Happy week five and February, Pioneers! A new month can be a great time to start fresh and remind yourself of your professional and personal goals. The days are slowly getting longer and more sunshine and warmth are on the way!
For this week’s Globe’s Point, we wanted to address something we have been meaning to for a long time: the Israel-Hamas conflict since Oct. 7. This column is way overdue, and there is no excuse for us not addressing this mass conflict.
On the front cover this week, we changed the logo to add red and black, two additional colors of the Palestinian flag. This isn’t the first time we’ve temporarily changed our logo. For example,
for Halloween, we made the green Globe orange. We also changed our logo to blue and yellow to stand in solidarity with Ukraine amidst their invasion from Russia in 2022.
The Globe has a longstanding policy of not endorsing politicians, political parties and/or specific policies. Likewise, we are continuing to uphold that standard. Our logo change is a statement in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
The Hamas-controlled territory’s Health Ministry said that, as of last Thursday, 27,019 Palestinians have been killed and 66,139 wounded since Oct. 7. Over 70% of the casualties were women and children. The United Nations reports that 1.9 million Gazans have been internally displaced. Over 250,000 housing units and an additional 50,000 units have been completely destroyed by the bombardment. More than one million people in Gaza lack a safe and secure home to return to.
The U.S. has continually supported Israel in their attacks against Hamas, and this needs to stop. A ceasefire would provide opportunities to negotiate the release of hostages detained, allow for clearer paths to receive medical aid, food and other supplies and for independent international investigations to take place into war crimes. A ceasefire would allow Palestinians easier access to safety. A ceasefire needs to happen now.
We, as an editorial board, are not experts on geopolitical conflicts. We aren’t going to try to propose a solution to this problem because we don’t know where to begin. It simply isn’t our place. We are simply saying that we do not stand for the deaths of innocent people and that an immediate ceasefire is necessary.