Democracy Now! spoke with Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar late Wednesday outside the Democratic National Convention, where members of the “uncommitted” movement launched a sit-in to demand a Palestinian American be allowed to address the convention from the main stage. Omar said she joined protesters outside the DNC because “there is no compassion in turning our heads away from the piles of dead bodies” in Gaza. “A ceasefire is only possible if we use every leverage that we have, and the biggest leverage that we have is to stop sending bombs,” says Omar, explaining why she is calling for an arms embargo against Israel and an end to “this genocidal war.”
Democratic U.S. Congressmember Ilhan Omar said outside the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday [21 August], where members of the “uncommitted” movement launched a sit-in to demand a Palestinian American be allowed to address the convention from the main stage.
Omar said she joined protesters outside the DNC because “there is no compassion in turning our heads away from the piles of dead bodies” in Gaza. “A ceasefire is only possible if we use every leverage that we have, and the biggest leverage that we have is to stop sending bombs,” says Omar, explaining why she is calling for an arms embargo against Israel and an end to “this genocidal war.”
You know, Hamas is coming after the US next, and once they start attacking Americans, there’s no turning back.
This is a scary comment. The comment this was in response to indicated it was wrong to commit genocide on Palestinians. Instead of even making an attempt to redefine or minimize the genocide, this comment instead argued that the genocide would be functional. It is functional to commit genocide on Palestinian people to prevent “Hamas is coming after the US next.” Nevermind that this doesn’t even make sense to argue at all, just the fact that it was offered as a justification for genocide should create a moment of pause for anyone following along.
Hamas and their allies consider the U.S. as “Great Satan”, basically their worst enemy. I doubt the punishment we gave to Al Qaeda is enough for them to step down.
stopping supporting anti hamas actions won’t stop the war… it will just lead to more innocent people dying
If you think more innocent people will die if Israel stops bombing Gaza into dust, then you haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening to Palestinians.
Everything Hamas has done, terrible as it is, pales in comparison to the tragedy and horror inflicted by the IDF.
Estimates of Palestinian deaths have long since exceeded tens of thousands. How you can believe that the October attacks could possibly have exceeded that is beyond me.
But you’ve already made up your mind. I don’t even know why you’re here.
Estimates are around 1000 Israelis killed in the October attacks. Most of them were killed by Hamas; some were killed by the IDF in their response to Hamas. Those attacks were brutal and terrible. Friends of my family only just survived. Hamas is repellent.
There are are now about 40,000 Palestinians confirmed killed by the IDF since October, and perhaps another 10,000 thought to be dead but not yet counted. It is simply a fact of numbers that the IDF have killed far more people than Hamas over this timeframe, and there’s no end in sight. Entire cities have been flattened, and huge numbers of people have been made homeless and are being starved and deprived of water and medical treatment even as they are bombed and shot daily.
Tragedy and suffering are personal and cannot simply be calculated by numbers. But surely it cannot be difficult to see why people think the IDF has inflicted greater suffering than Hamas since October 2023?
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !politics@beehaw.org
In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it’s a political happening, you can post it here.
Guidelines for submissions:
Where possible, post the original source of information.
If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.
These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.
This is common sense. Too bad our leaders are senseless.
not really common sense since you still have hamas running around attacking both palestinians and israelis.
Yes hamas, which was formed due to Israel then later funded by Israeli government, is worse than the country currently genociding the Palestinians…
deleted by creator
This is a scary comment. The comment this was in response to indicated it was wrong to commit genocide on Palestinians. Instead of even making an attempt to redefine or minimize the genocide, this comment instead argued that the genocide would be functional. It is functional to commit genocide on Palestinian people to prevent “Hamas is coming after the US next.” Nevermind that this doesn’t even make sense to argue at all, just the fact that it was offered as a justification for genocide should create a moment of pause for anyone following along.
deleted by creator
Why would they attack USA?
Funny Israel has killed more Americans than hamas will and nothing changed.
Hamas and their allies consider the U.S. as “Great Satan”, basically their worst enemy. I doubt the punishment we gave to Al Qaeda is enough for them to step down.
So you mean iran will attack USA if Israel is gone? Man wonder who helped make them hate us, like all the coups.
Do you think we punished al qaeda? Plus really should have gone after the Saudis
Which has done more harm to Palestinians in recent months: Hamas or Israel’s weapons?
i mean hamas literally attacked a music festival and killed innocent people. i can’t imagine a pov where someone would sympathize with them.
stopping supporting anti hamas actions won’t stop the war… it will just lead to more innocent people dying
If you think more innocent people will die if Israel stops bombing Gaza into dust, then you haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening to Palestinians.
Everything Hamas has done, terrible as it is, pales in comparison to the tragedy and horror inflicted by the IDF.
removed by mod
Check out this modern day Holocaust-denial level bullshit. Eventually this will be known to be just as malicious. It’s weird that it isn’t already.
Estimates of Palestinian deaths have long since exceeded tens of thousands. How you can believe that the October attacks could possibly have exceeded that is beyond me.
But you’ve already made up your mind. I don’t even know why you’re here.
Estimates are around 1000 Israelis killed in the October attacks. Most of them were killed by Hamas; some were killed by the IDF in their response to Hamas. Those attacks were brutal and terrible. Friends of my family only just survived. Hamas is repellent.
There are are now about 40,000 Palestinians confirmed killed by the IDF since October, and perhaps another 10,000 thought to be dead but not yet counted. It is simply a fact of numbers that the IDF have killed far more people than Hamas over this timeframe, and there’s no end in sight. Entire cities have been flattened, and huge numbers of people have been made homeless and are being starved and deprived of water and medical treatment even as they are bombed and shot daily.
Tragedy and suffering are personal and cannot simply be calculated by numbers. But surely it cannot be difficult to see why people think the IDF has inflicted greater suffering than Hamas since October 2023?
From June: Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential
I wish the UN Security Council would do something about this, while Israel continues to spit in the UN’s faces.