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.”
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