NO VOTES FOR GENOCIDE

We the Citizens of Southern Illinois will withhold our vote from Vice President Kamala Harris, Former President Donald Trump and all Corporate Party candidates on the ballot this November 5th unless there is an arms embargo and permanent ceasefire imposed on Israel.

The Biden administration is a full partner in the genocide in Gaza. While Democratic Party leaders claim to be “working tirelessly” for a ceasefire, they have provided over $20.8 billion dollars in weapons for Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians since October 7th.

Voters have repeatedly demanded an arms embargo and permanent ceasefire from the Biden administration. Recent polling shows that 77% of Democrats and 61% of all Americans oppose weapons aid for Israel’s assault on Gaza. At the Democratic National Convention, Democratic and Uncommitted delegates also called on Vice President Harris to adopt a ceasefire and arms embargo into her platform. In response, the Harris campaign explicitly rejected the premise of an arms embargo and barred a Palestinian speaker from taking the stage.

The Biden-Harris administration's carrying on the Trump administration's policy of moving the American Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem, pursuing more countries to normalize relations with Israel, recognizing the Golan Heights as a part of Israel, and last but very much so least...continuing to funnel countless billions to Israeli Occupation Forces to continue perpetrating and intensifying the 75 years ongoing and murderously intensifying genocide of the Palestinian people.

The Harris campaign and Congressional Democratic candidates across the country have had ample opportunity to adopt a humanitarian position on Gaza. Instead, Democratic Party leaders remain staunch war criminals who facilitate genocide and carry out flagrant violations of national and international law.

In a letter to the State Department demanding a termination of weapons, thousands of veterans from across our nation laid bare every violation of federal law: the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, the Foreign Assistance Act, the Arms Export Control Act, The U.S. War Crimes Act, the Leahy Law, and the Genocide Convention Implementation Act. This is in addition to customary international law: the Geneva Convention and the Genocide Convention. It’s high time for voters to hold both parties accountable.

We refuse to be complicit in genocide. We refuse to vote for any party that callously ignores our demands and the will of the American people. We refuse to allow our government to commit war crimes in our name. Our demand is simple: our vote is earned by a restoration of the rule of law, the delivery of an arms embargo, and a permanent ceasefire.

Despite corporate parties making ballot access not formally available for third parties to prevent people  a democratic choice in standing up to militarism and genocidal war that leaves people starving in American streets, people in Southern Illinois do have the ability to write in several third party candidates for President. We do not formally endorse any candidate and if you cannot support any of these candidates you can always leave your ballot blank. The write-ins who we think you should consider are as follows: Jill Stein, Claudia De la Cruz, and Cornel West. But voting the best possible way only happens once every so often. We encourage you to join Southern Illinois DSA where we are organizing around No Votes for Genocide in the present and long term for Palestinian and proletarian international liberation for all! Solidarity and Free Palestine!