We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatsoever; and this is our testimony to the whole world.
Declaration of Friends to Charles II, 1660
This is from the declaration that is the foundation of the Quaker peace testimony. It is not a passive statement of belief but a guiding Light of how we live our faith every day, of how we create the world that takes away the occasion for all wars. And in times such as these, it is a clarion call to action.
Earlier this year, Northside Friends Meeting signed onto the Quaker Vision for Peace which was jointly drafted in April by eight major Quaker organizations around the globe. This commits us to a number of actions, most urgently working towards an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Israel, and to actively support an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories and equal protection and rights for all people living under the Israeli government.
Our Ministry on Racism committee and 28 individuals also joined the Apartheid Free Communities coalition “to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation”. We make this commitment as an expression of our Quaker values of equality, integrity, and peace, and with an acknowledgement of our unique responsibility to speak truth as a Quaker Meeting in America.
The horrific violence of the past year has once again brought international attention to Palestine and Israel; it has also highlighted the complacency that many of us as Quakers and as Americans are allowed and encouraged to have towards the Palestinian people. The systematic destruction of Gaza’s cities and infrastructure, the displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians, the utter disregard for civilian life by the Israeli government are horrifying but they are not new. For decades, Palestinians have lived under a racist and discriminatory system of laws explicitly designed to drive them from their homes and lands by cutting them off from the resources needed to live and raise their families.
And throughout the active war of the last twelve months and the silenced human rights abuses of the decades before, the United States has defended the actions of the Israeli government and continues to send unrestricted military funding and weapons of war.
At this one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack, we grieve for the hundreds of people killed in Israel during the initial attack and in the course of this war. We grieve for the tens of thousands more who were killed in the last year in Gaza and the West Bank. We grieve for the hundreds who were killed in Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria in recent weeks. We grieve for the hundreds of thousands who are injured and have lost their families, their homes, their cities, their livelihoods. We grieve for the dead yet to come as this war continues. And we utterly condemn all those who commit war upon each other, and those in power who do nothing to stop it. In the face of atrocities, there is no neutral stance.
~ Ministry on Racism Committee
Actions You Can Take
American Friends Service Committee has actions you can take to help the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
If you would like to learn more about the ongoing occupation in Palestine
The Apartheid-Free Communities coalition has a number of online resources. This interactive guide from Al Jazeera on Palestinian life under Israeli occupation is a good starting point.
Quaker Speak has a 7-minute video on a Quaker Call to Action on Palestine-Israel.
If you’re a book-based learner, Decolonize Palestine has an excellent and comprehensive reading-list.