I Know How Powerless It Feels When You Aren’t Able To Protest Or Donate Money, But Unity Is Incredibly

I know how powerless it feels when you aren’t able to protest or donate money, but unity is incredibly important. All that matters is that enough people are heard.

🇵🇸How to Phone Bank for Relief in Palestine (USA)🇵🇸

If you live in the United States, you can and should call your US House Representative in favor of the Ceasefire Now resolution.

The following language is adapted from https://ceasefiretoday .com

Phone Script:

"Hello, my name is ____.

"I live at ____ [your street address].

"My phone number is ____.

"My email address is ____.

"I'm calling to ask that the Representative add their name to the Ceasefire Now resolution led by representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib. [pronounced "tuh-leeb"]

"It is absolutely urgent that the Representative demand a ceasefire, and that they call on Israel to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza."

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If you call your US representative, you will speak to a staffer or an intern, not the representative themself.

The staffer or intern will take down your information (this is to make sure you are a constituent, meaning you live in that representative’s district. You should only call your own representative. If you don’t know who your representative is, you can visit https://www.house .gov/representatives/find-your-representative)

You only need to say is what’s in the script above. You don’t need to add to or alter the script if you don’t want to. You don’t need to convince the staffer to agree with you, and they won’t give you their opinion, because they aren’t allowed to. Be kind to them.

The actual words you use don’t matter, just the basic meaning of them. Be brief. It’s okay if you fumble or stutter.

What will happen once you hang up is that the staffer will mark down that a constituent called in favor of Ceasefire Now in Gaza and in favor of humanitarian aid.

At the end of the work day, the staffer will send a note to the representative saying how may constituents called in favor of ceasefire and aid, and how many (if any) called for additional aid to Israeli military operations. The representative uses this quantitative information to determine how much their constituents care about the issue, and what their constituents are advocating for.

Your representative will never hear your exact words. That’s ok. Calling is still an incredibly powerful action when done in mass. A representative who receives many calls advocating for a specific action is much more likely to take that action.

You can call at night or outside of working hours. That’s ok. What will happen is you will go to voicemail. The staffer will take down your information and opinion the following day (there is typically one staffer on call over the weekend who will do this).

If you leave a voicemail, make sure you leave any information about you that the voicemail message asks for. This is often your name, address, phone number, and email. This information is used to confirm that you live in the representative’s district, and so that the staffer or the representative can reply to you if need be.

Calling isn’t as scary as it sounds. It is a valuable action and a brave thing to do. Representatives take calls very seriously, and you can have a big impact by calling.

Ask your local friends and neighbors to phone bank with you. Phone banking is when many people call their representatives about the same issue. Phone banking is a very powerful action.

If you don’t want to call, you can always email, fax, or even mail a letter to your representative.