by Curtis Bell, UUs for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME)
A plea for greater involvement of the UU community in the international struggle for peace, the rule of law, and respect for the human rights of all people.
As I write this in March of 2022, the news is all about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The costs of the invasion are already high – thousands of Ukrainian and Russian casualties, more than four million refugees, and rapidly rising prices for energy and food across the world. The costs are sure to grow higher. Thus, many countries have already announced an increase in military spending, meaning that less money will be available for social goods. The war has also taken away the equally critical resource of the world’s attention from the crises of climate change, pandemics, and poverty. The war could have even worse consequences – a war throughout Europe, world-wide deprivation of food and energy, destabilization of the world economic system, and even nuclear war.
All of us are and will be much affected by the war in Ukraine, especially if it continues. Simple self-interest calls us to do what we can to stop it. Compassion for those affected by the war and our values as Unitarian Universalists also call us to act.
The Russian invasion must be condemned without equivocation as a violation of the supreme international law against invading a sovereign state. But the US and Europe also bear responsibility for bringing us to this fear-filled juncture, and we as US citizens share in that responsibility. Russia has consistently told us of their alarm about the advancement of NATO, a military alliance aimed first at the Soviet Union and now at Russia, to their borders. They have also made very clear for 15 years that they viewed Ukraine membership in NATO as an existential threat.
Perhaps the current war in the Ukraine might have been avoided if the Ukraine and NATO had clearly declared that Ukraine would never join NATO and if the US and Europe had not poured military weapons into Ukraine in a kind of proxie NATOization, but such a statement was not forthcoming and masses of weapons continue to pour into Ukraine. Perhaps a better informed and engaged public, including Unitarian Universalists, could have kept the war from starting and could even now move us toward a diplomatic solution.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a striking example of how events in other countries can affect our lives here at home. But it is not the only example, and here I speak as a citizen of the United States. Our wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have cost eight trillion dollars, money that has been much needed here at home for social goods. The wars have caused tens of thousands of American casualties, millions of Iraqi and Afghan casualties, and millions of Iraqi, Afghan and Syrian refugees. Refugees fleeing these wars have almost destabilized Europe and have led to the rise of a radical European right.
Millions of people in the US engaged in efforts to stop those wars, but that was not enough. Perhaps, and only perhaps, we could have stopped those wars or stopped them sooner If more of us, including Unitarian Universalists, had engaged more strongly.
Our responsibility as US citizens also includes responsibility for US unconditional support for the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people. The recent reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem that establish Israeli guilt for the international crime of apartheid provide only the most recent documentation of this oppression. The oppression had already been well described for decades by Palestinian organizations, Israeli organizations, and the United Nations. It is equally clear that Israel could not continue with its human rights abuses and violations of international law without the diplomatic, financial, and military support of the US.
What happens in Palestine, like what is happening in the Ukraine and what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and Viet Nam, has major effects on us here at home. Israel’s systematic denial of the fundamental human rights of Palestinians for the past 75 years and US support for that denial have created a deep wound in the heart of the Middle East, and our unconditional support for Israel has earned us the enmity of the Arab people. Arab enmity toward the US for its unconditional support for Israeli oppression was one of the reasons given by Osama bin Laden for his hatred of the US, with all the consequences that followed from that, including the “war on terror.” The neutralizing of potential enemies of Israel was also probably one of the reasons for our war on Iraq and for Trump’s cancelation of the Iran nuclear agreement.
An equally important consequence of the decades-long US support for Israeli violations of international law and basic human rights is the cynicism and contempt that it creates for the very concepts of human rights and international law. The same can be said for US participation in the Saudi war on Yemen, a war that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Human rights and international law are nothing but words if they are only applied selectively rather than universally.
In this regard, the contrast is striking between the immediate condemnation and sanctioning by the US and Europe of Russia’s violation of international law in invading Ukraine and the lack of such condemnation or sanctioning of Israel, Saudi Arabia or the United States for similar crimes. In 1967 Israel conquered the West Bank and the Golan Heights of Syria and then annexed them to the state of Israel. Such taking of land by military conquest is a supreme violation of international law. In addition, Israel continues to permanently occupy the West Bank, to move its citizens into settlements there, and to oppress the Palestinians in the occupied territories rather than meeting their needs – all crimes under international law. The United States invasion of Iraq was also a major violation of international law.
The Russian invasion was immediately followed by boycotting of Russian products, divestment from Russian corporations, and massive financial sanctions. Neither Israel nor the US have suffered such a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) regime for their crimes. Indeed, the use of BDS to deter Israel from its oppression of Palestinians is widely condemned in the West to the point of some nations and some US states making it illegal.
Similarly, over four million white Ukrainian refugees have been immediately and warmly welcomed into Europe but brown refugees fleeing the consequences of US and European wars in the Middle East have been violently rejected. Five million Palestinians live in squalid camps around the state of Israel but are not allowed to exercise their right to return to the lands from which they were expelled. In addition, the International Criminal Court immediately opened an investigation into Russian crimes but it has taken years and it is still not sure if they will take up the crimes of Israel. It is obvious that they will not take up US crimes.
The racism, colonialism and imperialism shown by the markedly different responses to these two sets of crimes has been quite overt. Thus, many news commentators and statesmen have expressed how more concern is called for in the case of Ukrainians because the Ukrainians are “white”, “civilized”, and “our own people”. Racism and colonialism are expressed in foreign lands as well as here at home.
The message to the world is clear. Invasion of sovereign nations, violations of international law and violations of human rights are acceptable if they are done by the US or its allies but are to be roundly condemned as immoral and illegal if done by the enemies of the US. This one-sided weaponization of human rights and international law cannot continue if we want a world at peace ruled by human rights and international law. If we really want to live in such a world, we must fight for human rights and international law wherever and by whoever they are violated.
Social justice is at the core of our identity as Unitarian Universalists. Our principles move us toward justice, the dignity of every human being, and a world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. We affirm that we are part of an interdependent web of existence, in which what happens to one people affects what happens to all. We clearly believe in a world governed by respect for human rights and international law, rather than by might makes right. But if that is the world we want, then we must fight for it.
Unitarian Universalists in the US and Canada are engaged in many forms of social justice, but international work, i.e., work for international peace, for respect for international law, and for the human rights of people outside the US does not figure very prominently in the social justice work of Unitarian Universalists. This in spite of the critical nature of such work and the profound effects of what happens internationally on our life here at home, as described in preceding paragraphs. Instead, the social justice concerns of most Unitarian Universalists are largely focused on national justice issues.
The UUA Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team, for example, selected four social justice concerns in an effort to bring greater focus to the social justice work of the Unitarian Universalist community. Within these categories they listed climate justice, indigenous sovereignty, climate resilience, anti-criminalization, racial justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQ and gender justice, reproductive justice and electoral justice. The focus in each case seems to be on what is happening within or at the borders of the United States. The corrosive effects of the war economy, the trauma of foreign wars, the danger of nuclear war, and the great need to respect the universality of human rights and international law were not mentioned. Similarly, if one looks down the list of programs offered at recent UUA General Assemblies one encounters almost no programs focused on events outside the borders of the US.
Social justice issues within the borders of the United States are clearly of the greatest importance and worthy of our greatest efforts. Nothing that is said here denies that. The argument is simply that these domestic issues are deeply connected to and affected by what happens outside the United States, and that an exclusive focus on what happens domestically addresses only part of the problem.
We already have Unitarian Universalist organizations that have done and are doing excellent work internationally. During the second world war the UUA encouraged the formation of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) to help Jews escape from the Nazis, and the UUSC has worked very hard over many years in support of democracy and human rights, in Central America, in Burma and in many other sites around the world. Similarly, the UUA office at the United Nations has maintained a voice for Unitarian Universalism at the United Nations, has kept UUs informed about the critical work of the United Nations, and has worked for human rights and climate justice around the world. But my sense is that these organizations have worked in relatively separate silos and that they have not received the strong and broad support from the UU community that is needed for them to lead a truly vigorous engagement in the international work for peace and universal human rights.
We are entering a critical time for peace in the world, as illustrated by the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and its fearsome possible consequences including nuclear war. As illustrated too by the current climate of confrontation, including military confrontation, with China and Russia. The trauma of foreign wars, the evil of foreign oppression, and the lack of respect for the universality of human rights and international law will continue to come home to haunt us.
I believe that our values as Unitarian Universalists direct us to do more to bring about a world at peace and a world that respects all humankind. I believe we can engage more fully in ending the violence that haunts the world and in upholding the universal application of human rights and international law. I also believe that the times demand it.
THIS IS MY SONG
This is my song,
O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover- leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
*To the melody of Finlandia *Lyrics by Lloyd Stone