New Jersey families are grieving. They are grieving the deaths of their family members killed in Gaza and the West Bank. These New Jersey families include:
• New Jersey resident, Noreen Rashid, who lost her young cousins and other family members killed outside their home in Gaza (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AXXXfhUkio)
• Bergen County resident and attorney, Yusra Matari, and Jersey City Councilmember, Yousef Saleh, who lost family members killed in the West Bank
• Franklin Township school board member, Sami Shaban, who has lost at least 17 members of his family in Gaza

We are a fast-growing group of New Jersey constituents of all faiths and ethnicities that stand against the bloodshed in Gaza paid for by our tax dollars. We are dismayed at the silence of our state representatives on this crisis. We observe the failure of our representatives to support New Jersey residents who are in mourning and in fear of family members still at risk of being killed or starved in Gaza.

Your silence is fueling anti-Palestinian hate and Islamophobia across New Jersey. The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ) has reported a surge in discrimination and hate in the last three months of 2023. Individuals have lost jobs for showing solidarity with Palestine. New Jersey students – both college-aged and K-12 – have been on the receiving end of harassment, intimidation, and interferences with academic achievement. Amidst this rise in bigotry, Imam Hassan Sharif, a community leader and anti-violence activist in Newark, was killed this month. Alongside the rise in Islamophobia is a rise in antisemitism, including antisemitic hate against the many Jewish NJ residents who have spoken out for Palestine.

As constituents and voters, we urge you to take action against this surge in hate in New Jersey. This hate is fueled by biased local media reporting and the disproportionate support of New Jersey elected officials towards Israel’s actions in Gaza.

We ask you:

1. Do not accept the invitation to attend the January 2024 “NJ State Legislators and Jewish Community Leaders Mission to Israel” organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ. According to the open letter from Jewish Voice for Peace of Northern New Jersey and co-signing organizations, this mission is “designed to expose you to an entirely one-sided view of the situation in an effort to try to whitewash Israel’s current actions in Gaza” (Source: https://www.jvpnorthjersey.org/an-open-letter-to-n-j-legislators/).

2. Instead, spend this time engaging with your constituents in New Jersey, especially Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities. Accept requests for in-person meetings, vocalize your support publicly, and show your solidarity by attending community events in your district (such as the Muslim Heritage Month events this month).

3. Individually or collectively call for ceasefire. Introduce and support a New Jersey legislative resolution calling for a ceasefire. (See NJ AR196 for reference.) Three NJ municipalities – Paterson, Prospect Park and Haledon - have already passed ceasefire resolutions and more municipal resolutions are in progress. Elected officials across NJ – including local officials, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and Congressman Donald Payne, Jr. – have called for ceasefire. Polls show that the majority of American voters across parties favor a Gaza ceasefire. Calling for ceasefire will tell your constituents that Palestinian and Muslim lives matter and that Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate and bigotry have no place in New Jersey.

For more information, please contact newjersey4palestine@gmail.com.