We need a ceasefire for God's sake, for the future's sake, for the sake of the babies who are dying, and for the sake of our own humanity.
Bishop William J. Barber
Co-chair, the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Stopping the Cycle of Violence in the Middle East; Virtual Teach-in for Action -- TODAY -- Wednesday, November 29
RootsAction is hosting a virtual teach-in for action on "Stopping the Cycle of Violence in the Middle East" on Wed. Nov. 29, at 5:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM CT / 8:30 PM ET. Register here. Panelists include: Huwaida Arraf, Co-Founder of the International Solidarity Movement, Sunjeev Bery, Executive Director of Freedom Forward, Dr. Aisha Jumaan, Founder and President of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, and Emma Claire Foley, Project Coordinator with Defuse Nuclear War. The panel aims to shed light on the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and discuss practical ways to address it and prevent further violence. This teach-in will include a call-to-action requiring our collective attention and engagement.
Poor People's Campaign Leadership Calls for a Ceasefire!
The Co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival are forcefully urging an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel. Bishop William J. Barber II issued a powerful Interfaith Call: "We need a ceasefire for God's sake, for the future's sake, for the sake of the babies who are dying, and for the sake of our own humanity." Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis writes: "In a time of stifling darkness, one bright light.... has been the eruption of nonviolent, pro-peace protests across the world.... hundreds of thousands of people have hit the streets to demand a ceasefire.... tens of thousands of Americans have followed suit.... No less important, those protest marches have been both multiracial and multigenerational, much like the 2020 uprisings for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the countless other Black lives lost to police brutality."
Veteran's Plea for Peace In Gaza: Save Palestinian and Israeli Lives
On November 13, 2023, Veterans For Peace led a Rally for Peace in Gaza at Rep. Sharice Davids's (D) office, in Overland Park, KS. Take a moment to read the powerfully moving words of Chris Overfelt, a US Air Force veteran, directed to his representative, Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat. The rally was well attended and supported by a wide range of local area groups. They included Veterans for Peace, Common Defense, Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, PeaceWorks KC, United for Peace & Justice, CODEPINK, Poor People's Campaign, United Methodists for Kairos Response, and Physicians for Social Responsibility. For additional information about the rally visit www.peaceworkskc.org
Gaza Crisis Resources: How Do We Speak of Unspeakable Violence?
Once again, a war by a nuclear-armed country to suppress a struggle for self-rule by people living on land that powerful state claims as its own challenges our ability to find a common way to understand and unite against war. Recent additions to the Ukraine resource page provide some thoughtful perspectives. In More than Genocide, A. Dirk Moses explores how the narrow legal definition of that concept fails to capture the cycles of extreme violence that are the legacy empires and colonialism. In "Towards a Left Critique of Indiscriminate Violence," Anatoly Kropivnitskyi argues that strands of Left thought with roots in the 1960s have led to an uncritical acceptance of violent resistance, with little regard for the politics and goals of the organizations resisting the dominant order. Find more resources at our Israel/Palestine 2023 War page.
Image: Rousseau Diderot, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Leslie Cagan, UFPJ's First National Coordinator, Shares Perspectives on the Crisis in Palestine
Encouraging peace and justice activists to "keep the pressure on Washington to end their continued support of the Israeli government as this horrific war against the Palestinian people rages on," Leslie has shared several items related to the crisis in Palestine. Watch the extraordinary event, "But We Must Speak: On Palestine and the Mandates of Conscience," part of the Palestine Festival of Literature, which includes Michelle Alexander, Prof. Rashid Khalidi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, poets Natalie Diaz and Mohammed El-Kurd, Noura Erakat and others. (Start 16 minutes into the event; it began late.) In the West Bank, life for Palestinian shepherd communities is increasingly untenable. The Jordan Valley Activists--a group of Israeli and international activists with close relationships with Palestinian villagers--are supporting Palestinian shepherd communities and raising awareness of the exorbitant cost of water. You may want to support their efforts. Read the powerful and moving indictment of the genocidal war against Palestinians "From My Body to Yours, and Gaza to the World" by Zillah Eisenstein, an anti-racist anti-Zionist, feminist. Finally, if you have not yet seen it, you may want to watch Rep. Rashida Tlaib's comments on the floor of the House in response to being censured.
Local and State Officials to President Biden: It's Time to Get Serious About Nuclear Disarmament
On November 16, 218 mayors, city councilors, county and municipal officials and state legislators from around the United States delivered a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to fulfill his campaign promise and act decisively and urgently to confront the existential threat to humanity posed by nuclear weapons. Organized by Back from the Brink, the national grassroots coalition campaigning to abolish nuclear weapons, the letter specifically urges the President to send an observer delegation to the 2nd Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to be held in New York City in late November and to initiate negotiations with all nuclear weapons states toward a verifiable, timebound agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the planet. Read more.
Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
As the world edges ever closer to the nuclear precipice, States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will meet Nov. 27 -- Dec. 1 at the United Nations in NYC. Framed in terms of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from any nuclear weapons use, the TPNW prohibits States Parties from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using, or threatening to use nuclear weapons or allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory, and prohibits them from assisting, encouraging, or inducing anyone to engage in any of these activities. There are currently 93 signatories and 73 States Parties, none of them nuclear-armed. The TPNW, opposed by the nuclear-armed states, is binding only on those States which have signed and ratified it. Read more.
The Urgency of Disarmament: International Action to Prevent Nuclear Confrontations and War, In-Person and Live-Streamed -- TODAY -- Wednesday, November 29
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is an important development in the struggle to prevent nuclear war and to create a nuclear weapons-free world. But it's not enough! The week of Nov. 27 -- Dec. 1 has been declared Nuclear Ban Week in New York and will be jam-packed with meetings, concerts, art exhibitions, and other events. One response to the urgency of the moment is an international forum, "The Urgency of Disarmament," Wed. Nov. 29, 7 -- 9 pm EST at Scandinavia House, 2nd floor -- 58 Park Ave. Speakers include Setsuko Thurlow, a prominent Hiroshima A-bomb survivor and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Jackie Cabasso, Reiner Braun, Molly McGinty, Sharon Dolev, Tom Unterrainer, and Gaku Kogosuri. In-person in NYC and live-streamed here. More information and registration here.
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
On Nov. 16, Ukrainian pacifist Yuri Sheliazhenko wrote: "[T]he 'Security' Service of Ukraine absurdly accused me, a pacifist, of the so-called justification of Russian aggression in a statement which clearly condemns Russian aggression. They searched my house and took my computer and mobile phone. I am under house arrest now until the end of this year at least, and then a trial could be started: there is a risk that I could be jailed for up to five years. My 'crime' was that I sent to President Zelensky a statement entitled 'Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World' which calls for a ceasefire, peace talks, respect for the right to refuse to kill, non-violent democratic governance, and conflict management." At a recent hearing, the Court was impressed by Yuri's presentation of a petition with support from around the world. Add your name.
Another war and occupation goes on: United for Peace and Justice Ukraine War Resources
Prospects for the war's end seem distant. Military historian Lawrence Freedman argues that the Russian government's autumn offensive signals little interest in negotiations, and Russia's antiwar voices have been suppressed and demoralized. Amidst all this, Ukrainian activists thought it important to express their support for those under attack in Gaza in a Ukrainian Letter of Solidarity with Palestinian people, published by the Ukrainian journal Commons. In an accompanying article, Daria Saburova argues that "[as] Ukrainians... we have a special responsibility to understand and raise our voices in the face of what is happening. We must point out the inconsistencies of Western governments that support our anti-imperialist struggle while backing Israel's colonial violence." Find more at the UFPJ Ukraine resources page.
UFPJ is a diverse network of peace and justice organizations. READ ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP. If your organization is interested in joining UFPJ, please read our UNITY STATEMENT, and if it is consistent with your organization's principles CLICK HERE TO JOIN.
PLEASE DONATE to help us continue sending out our monthly newsletter "UFPJ Currents" to our members and supporters. And THANK YOU for all your work for peace and justice!
