Can also be read here:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/jewish-voice-for-peace/from-gaza-to-jerusalem-jvp-statement-on-the-escalation-of-violence/10150122060523492
Please share on Facebook or via email

From Gaza to Jerusalem: Jewish Voice for Peace statement on escalation of violence  3/23/10

Any act of violence, especially one against civilians, marks a
profound failure of human imagination and causes a deep and abiding
trauma for all involved. In mourning the nine lives lost in Gaza
yesterday, and the one life lost in Jerusalem today, we reject the
pattern of condemning the loss of Israeli lives while ignoring the
loss of Palestinian life. We do not discriminate. One
lost life is one life too many-whether Palestinian or Israeli.

Within the context of 44 years of the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the
West Bank, and East Jerusalem, in the past two years ( Jan 31, 2009 -
January 31, 2011), over a thousand Palestinians have been made
homeless by home demolitions, hundreds have been unlawfully detained,
and over 150 men, women and children have been killed by the IDF and
settlers, according to the Israeli human rights group B�tselem (1) .
Many acres of Palestinian land were taken and orchards uprooted
by armed settlers. Countless hours were lost at checkpoints, often
fruitlessly, while Palestinians attempted to get medical care, jobs,
and access to
education. One and a half million Gazans have been living with a
limited food supply, lack of electricity and dangerously toxic sewage.

This is occupation: daily, persistent acts of structural violence.
These acts don't reach our headlines because they are so habitual, so
we learn not to see them. But Palestinians live them everyday, and we
must keep that in mind, even as we ponder the terrible events of the
past few weeks (2):

- Someone or some people (we don't know who) bombed a bus stop in
Jerusalem, injuring 30 and killing 1 Israeli civilian;
- An Israeli bombing killed 3 children and an older man in Gaza;
- Someone or some people, (we don't know who), murdered 5 members of a family,
including three children, in Itamar, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank;
- The Israeli government  suddenly tightened the siege of Gaza and
escalated military attacks, killing a total of 11 Palestinians and
injuring more than 40 since mid-March; (3)
- Palestinians fired over 50 shells and rockets from Gaza into
civilian areas in southern Israel

These terrible acts of violence remind us that to end the Israeli
occupation our best hope is supporting the inspiring nonviolent
Palestinian movement for change,  in the form of unarmed protests
every Friday in places like Bil�in and Nialin, and the Global Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement. This is a movement that respects
life, that is part and parcel of the nonviolent democratic people's
movements we have been inspired by throughout the Arab world, that
welcomes the solidarity and support of Israeli and international
believers in equality and universal human rights. This is a movement
that fundamentally subverts the logic of armies, revenge and armed struggle.

Because it has been so powerful, it should come as no surprise that
this nonviolent resistance itself is under attack in Israel. Human
rights activists are being detained or imprisoned. Bills to
criminalize the BDS movement, or harass human rights organizations,
are working their way through the Knesset. Just yesterday, the very
act of publicly commemorating the Nakba, a crucial nonviolent act of
Palestinian remembrance, was essentially criminalized in Israel. (4)

As the Israeli government increasingly deploys anti-democratic
measures and military repression, we at Jewish Voice for Peace are
redoubling our efforts
to support the best hope- a nonviolent Palestinian-led resistance
movement in which we all work together to nurture life, justice and
equality.  We invite you to join the movement.


www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org


1) http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Index.asp
2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/23/israeli-palestinian-tensions-timeline
3) http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/11-aic-projects/3441-israels-military-escalation-in-gaza
4) http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-blow-to-israeli-arabs-and-to-democracy-1.351026,
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=213357



--
Charting efforts to stifle debate about US-Israeli policy
www.muzzlewatch.org

Reports on the struggle for civil and human rights in Israel and Palestine
www.theonlydemocracy.org

• Prev
• Next