About 50 people gathered in downtown Albuquerque Thursday afternoon to call for a ceasefire in Gaza as part of a Global Day of Action.
Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester and House Speaker Rep. Javier Martinez (D-Albuquerque) spoke along with an emergency room doctor who visited Gaza earlier this year. Dr. Clayton Dalton wrote articles that documented what was happening because there were no international journalists allowed within the area.
“I traveled everywhere across the Gaza Strip, surveying the damage to the health care system,” he said. “And it was extreme.”
Dalton said hospitals in Gaza have been targets and were often destroyed.
“It was shocking,” he said. “I walked through hospitals that had been burned, with glass medication vials crunching under my feet. Destroyed incubators for infants, newly born infants, destroyed neonatal ICU wards, destroyed operating rooms, destroyed dialysis wings. It was hard for me to understand if there was any justification for this kind of damage.”
Archbishop Wester said that more 65,000 lives have been lost since the first attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023.
“The situation has reached tragic levels beyond anyone's worst fears. The horrific massacre of innocent Israelis and the subsequent response from Israel have resulted in unimaginable loss of life and human suffering,” he said.
Speaker Martinez said advocates at the rally reminded him of his grandfather in Mexico.
“Who taught me about the power of organizing and the ability of organizing to make a difference in the lives of those who are often overlooked, marginalized or, in this case, dehumanized. I look around this group of advocates today, and I see that his vision is alive and well,” he said.
Martinez encouraged said all New Mexicans have a role to play in the war in Gaza and urged attendees to reach out to their representatives.
Alice Powsner, 83, said New Mexicans have empathy and should be involved.
“Certainly there has been genocide attempted within the boundaries of the United States, as there was an Indigenous people here, and they still are here, and they have been also the victims of genocide, and it is simply injustice,” she said.
Steve, who didn’t want to use his last name, 70, who didn’t want to use his last name, said the United States should stop financing Israel.
“We need that money here at home for people who live in the United States, we should be taking care of our own. We should not be taking care of Israel and helping Israel wage war,” he said.
According to KOAT7 News, six New Mexico lawmakers are currently visiting the Israeli city of Ofakim where they are participating in a tree planting ceremony.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
