Twenty-five United States judicial officers issued a public statement in which they criticized restrictions imposed by the judiciary on their ability to oppose Israel's treatment of Palestinians in its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip and also opposed what they described as "our government's complicity in genocide."
The statement was published yesterday, Wednesday, on the Bulls and Strikes website, which specializes in court news and commentary and is sponsored by Demand Justice, a legal defense organization.
The employees signed the statement without revealing their identities for fear of facing dismissal if they openly engaged in political activity.
“Although court rules prohibit us from making public endorsements at this time, we are writing this letter as a small gesture of our love and solidarity,” the statement read. They said they were forced to be "passive spectators of the Israeli attack on Gaza."
The statement represents a rare instance of judiciary employees taking a public position on a public issue, albeit anonymously.
The staff noted that the judiciary's ethics rules prohibit judges and staff alike from engaging in any political activity.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza that has left more than 117,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues this war, ignoring a Security Council resolution demanding that it stop the fighting immediately, and orders from the Court of Justice demanding that it stop its attack on Rafah, and take immediate measures to prevent acts of “genocide” and “improve the humanitarian situation” in Gaza.
Very strange!
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