilmenmbers,
Most civilians are blessed not to know the details of how wars are fought. Most civilians will not have to walk over or around dead bodies or body parts. Part of the training for soldiers going to the front line is how to deal with seeing dead bodies. As we know, the training does little good. Many soldiers are never the same, even after years of getting PTSD treatment. If we know there is extreme psychological damage for adults that see death on the battlefield, what is the level of unspeakable trauma the Palestinian children are experiencing when seeing their parents blown away, or siblings crushed under the rubble? What about the parents that have to bury pieces of their children because that is all that was left after an Israeli airstrike? I've seen wars firsthand. I've been a soldier and I've trained soldiers. I know the details of how wars are fought and I know this isn't a war, nor is it a conflict. It's a genocide against a civilian population that is trapped at a dead end of an open air prision, with no where to hide.
Israel is guilty of multiple violations of the Geneva Convention, the Hague Convention and International Humanitarian Law: murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, collective punishment, starvation, the use of human shields, sexual violence and rape, torture, pillage, forced transfer, breach of medical neutrality, targeting journalists, attacking civilian and protected objects, wanton destruction, incitement to genocide, and genocide.
History will judge all of us who stay silent during a genocide. We have seen public opinion has moved against Israel and their unspeakable crimes. We are now seeing public opinion moving away from people in elected positions that are not standing against this genocide, not just because of moral issues, but because US taxpayer money is being spent on missles and drones to kill civilians and bomb hospitals.
This international humanitarian crisis is not just an Israeli or Palestinian issue. It is a Sebastopol issue. It is a Sonoma County issue, a California issue and a United States of America issue. All levels of government need to stand against war criminals.
Jerry D. Williams
Ret. Lieutenant Colonel
United States Army