People in Gaza are still starving and dying. The Israelis are not allowing in enough supplies to feed everyone or to house everyone. Since the supposed ceasefire, the Israelis have shot and killed 615 Palestinians and injured an additional 1,651. That is not an effective ceasefire.

Keep in mind that we are paying for the bullets. The United States is directly responsible for making 2 million people homeless, 70,000 dead and 170,000 wounded. There are no working hospitals left in Gaza. The Israelis are only allowing a few people to leave for medical care.

This misery is something we must take responsibility for. They could not have done it without our weapons. Without the $6.82 billion of aid we give them their government could not function.

The central problem is one we are familiar with. In our own past, we tried to kill all the people that were here first. This land was not empty when Europeans found it. It was full of people living culturally rich lives. There were hundreds of languages and millions of people. One group was the mound builders. We don’t see mounds all over our Western New York because the settlers tore them apart. They erased a history they didn’t like.

In 1917 the British Government issued a statement (the Balfour Declaration) announcing its support for the establishment of a “National home for Jewish people” in Palestine, which at the time was a part of the Ottoman Empire with a small Jewish population. European Jews were encouraged to move there.

When the Ottoman Empire broke up in 1922 the British took control of Palestine. With European Jews moving in there began to be tension between the two groups, the indigenous and the settlers.

On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Palestine. They planned for a Jewish state and Muslim State with a buffer between them.

The question is “Who has a right to live on this land?” Do we go by ancestral occupation? In that case all of Chautauqua County belongs to the Seneca Nation. The United States government made a deal with them in 1795 that gave the settlers most of their land. We outnumber the Senecas. I am not going to give my house to the Seneca Nation but I do think about paying rent in some way.

There are still Palestinian villages where people have the deed to the house they inherited from their grandparents because their family has been there forever. These people are being displaced by settlers today. The Israeli government is using our money to displace these people.

OK, so we cheated the Senecas of their land so it’s OK for Israel to take land from Palestinians?

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Two plus two does not equal five. Our support for the genocide taking place in Gaza right now is shameful.

U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy supports Israel. Call his Jamestown office at (716) 488-8111 and tell him how you feel.

On Feb. 20, the U.S. ambassador to France Mike Huckabee said Israel is entitled to the entire Middle East. That it was promised to them in the Bible.

This has made the Arab countries really nervous. There is a faction in this country that wants to bring about the end times and war in the middle east is part of it. So is ecological breakdown.

We here in Western New York have no idea how good we have it. I can still go to a County Legislature meeting and say critical things about the direction of the county during the privilege of the floor and not worry about the sheriff’s deputies arresting me.

We want all law enforcement to behave with restraint. Our Constitution says “every person” has a right to due process. The Trump administration is claiming undocumented people are criminals because they are here illegally. Thus it’s OK to detain and deport them without a hearing. Some people deserve rights and some people don’t.

Over 70,000 people are in ICE concentration camps, including more than 3,000 children. What is their crime? Even a short time in prison is traumatic for a child. People who have come out of these camps report a lack of food, lack of medical care, beatings from the guards and no school. ICE is not allowing Congress to inspect the camps. What are they hiding?

If we have money for concentration camps, then we had money all along for housing and healthcare. The Epstein class just didn’t want to spend it.

The majority of Americans do not approve of ICE’s tactics. We are standing in the way. We are armed with whistles and signs because those are tools of democracy. We have the First Amendment right to Peaceable Assembly. It doesn’t matter to us whether these people have the right papers.

Whatever circumstances brought them to our community they are part of us now. Let’s have an easy way for them to get the right papers. That way, we can all live in Peace.

Marie Tomlinson is a Fredonia resident.