“Palestine Minute”
We, of Quaker City Unity Friends Meeting, prayerfully create and endorse statements of faith, called “Minutes.” These clarify our corporate beliefs according to Divine Guidance. The Religious Society of Friends, aka Quakers, stand in the gap for those who experience injustice in local, regional, national, and international communities as a witness to our faith. This has been our practice since our founding in the mid-1600s. We grieve for the physical, emotional, and moral injury and trauma of the people of the Palestinian and Israeli territories. Violence begets violence. This is our minute about the unjust crisis continuing today that is funded by the U.S. Government with taxpayers’ dollars:
Palestine Minute (approved Sept. 25): As members of the Religious Society of Friends, we recognize that there is that of God in each person. We revere the sanctity of life. We, of Quaker City Unity Friends Meeting, are deeply disturbed by the genocide occurring in Palestine and are moved by the Spirit to speak out clearly about the genocide the Israeli government is committing against the Palestinian People with the full complicity of the United States government. We urge the United States government to stop funding the Israeli military’s aggression in Gaza and demand that the government of Israel lift the blockade on humanitarian aid for Palestinians. We also request that the U.S. Representative to the United Nations support holding the Israeli government accountable for their violations of International Law. To make this work, the United States government would have to agree to follow and be accountable to International Law, too. We support the many peacemaking groups of the Israeli People and Palestinian People who continue to work for a permanent ceasefire and a just peace.