Global Ministries and UCC and Disciples leaders were co-signatories in an ecumenical statement sent today to all members of Congress and the Senate, as well as to the White House. The statement focuses on the shifts in US policy and approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The full statement is published here, in its entirety.
In an aggressive campaign against a billboard company and its staff, Israel supporters threatened boycott and used the label “anti-Semitism” as a weapon to shut down a positive ad celebrating first responders in Gaza. The ad did not mention Israel. No dialogue, no explanation, just suppression of free speech.
The past week has seen the promise of peace shattered, first by an Israeli incursion into Gaza (7 Palestinian, 1 Israeli dead), then Gaza’s rocket retaliation (1 Israeli Palestinian dead), then Israel’s retaliation (7 Palestinians dead). Israel’s defense minister has resigned, and a new, fragile ceasefire is in effect.
At the November 1st “Friends of the IDF” Hollywood gala, $60 million was raised in one night for Israel’s army. This is on top of $10 million a day in US military aid to Israel. Palestinians are outraged that American artists are supporting a regime that kills innocents and colonizes land.
PNN reports that Israeli forces shot dead four more Palestinian fathers, sons, and brothers during unarmed protests at the Gaza-Israel border, and killed a Palestinian father of two in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers attacked journalists with teargas and banned them from covering events…
On Friday, Oct 12, Israeli forces killed 7 Palestinian civilians in Gaza and and wounded 224 others taking part in an unarmed protest, including 42 children, 3 women, 3 journalists, and a paramedic with live bullets and direct tear gas canisters.
While my country has long been free from racist minority rule, the world is not yet free of the crime of apartheid. I see the eerie similarities between Israel’s racial laws and policies towards Palestinians, and the architecture of apartheid in South Africa. We South Africans know apartheid when we see it. In fact, many recognise that, in some respects, Israel’s regime of oppression is even worse.
Israeli forces killed a 12 year-old, 2 teens, and 3 others taking part in an unarmed protest at the Gaza border. Israeli soldiers also injured at least 509 others, including 4 paramedics, 4 media journalists and 90 children shot with live ammunition.
Palestinians have always had just 3 wishes: a capital someday in Jerusalem, a return to the 1967 borders, and the Right of Return. Between Trump and Israel, there’s nothing left to even dream of: the barest minimum is disappearing – food, medicine, the title of “refugee.”
Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman, who once famously said, “there are no innocents in Gaza,” has once again perhaps gone a little too far. Avigdor Lieberman’s claims that all of the dead in the Great March of Return were part of Hamas, and the IDF destroyed “dozens of terror infrastructures” fails to take into…