TAKE ACTION: Tell your Senators no more weapons funded by U.S. tax dollars to arm the region

As violence escalates across Gaza and the broader region, the Arab-American Family Support Center (AAFSC) continues to call for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the Israeli government’s assaults on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. We also call for an end to the United States’ exportation of weapons to the region.

The human toll of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza is staggering. Entire bloodlines have been wiped out. More than 900 families have been completely erased, leaving no survivors, and thousands more with only one or two family members remaining. 

Israel’s recent military escalations extend beyond Gaza. Bombardments in Lebanon have caused thousands of deaths and displaced up to one million Lebanese civilians. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to intensify its violence in Syria, the West Bank, and Yemen. The destruction and loss of life underscores the urgent need for international intervention to stop the violence. 

The genocide in Gaza also has significant consequences here in New York and across the U.S., where we’re witnessing an alarming surge in hate crimes and discrimination. The FBI’s 2023 hate crime statistics revealed the highest total number of hate incidents on record for the third consecutive year–and this metric comes with serious concerns about underreporting. For instance, the Arab American Institute has noted that the murder of Wadea AlFayoumi in Chicago was “not properly reported in federal statistics” as a hate-related crime, even though his alleged assailant has been charged with two hate crime counts. Similarly, it remains unclear whether the attack on the three students in Vermont late last year was correctly reported and categorized.

These aren’t just statistics. They represent real violence and intimidation against our communities here in New York:

• Ahmed Chebira was brutally attacked in his Brooklyn apartment this May. His assailant, a neighbor, allegedly slashed his tires, poured a white substance on his door, punched him in the head, and pushed him to the ground, breaking several of his ribs and repeatedly threatening his life.
• At Columbia University, peaceful student protests were met with unprecedented repression and brutality by the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, with riot police called in by university administrators last May.
• Most recently, Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, was verbally attacked by U.S. Senator John Neely Kennedy during a Senate hearing on hate crimes, where he told her “You should hide your head in a bag.”

 These incidents underscore how our communities are subject to a rising nationwide trend in hate-fueled violence that has only increased since October 2023. At AAFSC, we witness these devastating effects daily through:

• Families grieving loved ones lost to airstrikes
• Rising mental health crises from trauma and anxiety
• Increased surveillance and policing of our communities
• Escalating hate crimes and discrimination
• Increases in doxxing

The connection is clear: the weapons that fuel the conflict abroad directly impact the safety of communities here in New York and the U.S. Those speaking out here against this violence face retaliation in their workplaces, schools, and political spaces. 

AAFSC urgently calls for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire, along with an end to the exporting  by the U.S. to Israel of weapons that fuel the devastation and lead directly to increases in violence here, too. We must act now to prevent further loss of life and destruction. 

 TAKE ACTION: Tell your Senators no more weapons funded by U.S. tax dollars to arm the region.