Although I am critical of the position that Israel is the only bad actor in the world( not China). I was fully ready to vote for a resolution that called for a cease fire, self determination for The West Bank and Gaza, opposing Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. What I find shocking about this resolution in talking about the Oct 7 massacre “We further acknowledge that we cannot possibly contextualize all that led to this point but note that Israel’s occupation and repression in Gaza has been decades long.” Lets get this streight
Rape and Sexual violence are never justified for any reason.
3 Likes
Happening today after General Session II (4-6 pm Eastern)! Vote to admit Actions of Immediate Witness to the General Assembly agenda for discussion on Saturday.
The ballot opens on the Delegate Platform after General Session II and closes at 11 pm Eastern.
Please vote YES to admit this AIW to the agenda for delegates to discuss pro and concern on Saturday.
Access your ballot on the Delegate Platform at your delegate link or go to this URL to receive an email with a link:
https://delegate.uua.org/login.php
2 Likes
When is this session? Im have a little trouble traversing the agenda! Thanks - – oops I see! It’s after the general session today. THanks!
1 Like
I fully support this proposed AIW. For me, standing on the side of love means doing all we can to end this violence, which ultimately benefits nobody. Others have captured, in their words, the sorrow and helplessness we all feel. I see the AIW as one way we can encourage deep conversation aimed at understanding and coming together.
3 Likes
I support the AIW as does my church’s Social Justice group. Jews have been out in the street for weeks with signs “JEWS SAY CEASEFIRE NOW” “JEWS SAY END THE OCCUPATION,” etc. How can we do any less? Other denominations have issued formal statements citing Israel as an apartheid state. As a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, I fear most people simply haven’t been paying attention since this mess got under way in the 19th century. You all raise many points. First, Palestinians are original inhabitants as much as Jews. They’re descended from the Canaanites (Canaan being the land into which Israelites migrated from Iraq). Many Palestinians today are likely descendants of Jews who never left the region to enter the diaspora. Anyhow, legitimate occupation is not decided by where your ancestors were 2000 years ago. This land was Palestine, it was annexed by the British empire who sponsored the transfer of Jews from Europe who were being denied entry/asylum in Western countries. The US clamped dcown on immigration and was deporting Jewish refugees at the end of WWI. It was the US and the West that decided that somehow Jews should be sent far away so the West wouldn’t have to deal with them. (Great idea: dump them on Palestine, which had nothing to do with the European pogroms and persecutions of Jews.) The US decided it was convenient to push the refugees onto someone elxe – to take their country away from Palestinians, so Palestine ended up paying for Europe’s crimes against Jews. The US brokered the partition through the newly-created UN giving 56% (of somebody else’s country!) to the new migrants, then stood by as the Israelis seized just under 80% of the land in the first year and all of it in the '67 war. This was flagrant land theft. You don’t save one people from destruction by destroying another. You could wipe out every Hamas fighter tomorrow but that wouldn’t end legitimate lawful Palestinian resistance to occupation and the other atrocities that have been going on for decades while the US shields Israel from accountabhility under int’l law. Time to step up – even with the bland language of the AIW-- and join the world in saying All Peop;le Have an Equal Right to Exist. Just niot with these borders and these policies. – Yann van Heurck
6 Likes
Hello Voting Delegates
I wish to support the proposed AIW Solidarity with Palestine. As a long time activist for Palestinian Rights I feel that UU must take this step as most Christian Churches in the US have made a point of asking for a Cease Fire and recognizing a Genocide is happening in Gaza as we speak. The International Criminal Court has made a preliminary decision Israel has created an Apartheid governance for Palestinians it is the least we as a faith organization can do.
Why have more that any war has so many children been killed, UN workers and Journalists? We of good conscious must as ourselves this and why is the US providing weapons to completely destroy all housing, hospitals and schools in Gaza.
Is it so hard for us to seek the truth in this situation but it is a fact that one side has more than the other that there will be no recovery for this land and people without our support.
I do not condone the killing of anyone but as people of faith it is not right for just to say there are equal sides between Palestine and Israel. There is not a large lobby for Palestine. There is a reason why the US supports Israel and we must become knowledgeable about those facts. The military industry is part of our system.
When the Black Panthers began in Oakland California in the 1960s they were determined to be terrorists and I was living in the bay area at the time and read their newspapers and saw the work they were doing serving breakfast to children and organizing study groups. At that time Oakland was a majority African-American community but very little representation in government including the police department. We must always look at the circumstances that cause violence.
The genocide caused by the US can be found in our own history as the Native Americans were pushed off their land and land was sold to white settlers from European. My own ancestors came to the US and bought cheap land that was thought to be empty of inhabitants but now we know that was a lie.
There is much propaganda being used to influence the public and we must be wise and realize that the US media is not the best source of information and I would suggest Democracy Now and AL jazeera. The young people understand this and almost always use social media which is not always controlled by Corporate media.
I feel that as a person who went to Palestine last year in July and saw the living conditions in the West Bank and heard from organizations like the UN of the horrific conditions that the Palestinians are living under everyday I must stand up and vote for AIW Solidarity with Palestinians.
11 Likes
I join the many in support of this AIW. Thank you all who have crafted it to be balanced and informed by UU values of dignity, peace and justice.
I do this to side with love for all the victims and out of love for my Israeli family who are in harm’s way due to the actions of the Natanyahu regime in Israel. My spouse, a Jewish scholar of Judaism, has been a Jewish peace advocate for decades, and stands with the goals of this AIW.
5 Likes
I am fully in support of this AIW. There is not much I can add to the statements of support that have already been posted here except to say that what we are seeing in Palestine is modern-day settler colonialism at work. For all of us who have looked back at history and decried the atrocities committed against indigenous people throughout the world whose lands were “settled,” resources stolen and rights denied, there is no other position to take.
8 Likes
Hi. I wanted to give my best shot at supporting this proposal, because it gives me a lot of hope for the future of the Israeli and Palestinian people.
I’m going to do my best to do this with the nuance and care this subject deserves. I’m going to try to do this not because I’m the most educated on the situation (I’ve been learning more about the history leading up to this conflict in recent months more than I ever have) or because I am closest effected (I’m visibly semitic but I never met my Jewish grandfather or was brought into the faith)
But because I fell in love with Universal Unitarianism because of its willingness to face the complicated challenges we, the living face right here and now.
I need to start off with saying all war is atrocious, in all of its forms. It’s a horrendous mistake that all of our ancestors have perpetuated. All of us need to heal from this atrocity but we can’t heal without first making people feel safe.
The Jewish people have felt unsafe for a very long time. Have had to learn with living in territories where people held animosity towards them for generations. I’m really happy, for myself as someone with identifiable Jewish ancestry, and for my Jewish friends that there are places where Jews can live in relative safety and freedom from violence, not having to worry that a neighboring nation will attempt to eradicate them… in the United States. Is there antisemitism here? Surely there is some, but I don’t know any of my Jewish friends to fear for their life, feel the need for a massive military industry and walls with automated gun cameras to feel safe.
The people of Palestine have not felt safe for over 100 years. A brutal apartheid has made them feel beneath a settler colonial power on land their families have lived on for generations. The state of Israel has not been good neighbors to anyone in the region. I had a friend who went on a work visit to a permaculture farm with people working to regreen the desert. He had to com home after Israeli settlers threw a hand grenade in their water cistern. Every year American volunteers will go to help with the Palestinian Date harvest because their presence makes it less likely that the local farmers are shot at by settlers.
We cannot condone the October 7th attack. It is a tragic event for everyone involved. Documents have been leaked that show Israeli intelligence knew the attack was imminent, and correspondences between Israeli politicians show that they viewed the attack as a wonderful opportunity to get the license to wipe Palestine off the map.
And that’s what they have been doing since October 7th. Filling wells with cement, firing upon starving families in line for bread. using bombs and ordinances in no small part supplied by the US in a… hostage rescuing mission?
The actions will not be forgotten, especially by the people of the region for a long long time.
Taking all the violence into account, it can seem untenable. That this conflict can only end with the eradication of either the Israeli people or the Palestinian people. It can seem like it won’t end and with the deep faith roots this conflict holds, that it has potential to Spyral out into a global conflict. Ukraine is still burning. China has been posturing around Taiwan. There’s American heads of state and industry that have believed the end times are coming and that Israel will be the catalyst for Armageddon since it’s inception.
What gives me hope. What I am really truly grateful for is how many Jewish people have been vehemently opposed to this war. Jewish voices calling for peace. Jewish bodies blocking the transportation of weapons to Israeli. Jewish leaders calling for their people to oppose this reenactment of the traumas their ancestors have faced onto another people.
The best path towards safety for the Jewish people is not to blindly support the state of Israel that would, in there name commit genocide. The path towards a world where we can all be safe lies with the many many Jewish people who say never again, not in our name.
It’s natural to feel afraid and uncomfortable faced with such a challenge as this conflict. I do believe that more people will educate themselves beyond what the heads of state/benefactors of war would tell us to justify their bloody trade.
I have faith in us, as a species and as a faith group and in this proposal that will bring us closer to a safer world for all.
9 Likes
In 2012 the UUA repudiated the Doctrine of Disovery that authorized colonialism and pledged to work to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. We haven’t done that with Palestinians. Now is the time. --Yann
6 Likes
The majority of the people of Israel are crying out against their governments policy. I support this AIW,
5 Likes
I strongly support this AIW. Amidst a sea of states including my own (New York) passing laws and resolutions which seek to criminalize protesters seeking to call the Israeli government’s actions to account, it is a relief to have a community where calmer, caring discussion can take place. There is deep trauma on all sides, and I pray our collective action will help bring the current devastating destruction to a halt.
It is apartheid, as meticulously documented by Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Amnesty International and other human rights group, and it is also genocide, evident both in the words of members of the current Israeli government as well as the evidence before us daily – hospitals, homes, universities all reduced to rubble, over 37,000 dead above ground, and emaciated children starving to death. The “balance” is all tilted to one side.
Living in peace is not sustainable when it depends on constant military conflict. Understanding the fear of Israelis, with fighting on multiple fronts, and the grief over lives lost on October 7 and subsequent fighting, I ask those who pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, for the safety and equality of all the people living in the land of Israel/Palestine, to support this AIW.
Karen Steele
All Souls NYC
10 Likes
Thanks for the link. From the headline, it seems as though they were limiting attendance to the encampment, as the JVP representative; from the article, it does seem that it was more aggressive or perceived as such. I admit that protests are different.
I support this AIW. It is imperfect as all words are and struggle for collective liberation will always be. In this AIW are probably words some of us might might have said differently or phrase that we wish was not there. And I urge us to vote yes. As people of faith and more conscience, when people are being massacred with funding from our own tax dollars and support of our US elected officials, a collective statement from our faith community feels like the bare minimum. We want a world where all people, children, fathers, journalists, doctors, humanitarian aid workers, grandparents thrive and survive. We must use all tools to shift the material reality of life that is being lost each day. This AIW is one small tool but it is one.
6 Likes
We do not intend to “other” and we uphold acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Each person has a choice. Groups are not held responsible for their choices, Individuals are. Groups tend to not take responsibility. Individuals are not automatically responsible for the choices of individuals in the group. For discussion sake we are forced to over simplify into these specific responsibilities: Criminals harming people to obtain attention, coerce a result. Defenders of human rights. In War, there are rules of conduct. If not followed, then there are war crimes. We condemn war and war criminals. I do not understand why there is any controversy about this.
2 Likes
I agree; the overall stance of being in solidarity with Palestinians is more important than getting the words completely right.
7 Likes
I am among those who have endorsed this Action of Immediate Witness. Now is the time for an action of immediate witness in this. No language will capture all that is so messy and traumatic in this history, including my own wording preferences, yet what has happened and continues to happen to Gaza and Palestinian people at this particular point in time creates an ongoing situation in which none of us is safe, including my Jewish siblings. I personally know both people who carry Jewish identities and people who carry Palestinian identities who have suffered irreversible losses with generational traumatic implications. As we face a climate crisis hovering over all of us, we must shift away from a militarized world. The violence must stop, and that means going to root causes at all levels, including historical, and creating a world where all may live in safety and be nourished into the fullness of their humanity and gifts. Beyond an Action of Immediate Witness, a Study/Action proposal is needed - and now is the time for an Action of Immediate Witness, however.
11 Likes
I think #60 means Rev. Dr. Clyde Grubbs 
2 Likes
“Our Unitarian Universalist faith draws on the moral imperative of radical love, and despite all odds, calls us to uphold a world where liberation is real and we all thrive.”
Grateful to the over 425 individuals and organizations who have come together to craft and endorse this Action of Immediate Witness. We have listened, sought to find a consensus statement that speaks with our values and integrity during this powerful and painful moment.
The violence in Gaza continues to worsen, ordinary Israeli’s are increasingly protesting the right-wing Netanyahu government calling for peace. The extremes of this crisis will require deep and meaningful engagement and this AIW provides us with a framwork and direction for our faithful action.
8 Likes
I agree with all who decry Israel’s policies. However, I oppose this AIW as strongly as I can about any issue that I care about. After the opening paragraphs, the AIW becomes completely one-sided. Please look at some of the opposing comments (especially Antony Van der Mude’s) and reconsider your vote. You can find his comments using commandF or by typing his name in the search bar. I do not know him personally.
One aspect of the problem, as I see it, is that the Palestinians are oppressed and everyone, including me, wishes to liberate the oppressed. However, this AIW will not help solve the bigger problems, including Hamas’ stated desire to eliminate Israel. They use their own citizens to hide behind. Israel needs protection. This AIW is extremely anti-Israel. Some other wording would be less one-sided and inflammatory. This one is harmful.
Thank you for participating in this process and for what I hope will be a change in your heart.
5 Likes