Minute on Peace in Palestine and Israel approved June 2 2024 

Revisiting and revising Swannanoa Valley Friends Meeting’s 2015 Minute on Peace for Palestine amidst today’s crisis, we are struck, and saddened, by its continuing relevance. In response to the war on Gaza, we must add this urgent plea to lobby Congress and the President to:

  • Suspend military aid to Israel.
  • Press for immediate permanent ceasefire, access to humanitarian aid, return of Israeli hostages, and freeing of Palestinian political prisoners.

The pursuit of justice for Palestine and Israel, which is the only foundation for a true and lasting peace, prompts different expressions, depending on our gifts and leading. In this spirit, we ask our fellow Americans to act in any or all of the following ways:

  • Express our concerns to the international corporations that actively support the Occupation and the War in Gaza
  • Avoid purchase or use of products manufactured in Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
  • Support nonviolent peace-building organizations working in the region, especially those involving collaboration across political lines.
  • Call for and support cooperative efforts to rebuild the shattered communities of Gaza.

We hold the Israelis and the Palestinians in our hearts. Everyone suffers in the cycle of violence rooted in their struggle over land.  We want to support everyone enmeshed in this struggle who rejects racist and violent values. We stand with Jewish people everywhere who have suffered anti-Semitism for centuries and with Jewish Israelis who fear for their national security. We stand with Muslims everywhere who suffer from profiling and hate speech because of the misguided actions of extremists. And we stand with Palestinians who suffer under an Occupation of their lands and who suffer hardship and discrimination in Israel, in the West Bank, in Gaza, and exiled in many nations.

Love moves us, without regard to religious or cultural identity, to express solidarity with those who are oppressed and as well to address with compassion those who suffer because they oppress.  We are convinced there will be the possibility of security and peace for Israelis and Palestinians only when the Occupation is ended.