In this exclusive column for Public Square Amplified, senatorial candidate Lawrence Hamm, founder of the People’s Organization for Progress, explains his decision to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming New Jersey presidential primary, taking place June 4. Hamm is the only candidate in the primary who has said he will vote “uncommitted” to protest the war in Gaza.

By Lawrence Hamm

President Biden needs to hear a message that is apparently not getting through clearly enough: Ceasefire now - Israel must end its genocidal war in Gaza immediately. That is why I will vote “uncommitted” for president in the June 4 New Jersey Democratic Primary Election. I urge all Democrats to do so as well.

Let’s not confuse things here: This is not Israel’s war in Gaza - it is the U.S.-Israel war in Gaza. Israel cannot continue its war without U.S. support - period. This war is a crime against humanity that has killed tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.

Voting uncommitted in the primary is the best way to send the strongest possible message to President Biden that his administration must do everything necessary to bring Israel's genocidal war in Gaza to an immediate end.

More than 530,000 people have voted “Uncommitted” or “Uninstructed” or “No Preference” or “Leave It Blank” or “Ceasefire” in Democratic primaries of other states. The ballots cast by those voters, together with the millions of people who have protested against Israel’s genocidal war, have pushed the Biden administration to talk about a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, while the president’s administration is discussing a ceasefire, it is actually still supporting the war. It is providing billions of dollars in military aid to Israel for the war. It continues to sell and transfer weapons to Israel. At the same time it is providing Israel weapons for war, it is cutting funds for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.

A change in the president’s rhetoric is not enough. There must be a clear change in the policy and actions of his administration on this matter. To make this change happen we must keep up the pressure on the Biden administration. Voting ‘Uncommitted’ in the primary is one way to do that.

The tragic outcomes of the war in Gaza are shocking and unacceptable: nearly 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 10,000 missing and presumed dead, 76,000 have been wounded, more than 1,000,000, nearly half the population, has been displaced, and the majority of the population is suffering from starvation.

More than 50 percent of the housing has been bombed and destroyed. Gaza’s hospitals have been bombed and destroyed. The universities have been destroyed, and schools, mosques and churches have been bombed.

The Biden administration can and must take concrete actions immediately to restore the unrestricted flow of all humanitarian aid into Gaza and resumption of U.S. funding to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Furthermore, it should immediately halt all U.S. military aid, weapons sales, and weapons transfers to Israel.

So far, all of the shocking facts and figures, the moral argument and even the strategic argument - that Israel has lost support around the world that will only make its security situation worse - have apparently fallen flat. There is one act we can take that could help the Biden administration understand the issue more clearly: the vote.

Vote “uncommitted” in the June 4 primary - so the president gets the message.