Season for Peace
This holiday season is surrounded by sorrow and rage. Many people are asking how it is possible to feel joy in the face of such suffering. Yet the magnitude of the destruction we are witnessing in Gaza is provoking a growing commitment to finding ways to peace. In Bethlehem, a town holy in much of the Christian world, a local Lutheran Church is displaying a nativity scene with a baby Jesus resting on rubble, wrapped in a keffiyeh, to protest Israeli actions.
Each day brings new images of horror. Enduring the most intense bombing since the Vietnam war, the people of Gaza are facing a public health catastrophe as basic infrastructure collapses, food and water are becoming impossible to secure, and hospitals are destroyed.
The Biden administration has voiced concern over the use of white phosphorous bombs, supplied by the US, that are being used by Israel along the border with Lebanon, in violation of international law. This week images of Palestinian men stripped, forced to kneel, tied and blindfolded as they are herded into trucks by Israeli soldiers, have exploded on the internet, forcing US officials to acknowledge they are “deeply disturbing.”
In a rebuke to the US, the UN General Assembly voted to demand an immediate cease fire. About three quarters of the body, 153 nations, voted in favor of a call for peace Only 10 nations, including the US, voted against it.
Pressure from within the Biden administration is also emerging. In an historic and unprecedented action, administration staffers held a vigil outside the White House calling for Biden to demand a lasting cease fire. Most of the staffers were anonymous, disguised to protect themselves from retribution. But Josh Paul, who had resigned from the State Department in protest of the Biden weapons transfer to Israel in October, said on behalf of the group:
"We were horrified by the brutal October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians and have been horrified by the disproportionate response by the Israeli government, which has indiscriminately killed thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza and displaced over a million more. We have seen refugee camps, hospitals, schools, and entire neighborhoods bombed. We have seen dead men, women, and children pulled from the rubble in their pajamas. We have seen harassment, humiliation, and degradation of many kinds. This is unacceptable."
"The American people and respected institutions like the United Nations are pleading for a cease-fire, but this administration has yet to listen. We demand President Biden and members of the cabinet to speak up: Call for a permanent cease-fire, a release of all hostages, and an immediate de-escalation now."
This action follows the letter signed by more than 700 staffers from across government agencies and another by more than 40 White House interns.
At week’s end another historic call for peace emerged as major US labor unions joined progressive members of congress in a joint press conference outside the Capitol. The United Auto Workers (UAW), Postal Workers Union, and United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America stood together with progressive lawmakers including Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush. Sawn Fain the new leader of the UAW said, "The world has seen enough slaughter and devastation. Peace is the only path forward.”
These calls for peace are being echoed in communities across the country as local organizations and individuals are finding ways to encourage city councils, municipal officials, and civic leaders to support a cease fire. In often contentious and long public meetings, cities are coming forward to reflect the longing for peace. In the course of these efforts people are claiming a renewed commitment to humanity, to peace and to justice. While the most regressive forces in the country try to weaponize antisemitism and to silence calls for a lasting peace, people are raising voices, listening to one another, and taking action.