Red Cedar Meeting, Lansing, MI

Minute on Violence in Gaza. 2/09

Jack Smith, of Red Cedar Peace and Social Justice Committee, writes:

At our February Business Meeting, Red Cedar Friends Meeting in Lansing approved the attached Minute on the Gaza conflict. In addition to our effort to simply express ourselves as Friends on this painful issue and set of events, we have attempted to communicate our clarity to Friends and non-Friends and to those local and those distant (with substantial power over U.S. policy).

We regret the increased violence that has welled up this month in the Gaza strip in Palestine. Hundreds have died, including many civilians. Delivery of basic supplies and medical care has been severely restricted; and humanitarian workers have been shot and killed.

The voice we raise in this conflict is the transformative and healing power of non-violence, including successive steps back from the cycle of attack and violent response. As Quakers, we deny the inevitability of violence as a necessary and accepted response to ill-treatment. The desire to strike back in self-defense is human, but it does not represent our full human capacity. Retaliation is most often self-defeating, and resistance can take many forms that reduce, if not eliminate, violence. The violent repression of others reduces our own humanity and burdens us with deep emotional and spiritual costs. More productive human responses involve restraint, listening, and recognition of the basic humanity and needs of "the other." In the physical presence of our opponents and in the healing embrace of silence, new possibilities can emerge, opening the way for tolerance, recognition, and cooperation.

Based on these convictions, Red Cedar Meeting supports all efforts toward a cessation of attacks by both parties; the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance and medical services, and an honest dialogue grounded in the legitimate human rights and security needs of Israelis and Palestinians.