Graphic by Layrssa Molina-Becerra, Graphic designer. By Blaine Richardson
On Feb. 11, the Super Bowl was played. The Chiefs beat the 49ers, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift celebrated, Usher performed and if you watched it on Nickelodeon for whatever reason, you got Tom Kenny narrating the entire thing as SpongeBob.
Also on Feb. 11, while we were distracted, the Senate met and voted on a foreign aid bill of $95 billion dollars for Ukraine, general humanitarian aid and most notably, Israel. In fact, even if you didn’t know about the senate meeting, you probably are aware about Israel—during the Super Bowl Israel played an ad lobbying for the release of 136 hostages supposedly being held by Hamas and Palestine.
Israel also bombed Rafah on the night of Feb. 11. For those unaware, Rafah is the “safe zone” that the Israeli military demanded all Palestinian citizens to move to. Now the citizens are being told to move again, but there’s nowhere left to go.
Sunday night, the Chiefs beat the 49ers 25-22. Feb. 11, 127 people were reported killed in the bombing of Rafah.
Let me be clear: I don’t believe any Israeli citizens deserve to be held hostage or killed. That said, it does boil my blood that the military and government of Israel are so quick to paint themselves as victims as they continually kill the citizens of Palestine. To date, almost 28,000 civilians have been killed, half of those being children, with undoubtedly many more wounded or dead that we don’t know of, yet they continue to say they would stop killing so many innocents if only for 136 hostages to be released—an action that Palestine has already agreed to do if a ceasefire was called. So it’s a lie, but one that the US government seems to have… bought? President Joe Biden has repeatedly voiced support for Israel and the atrocities they commit, and Sunday night, the Senate passed the foreign aid bill with a vote of 67-27, meaning that 14 billion has just been approved to go and support Israel. But they must know what they’re supporting, as they met on a Sunday, moreover, a Super Bowl Sunday, while the American populace would be distracted. For reference, meetings on Sundays are rare for the Senate, with the last recorded instance being on Aug. 7, 2022. So the Senate must know that what they’re supporting isn’t a war—it’s a genocide.
So, in the coming days, months and years, when history calls this what it is—a genocide—any politician you support will likely change their stance. They will start saying how horrible Israel is and how they cannot believe that the government let this happen. When they do, you should dig back to this Super Bowl Sunday and see how they voted on the bill, or who they were voicing support for. I can almost guarantee you they were in support of Israel. And when you go vote, remember the 28,000 dead and how our government and politicians just approved funding for more to die.
