ACTION ALERT: Ceasefire Now!
Terrorism Is No Excuse for Genocide
Ariel Gold / The Fellowship of Reconciliation
(October 11, 20230 — As of this morning, at least 2,200 Israelis and Palestinians have been killed and many thousands wounded.
Usually, when a war breaks out in Israel/Palestine, the United States quickly calls for restraint. But yesterday when Biden spoke, instead of calling for a ceasefire, he pledged US involvement in Israel’s pursuit of revenge and intention (already underway) to commit war crimes.
The first shipment of US weapons and the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, have already entered the fight. Biden and Congress are planning to provide additional funding for Israel’s military.
There is no military solution to this conflict. No amount of bombing, no ground invasion, no height of collective punishment, will make anyone safer anywhere between the river and the sea. As Rev. Graylan S. Hagler so eloquently said: “the violence being carried out avoids the harder battles of justice.”
ACTION: Can you take the time to
call your representatives in Congress?
Tell them to call for a ceasefire, that you don’t want the US to continue funding a war that cannot bring peace, that the “total siege” Israel has imposed on the people of Gaza — no water, no food, no electricity — is immoral and a blatant violation of international law. In the words of Romans 12:20-21: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil for good.”
Instead of pouring fuel on this already raging fire, we must see peace talks resume and get at the root causes of the violence: decades of occupation, apartheid, and siege. Let us heed the words of Isaiah — “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” — and the teaching of our various Holy Books that “To save a life is to save the world entire.”
Recommended readings and interviews:
• “No Lessons Learned” by James Zogby
• “The Hamas Attacks and Israeli Response: A rolling explainer answering readers’ questions about the current situation in Israel/Palestine” byAlex Kane, Mari Cohen, Jonathan Shamir, and Isaac Scher
• “Gaza is a Nightmare Today, but We Will Not Stop Dreaming of Freedom” by Mohammed R. Mhawish, Palestinian journalist, writer, and researcher living in Gaza City
• “‘So the World Knows What Happened’: The Scene of Slaughter at Kibbutz Kfar Azza” by Anshel Pfeffer, senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz
Recommended books on the topic:
• The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know about Each Other
- “Who is to Blame”by FOR Senior Advisor Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler
- FOR’s October 7 statement on the outbreak of another war in the Holy Land
- “Raining missiles on Gaza can never be a solution“By Yuval Abraham
- Peter Beinart on MSNBC:“The way to bring peace in Gaza is through a measure of justice”
- My interview yesterday on Aljazeera
Prayer in the Name of Allah
In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. Praise be to the Lord of the Universe who has created us and made us into tribes and nations, that we may know each other, not that we may despise each other. If the enemy inclines towards peace, do also incline towards peace, and trust in God, for the Lord is the one that hears and knows all things. And the servants of God, Most Gracious are those who walk on the Earth in humility, and when we address them, we say “PEACE”. [The Holy Qur’an, 49:13 and 8:61]
From the Teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate • Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body • Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility • Nonviolent love is active, not passive • Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater • Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves • Love restores community and resists injustice • Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated
• Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice
• The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.
In fellowship, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
