'We Know You Care:' Celebrities Urge Dr. Jill Biden to Call for Ceasefire in Gaza
In a powerful Mother’s Day video, celebrities including Annie Lennox, Cynthia Nixon, V (formerly Eve Ensler), Ilana Glazer and others appealed to the first lady to use her 'immense power.'
Celebrities including Annie Lennox, Cynthia Nixon, V (formerly Eve Ensler), Ilana Glazer and others are calling on First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to use her “immense power” to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. In a powerful Mother’s Day video, they also urged the first lady to call for the release of all hostages, the immediate delivery of aid, and the guaranteed safety of humanitarian workers, doctors, journalists and all civilians.
The celebrities appealed to Dr. Biden as “mothers, and daughters, and grandmothers, sisters, and advocates for peace and justice, and simply human beings.”
“Dr. Biden, we are calling on you today because we know you are all of those things as well, and because of the immense power you hold as first lady of the United States,” the celebrities said. “....We are calling on you to use your impact, your moral clarity, your voice, to stop the suffering, the intentional starvation, the forced displacement, the destruction, the killing of Palestinian children, the decimation of an entire population of civilians. We’re calling on you to stop the unfolding genocide in Palestine. We know you care.”
More than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been slain in the Israeli offensive that the International Court of Justice has called a plausible genocide. Israel launched its war on Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hamas also took another 250 people hostage, and continues to hold about 100 people captive, along with the remains of about 30 people, according to the AP.
Israel has been widely criticized for killing civilians including journalists, aid workers, and health care workers, and for targeting hospitals, universities, and houses of worship. Israeli restrictions to aid distribution have left 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza on the brink of starvation and a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north, reports the AP, citing the U.N. A wave of protests across the U.S. have urged the Biden administration to end its delivery of money and weapons to Israel, accusing the administration of facilitating genocide.
The video posted Sunday spread quickly across social media as multiple celebrities posted and re-posted it. In a tweet sharing the video that garnered more than 400,000 views, Nixon cited a U.N. Women statistic: “Dr. Jill Biden, the UN estimates that two mothers are killed every hour in Gaza. On this Mother’s Day, we call on you as mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and as humans to use your voice and your power.”
A spokesperson for Dr. Jill Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from East Wing Magazine.