Political Scientists Say: Ceasefire Now
If you are a political scientist and you wish to add your name to the below statement, please indicate your full name, your title, and your institutional affiliation. 

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November 12, 2023

We write as political scientists—including scholars of international order, war and peace, human rights, Middle Eastern politics, and American politics—to call for an immediate ceasefire in the current Israeli-Palestinian war, and an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza to allow in aid sufficient to address the territory’s acute humanitarian crisis. 

As we write, the most pressing threat is to the 2.2 million residents of Gaza, half of them children. More than 11,000 Palestinians have already been killed in the last month, more than 1.5 million have been internally displaced, and nearly half of the housing stock in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged. Many more face life-threatening conditions due to lack of access to essential food, water, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies.

We condemn all shedding of civilian blood in this conflict, whether those among the 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas on October 7 or the Palestinians killed in the course of Israel’s bombing campaign and ground incursion. Only immediate ceasefire and provision of aid are adequate to prevent enormous further loss of civilian life. Continuation of the conflict also endangers the hostages whose safe return depends on a deescalation of hostilities.

We have grave concerns that a failure to bring this conflict to an end has the potential to spark a wider regional war with unforeseeable and potentially devastating consequences for innumerable others worldwide. The fighting in Gaza has already been linked to violence in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, as well as providing cover for an escalation of Israeli settler violence and dispossession in the West Bank. Every day of continued fighting increases the risk of a wider war. Averting such a war must be a top priority for all world leaders.

As Israel's longtime patron and chief ally, the United States has both a special responsibility for this crisis and a special influence upon it. The U.S. response to the Gaza war thus far has badly damaged its credibility and moral authority, giving rise to reasonable suspicions of U.S. proclamations about a “rules-based international order.” We call on President Biden and other U.S. political leaders to use all means at their disposal to press for an immediate ceasefire and end to Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, including provisions to ensure the ability of all displaced Gazans to return home and a release of all hostages.

We understand that the current crisis occurs against a historical backdrop that long predates October 7, and that preventing its recurrence will require a just resolution to the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live together under conditions of political equality. Signatories to this letter may differ about the precise outlines of such a resolution. But we write in the conviction that the crisis facing Gaza is so dire as to demand that we set aside for now any underlying disagreements about the broader conflict and register the urgent need for ceasefire and humanitarian aid.
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Please indicate below your relationship to Political Science. For the purposes of this letter, we are looking to gather signatories from those who identify as political scientists by virtue of any of the following, alone or in combination: (1) holding advanced degrees in Political Science (inclusive of: Politics, Government, International Relations, Public Policy); (2) holding appointments in Political Science (and related); or (3) being a graduate student (MA or PhD) in Political Science (and related)
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