US must end complicity in Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis
July 29, 2025
The Workers Circle stands against injustice in all forms. Below is our statement on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the role of the US government in enabling it.
Since our founding in 1900 by Eastern European Jews who came to the United States seeking democratic freedoms and fleeing violence and persecution, again and again we have witnessed how the erosion of democratic norms enables systematic violence and expands conflict. The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza right now is both a consequence of and contributor to a global crisis of democratic accountability.
The Netanyahu Administration’s actions to prolong the war and continue the blockade of all aid to Gaza have caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Two million people are being starved in plain sight — half of them children — as the world watches. These conditions evoke the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto, when democratic institutions collapsed and the world failed to stop civilian populations from being deliberately starved.
The US government is not merely a bystander — it is an active collaborator. While providing Israel with unprecedented military support, the US has co-designed a food distribution system that forces starving families to risk their lives for basic sustenance. American tax dollars are funding what hundreds of international humanitarian organizations have condemned as a death trap for desperate civilians.
When governments operate without oversight, when civilian voices are silenced, when international law becomes optional — these conditions enable mass suffering and death. Our work to protect democracy in America is designed to prevent the unchecked power that creates humanitarian catastrophes here and abroad.
As an organization founded by refugees who experienced persecution firsthand, we know that silence enables such horrors. We cannot stand by while our government uses our tax dollars to enable mass starvation. The Workers Circle calls for an immediate end to US involvement in this humanitarian catastrophe, and demands that Israel fully open humanitarian corridors and end its blockade to allow the unimpeded distribution of food and aid to Gaza’s civilian population.
About the Workers Circle
Celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2025, the Workers Circle is a national Jewish social justice organization founded by Eastern European immigrants who came to the United States fleeing autocracy and persecution and seeking democratic freedoms and economic opportunities. That history drives the organization’s work for an inclusive democracy and social equality today. Through strategic and impactful social justice initiatives, vibrant Yiddish language classes and programs, and interactive educational activities, the Workers Circle powers a growing multigenerational community of 150,000+ activists creating meaningful social change, building transformative coalitions and demanding a multiracial multicultural democracy for all. Learn more at www.circle.org.