UUJME put out a statement in October of this year to bring attention to the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and the trauma of Israel’s year-long genocide against the people of Gaza and its war on the people of Lebanon. Here is our statement:
One Year Plus One Hundred Seven
Board of Directors of UUJME, October 2024
We mourn.
Exploding pagers. Targeted killing of innocent civilians, demolished hospitals, schools, refugee encampments, water supplies. Delayed and blocked relief convoys.
Genocide in Gaza, brutality in the West Bank, the bombing of Lebanon, and now the great threat of major Middle East war and conflagration.
At the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Rev. Isaac Munther has preached: “In Gaza today, God is under the rubble. He is in the operating room. If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble. We see his image in every child killed and pulled from under the rubble. In every child in incubators.”
For the Netanyahu regime and its US and western enablers, there is no red line – there is no cruelty too great for them in their pursuit of corporate interests. The only winners so far are the skyrocketing profits of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Chevron, and the like. The remarks about a plan to reshape the Middle East are staggering in their arrogance and deadly intent.
It’s hard to remember, sometimes, that Netanyahu is not representative of all Israeli Jews, any more than Trump was representative of all Americans when he was President.
Israelis have suffered, too. From disinformation, displacement, fear of worsening war, concern for their own safety, and grief over the deaths and hostages from October 7th.
Not that we center their loss, because Palestinians are suffering and have suffered unimaginable losses. At least 42,000 are known to have been killed in Gaza and the number could be four times that. Half of the dead are children. Palestinians have also been subjected to terrible losses and trauma the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, nearly 107 years ago, when Britain started enabling the eventual dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948. During the nonviolent Great March of Return in 2018, Palestinians suffered 36,100 injuries and 217 deaths. Mourn with them.
But it’s not a hierarchy of pain.
As Rabbis for Ceasefire say, “Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.” Each and every life is precious.
Our role as people of faith is to hold onto our humanity. Even in this bleak moral environment, where we need more people to raise their voices, we see millions more than ever before activated for peace, we witness unimaginable kindness in the midst of so much loss, and we know that despite the corruption of governments, people are good. People want peace.
We are people living in a nominally democratic nation that is providing the weapons being used in Gaza, Lebanon and potentially in Iran. If a ceasefire had been achieved in the past few months, perhaps there would not have been exploding pagers, leveling of apartment buildings in Beirut, displacement of 1 million Lebanese people, and hundreds of missiles fired by Iran into Israel. Every life is precious and has worth. We must insist on siding with love and life.
We must call for our country to desist in its support for genocide in Gaza and members of a world community is to call for our country and others to desist from acts of “plausible” genocide and enabling of these acts in Gaza as demanded by the International Court of Justice. We must stop US support for wars in Lebanon and Iran., as demanded by the International Court of Justice. We must keep advocating for an end to the US supply of aid and weapons to Israel.
These efforts embody solidarity with Palestinians, supporting the Action of Immediate Witness: Solidarity with Palestinians that we helped to pass at the UUA General Assembly in June. We understand that safety is achieved through solidarity, an embodiment of love.
If a ceasefire had been achieved in the past few months, perhaps there would not have been exploding pagers, leveling of apartment buildings in Beirut, displacement of 1 million Lebanese people, and hundreds of missiles fired by Iran into Israel. Every life is precious and has worth. We must insist on siding with love and life.
Respecting the human rights of every human being is the only path into the future. We keep working toward the world we know is possible. We rise to that vision.