Cait Stoddard October 31st, 2023 - 2:52 PM
According to thefader.com, artists Drake and Jennifer Lopez are among the 120 entertainment figures who have added their names on an open letter, which urges President Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The letter now has 240 signatures, which us double the original count.
Previously signed by Dua Lipa, Devonté Hynes, Caroline Polachek, Kaytranada and Killer Mike, Oxfam-supported letter opens as followed: “We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine. We ask that, as President of the United States, you and the US Congress call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost.”
The letter goes on to detail the deadly cost of the ongoing violence between Hamas and the Israeli government. At the time of the publication, more than 7,000 people and 1,400 Israelis had been killed on October 7, including 260 at a music festival, and close to 6,000 Palestinians due to Israel’s retaliatory bombings and blockade. Hamas has retained all but four of 220 Israeli hostages they took during their initial attack.
Over the past five days the Israeli Defense Forces have mounted a ground invasion in Gaza. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Palestinian casualties have now risen above 8,000, with most of the dead comprising women and minors.
Read the full letter to President Biden below.
“Dear President Biden,
We are heartened by Friday’s release of the two American hostages, Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie Raanan and by today’s release of two Israelis, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, whose husbands remain in captivity.”
But our relief is tempered by our overwhelming concern that 220 innocent people, including 30 children, remain captive by terrorists, threatened with torture and death. They were taken by Hamas in the savage massacre of October 7, where over 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered – women raped, families burned alive, and infants beheaded.”
Thank you for your unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group’s founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza.”
