Too little, too late? That’s the sentiment online after cheers emanated from the crowd as US Vice President Kamala Harris called on 3 March for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza. A recent US poll shows 65 per cent of people support a comprehensive ceasefire; Harris touted one lasting six weeks.
Many see the 6-week duration as a way to entice Arabs and Muslims to support US President Joe Biden, given that the timeframe would coincide with the almost 5-week Muslim holy month of Ramadan. After weeks of mobilising Arab and Muslim communities in Michigan, more than 100,000 people cast ‘uncommitted’ ballots during the state’s Democratic Party primary held on 27 February. However, that did not prevent Biden from sweeping the majority of delegates as he continues on to other state primaries ahead of the November election.
The surge in action against the Democratic Party’s presumed presidential nominee has come as Israel has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians—more than 70 per cent of whom are women and children—since the 7 October escalation in the 75-year Palestine-Israel conflict. Despite this, Tel Aviv has continued to say the bombardments are meant to eliminate H*m*s militants.
In January, the International Court of Justice slapped provisional measures against Israel, saying its actions were ‘plausibly’ in violation of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
The vice president was speaking in Selma, Alabama, during the commemoration of ‘Bloody Sunday.’ That is when Alabama state troopers and a common-law posse used batons and tear gas to attack about 600 primarily Black civil-rights marchers 59 years ago on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
What do you think of Harris’ call for a ceasefire? Let us know in the comments.