Letter: Stop Spending MA Taxpayer Money on Gazan Genocide

by Jennifer Scarlott and Nick Mottern

The following letter was sent to members of the Massachusetts Legislature on Sept. 24, 2026.

At a press conference in Boston on May 7th, 2025, well into the Israel-U.S. genocide in Gaza, Governor Healey, surrounded by staff, state officials, and Israeli medical and business figures, gave a warm welcome to Dr. Yitshak Kreiss, the director of Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. Sheba is the largest medical facility in Israel, a quasi-governmental institution and AI giant. Kreiss has been surgeon general of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He served in the IDF for 25 years, reaching the rank of Brigadier General.

The press conference was called to announce and celebrate Sheba’s incursion into the Bay State’s healthcare system through Sheba ARC, a “startup accelerator” designed to enable Israeli businesses connected to Sheba Medical Center to establish themselves in Boston and throughout the Commonwealth.

Sheba has taken an explicitly political stance during the Israeli genocide in Gaza, with Dr. Kreiss describing its role in the MA healthcare system in promoting the “beautiful face of Israel” — this at a time when Israel has all but eradicated, deliberately and systematically, the healthcare system of Gaza in war crimes of unprecedented proportions. 

The partnership of Massachusetts with Sheba Medical Center poses a number of dangers to the Commonwealth’s healthcare system and its patients. And it makes Massachusetts fully complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.We are members of River Valley for Palestine, a Northampton, MA-based community organization that publishes a periodic independent newspaper, the Alt-Hampshire Gazette. We urge you to take a few minutes to read the latest edition of our paper, which contains an article describing Governor Healey’s decision to partner with Sheba, despite the genocide and despite the obvious pitfalls for MA healthcare consumers.

Read More about the implications for Healey’s collaboration with Sheba here:
Governor Healey Hands Massachusetts Patients over to Genociders (alt-Hampshire Gazette)

In closing we alert you to the possibility that you and other legislators could be held accountable for spending taxpayer money in support of the state of Israel and Israeli government, business, and military interests during an internationally recognized genocide conducted by Israel.

We strongly urge you to take immediate action to terminate the Massachusetts partnership with Sheba Medical Center and with all Israeli entities of any kind, and to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement throughout the Commonwealth. Rather than deepening financial and institutional ties with Israel, Massachusetts should be divesting from, rather than investing in, the genocidal state of Israel. To each of you and to Governor Healey: the people of Massachuetts say — No Israeli Tech in Our Healthcare and No MA Support for Israel’s Genocide.

Jennifer Scarlott is a Northampton, Massachusetts-based organizer working with River Valley for Palestine and Western Mass. Coalition for Palestine. She is dedicated to the movement for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Nick Mottern has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer, and political organizer over the last 50 years. He is co-coordinator of BanKillerDrones.org, a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance.