October 12, 2023
P R E S S R E L E A S E
RE: Plowshare Peace Center Statement on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
RELEASE DATE: Immediate
PLOWSHARE STATEMENT ON THE GAZA-ISRAEL WAR
Virginia’s oldest advocacy group for peace and justice, Plowshare Peace and Justice Center of Roanoke is committed to nonviolence and condemns the current violence carried out both by Hamas and by the Israeli military. Plowshare urges an immediate ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and calls on the US and the wider international community to support a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Plowshare likewise recognizes that the Hamas attack was not unprovoked. For decades the people of Palestine have been oppressed by the violence and occupation of the apartheid state of Israel, contending too often with home demolitions, child detentions, separation walls, settler colonialism and violence, seizures of land and controls over water and food supplies. Gaza, with its 2 million inhabitants, has been an open-air prison where Israel controls how much water, electricity and food its occupants are allowed. The extreme measures taken by the Netanyahu’s ultra-right government have made life increasingly difficult for Palestinians. US foreign policy, always one-sided and national interest-driven, has been unwilling to address Israeli apartheid and has contributed to the Israeli government’s extreme measures. Additionally, the Biden administration’s attempts to normalize diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel have become the final straw for the militant Palestinian resistance. Hopelessness and desperation breed violence.
We pray for leadership that has the courage to address the problems, injustices and racism that perpetuates this violence. We especially pray for wisdom and restraint between Hamas and the Israeli government.
From the Plowshare Peace Center Board
Mail: PO Box 4367, Roanoke VA 24015; plowshare@plowshareva.org; 540-492-3582;
www.plowshareva.org; Facebook page at plowshare peace & justice center; Facebook group at
plowshare peace center
**************
5 Things You Need to Know (From the American Friends Service Committee, https://afsc.org/news/5-things-you-need-know-about-whats-happening-israel-and-gaza ):
On Oct. 7, Palestinians from Gaza carried out attacks in Israel that killed at least 600 Israelis, injured over 2,000, and took dozens of hostages. Israeli attacks on Gaza on Oct. 7 and 8 killed approximately 500 Palestinians and injured at least 2,300 more. In the days since, violence has only escalated, and those numbers continue to grow. Israel also placed Gaza under hermetic closure—blocking access to fuel, water, electricity, food, medical supplies, and other goods. There are also reports of arrests of Palestinians in Israel and Israeli military attacks in the West Bank.
AFSC mourns with those who have lost loved ones and all who are suffering. We will continue to work for the changes needed to end this violence and build a just and lasting peace.
To address the situation, it is important to understand the context in which this violence is taking place. Here are five things you need to know:
1. Violence did not begin with the attacks from Gaza.
Even before Oct. 7, this year (2023) was one of the most violent years in Palestine in more than a decade. At least 247 Palestinians—including 47 children—had been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers before the end of September. During the same period, Israeli settlers launched over 800 attacks on Palestinians and Palestinian-owned property. Additionally, over 1,100 Palestinians had been forcibly displaced from their homes.
These actions occurred in a context where Israeli land confiscation, mass arrest campaigns, military attacks on Palestinian cities, and threats to Palestinian control over Al-Aqsa mosque—an important religious site in Jerusalem—have all increased.
Since coming to power, the far-right Netanyahu government in Israel has escalated violence against Palestinian communities while rejecting any possibility of Palestinian independence or equality. Settler leaders now hold sway in Israel and have taken concrete steps toward annexing the West Bank while pushing forward efforts to eliminate Palestinians from the majority of the West Bank.
For Palestinians, violence is an extreme, daily reality.
2. Gaza has been under a violent blockade for 16 years.
For over 16 years, the people of Gaza have lived under an Israeli-imposed blockade that severely limits travel, trade, and everyday life for its over two million residents. As a result, the effects have been brutal, even prior to the expanded siege now underway:
More than 50% of the population are unemployed.
Hospitals have consistently been out of up to 40% of needed supplies and medicine.
Approximately 96% of water in Gaza is undrinkable.
Electricity is only available sporadically.
The blockade severely impacts the lives and health of all Palestinians in Gaza. Children’s growth is stunted due to malnutrition. Palestinians die because they can’t access medical care. Families are separated due to movement restrictions.
And the blockade is enforced through violence. Israeli military incursions into Gaza occur weekly, Israeli forces fire into Gaza daily, and bombings of Gaza occur regularly.
Israel’s military actions in Gaza have claimed thousands of Palestinian lives over the years. Between Jan. 1, 2008 and Sept. 19, 2023, more than 5,365 Palestinians have been killed, including 1,206 children.
After Israel’s previous attacks on Gaza, there were promises that the blockade would be lessened or ended. But the blockade continues with deadly effect for Palestinians in Gaza.
3. Under international law, both Palestinians and Israelis have bounded legal rights to use violence. But violence will not bring just and lasting peace.
The U.S. government has repeatedly said that people living under foreign military occupation—as in Ukraine—have a right to militarily resist their occupation. Palestinians have that same right. At the same time, the laws of war that lay out the right to resist occupation also limit that right, forbidding attacks on civilians—like those witnessed on Oct. 7—and other war crimes.
The same laws of war lay out obligations for occupying powers, including Israel, and limit their actions. For decades, Israel has systematically violated its obligations under international law toward Palestinians, violating their rights and implementing a system of apartheid in the areas it controls. The prohibition on attacks on civilians and civilian targets also applies to Israel.
As a Quaker organization, AFSC opposes all violence and works toward its end. We know that violence will not end through more violence. To bring change, we must address the roots of conflict, including historic and ongoing Palestinian displacement, occupation, and the reality of apartheid.
4. The U.S. funds, arms, and supports injustice, inequality, and violence perpetrated by the Israeli government.
For decades, the U.S. has offered uncritical support to Israel as it has systemically violated Palestinian rights. Despite agreement between international human rights organizations that Israel is enforcing apartheid against Palestinians, the U.S. provides $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel every year. Despite the fact that the current Israeli government opposes the formation of a Palestinian state and has moved to take over Palestinian land at record rates, the U.S. government continues to build close ties with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies. And despite record levels of violence against Palestinians by Israel—including Palestinians with U.S. citizenship—the U.S. continues to offer Israel impunity and blocks efforts at accountability.
This lack of accountability and a sense by Palestinians that they have been abandoned by the international community is important to understanding recent violence. For violence to end, U.S. policy must change. Israel must be held accountable for its rights violations, and the system of apartheid must end.
5. You can take action to help bring change.
Everyone has a role to play in stopping the violence and ending the occupation. Here are a few things you can do right now.
Contact your members of Congress. Remind them that security cannot be built by systematic violence and oppression and ask that elected officials urge the Biden administration to take action to end Israeli attacks on Gaza. The administration must also push for humanitarian access to ensure people in Gaza can receive food, water, and urgent medical care. And it must call for an end to the Israeli blockade on Gaza and the system of apartheid that are at the root causes of this violence, so that peace and justice for all can be possible.
Donate to humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza. Through our offices in Gaza, AFSC provides support and assistance to Palestinians facing the most need and vulnerability. Donations received now will be used to support individuals and families impacted by the ongoing attacks.
Join the Apartheid-Free campaign. Ending these attacks is a first step, but it isn’t enough. To bring lasting change, the systems of occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism that are at the roots of violence in Israel and Palestine must end. Learn more about how you can join AFSC in pushing for the end of these systems of violence so that a just and lasting peace can be realized.
