Template for Youth. Urge Council to pass a motion for CEASEFIRE!
This action is part of a sustained collective solidarity effort for CEASEFIRE and an end the Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation of Palestine.
Please follow @palestineactiongumbaynggirr and/or join the working group! We need you!
Hello,
My name is ……….. And I am aged …… In NSW I am considered a ‘young person’, and too often our insights and perspectives are not included in decision making. I note that Bellingen Shire Council has recently been given the opportunity to support the voices of young people in this Shire through the YouthSpeak Program. Will you support our voices now? I am writing to you from a local grassroots action group “Gather for Gaza '' led by young people! We urge you to represent young people in the shire and consider passing a motion for Ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Genocide.
The movement for Palestinian Solidarity has been the most sustained anti war movement in decades. For six months there have been sustained marches, boycotts, walkouts, sit ins, direct actions, and community events. We are a local action group and we have organised a number of protests, snap actions, film screenings and other events.
We are urging you to follow the example set by the City of Sydney, City of Randwick (NSW), Inner West (NSW), Canterbury-Bankstown (NSW), City of Darebin (VIC), City of Wyndham (VIC), City of Merri-Bek (VIC), City of Hume (VIC), and City of Dandenong (VIC) who have all passed motions for ceasefire. The City of Brimbank passed a motion Feb 21 2024, and mid March the City of Banyule also passed a ceasefire motion. We have modelled ours on those that have successfully passed already.
At present the state of Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza has killed 36,300 people in six months, 14,800 of these are babies, toddlers and children. This does not include people buried under buildings that have not been found. More than 74,600 people have been injured. Children are being maimed and mutilated in extreme numbers. More than 2 million people in Gaza are experiencing a live streamed Genocide as I write this and more than half of those people are under 18.
There has been a total collapse of the Medical system in Gaza due to Israeli targeting medical facilities. Save the Children’s Country Director for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said:
“I’ve seen doctors and nurses completely overwhelmed when children come in with blast wounds. The impact of seeing children in that much pain and not having the equipment, medicines to treat them or alleviate pain is too much for even experienced professionals. Even in a war zone, the sights and sounds of a young child mutilated by bombs cannot be reconciled let alone understood within the bounds of humanity”
There is no access to anaesthesia or painkillers in Gaza.
On February 26th Aaron Bushnell, a white young US air-force member, burnt himself alive in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC as an extreme act of protest. Some of his final words were,
"Many of us like to ask ourselves, "What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide? ... "The answer is, you're doing it. Right now."
We are asking you, will you support a motion for Ceasefire in Bellingen Shire?
Thanks,
“INSERT YOUR NAME”
PLEASE EMAIL TO BELLINGEN SHIRE COUNCILLORS BELOW
mayor@bellingen.nsw.gov.au
cr.brotherton@bellingen.nsw.gov.au
cr.fenton@bellingen.nsw.gov.au
cr.cook@bellingen.nsw.gov.au
cr.king@bellingen.nsw.gov.au
cr.glyde@bellingen.nsw.gov.au
cr.tree@bellingen.nsw.gov.au