[HCCN] Statement on Gaza

[Larry Dansinger]

Good statement from the War Resisters League on Gaza.

Larry Dansinger


Weeping for Gaza:
WRL Condemns the Latest Middle East Conflict

The War Resisters League decries the horror of Gaza with a broken
heart and a grief that only strengthens our commitment to the broken
rifle, the icon of our 85-year-old organization.

The rhetoric justifying violence‹for Israel, for Israel¹s backers in
Washington, for Hamas‹is deep and layered and rooted in real
grievance and pain. But ultimately, this war (if that is the
appropriate term for a conflict between a major military power and a
non-state militant group), like all wars, is fueled by a raw and
brutal combination of the will to power, political expediency, and
the belief that might makes right. The War Resisters League condemns
all those factors without equivocation.

We have watched the seeds of future wars planted on the battlefields
of victory and watered by armistices that deliver only privation,
division, and desperation. We know that the effective means of
minimizing the appeal of violence and extremism‹and ensuring security‹
is and always has been only through freedom and justice. We believe
that the most effective means of fighting for freedom and justice,
including freedom from foreign military occupation, is through
strategic nonviolent action.

We know, too, that Israeli security and Palestinian rights are not
mutually exclusive but mutually dependent upon each other. We
therefore support the many Palestinians and Israelis who, despite the
war crimes committed by both sides, are continuing to struggle
nonviolently for freedom and justice.

Amid much diplomatic doublespeak and the conflating of vengeance with
defense, we listen for the voices of Gazans, Palestinians, and
Israelis who call out for an end to bloodshed, who call out for
peace, and who have a vision and the tools to build that peace. We
strain to hear these brave voices above the din of myopic fear-
mongering and rationalizations.

We know that the solution for the Middle East will be built from this
vision and these tools‹but only if we in this country help it. There
is a wide range of actions we can take, and pressing reasons for
people here to take them.

The war is waged ³over there.² But it is bought and paid for here in
the United States. Through successive U.S. administrations, both
Democrat and Republican, Israel has received more military aid than
any other country. This unconditional military support, along with
concomitant diplomatic and financial support, makes the Israeli
sieges, occupation, and colonization of Palestinian territory
possible. U.S. tax dollars buy the F-16 fighter jets, the M-60 tanks,
the transport planes and attack helicopters, missiles, and depleted
uranium munitions that Israel wields with such devastating effect.

Many groups are organizing pro-peace forces to demand that Congress
and the new White House withdraw that support. The War Resisters
League has joined in and endorsed protests, rallies, and marches; we
have crafted letters to editors; we have opposed one-sided
Congressional resolutions that blame Palestinians for the violence
done to them. Beyond those efforts, however, there are two areas that
WRL has focused on more intently than have many other groups: War tax
resistance and conscientious objection.

War tax resistance‹as a symbolic ³no² to war and as a concrete
deduction of the funds available to foment war‹is a key component of
WRL¹s work; at this moment, it is also a first step towards ending
the ³war² against Gaza by ending taxpayer-financed U.S. military
support for Israel. Finally, we affirm ³the right to refuse to kill²
and urge support especially for Israel¹s conscientious objectors, the
high school seniors who face repeated jail terms for refusing to be
inducted into the Israeli Defense Forces, the occupying power in
Palestine.

The laws of war were clearly defined in the last century, primarily
in the treaties and agreements collectively known as the Geneva
Accords: No collective punishment. No indiscriminate attacks‹military
action must be taken against military targets. No use of overwhelming
firepower‹military action and re-action must be in proportion with
the threat or counter-attack. .

The laws of war fill volumes and are never followed. But: what if war
only killed uniformed combatants in a targeted, commensurate and
proportional way? Would it be just and appropriate then? For that
kind of war to occur would mean that exploitation, empire, and
occupation were no more. That kind of war has never happened and
never will.

WRL therefore affirms, now as it ever has, that all war is a crime
against humanity, and that we will struggle nonviolently for the end
of all war, and for the removal of  the causes of war, including
racism, sexism, and human exploitation.

For more suggestions of actions to take in this crisis, see:

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, www.nwtrcc.org
The U.S. Campaign to end the Israeli Occupation,
www.endtheoccupation.org

..
Linda M Thurston
Office Coordinator
War Resisters League
339 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012
phone: 212.228.0450 x110
fax: 212.228.6193
linda at warresisters.org
www.warresisters.org

The War Resisters League affirms that all war
is a crime against humanity.  We are determined
not to support any kind of war, international or civil,
and to strive nonviolently for the removal of the
causes of war, including racism, sexism
and all forms of human exploitation. 
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