Statement on Violence in Gaza
As educators, facilitators, and researchers committed to helping others of all backgrounds learn and develop, we understand that peace and security are required for each human being to reach his or her own potential. Violence, insecurity, and the deep trauma they instill, undermine human flourishing.
We decry the horrific surprise attack by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians, and the subsequent brutal Israeli reprisals against innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Since October 7, an estimated 1,200 Israelis have been killed with a further 6,900 injured, while over 14,500 Palestinians have been killed with a further 35,000 injured, and at least one million have been displaced. Alarmingly, throughout the world violent incidents of both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are growing, with innocent Jews and Muslims being harassed and attacked daily. Moreover, this conflict has the potential to engulf Israel and Palestine, and possibly the whole region, in violence and chaos.
As students of politics, we understand that the cycle of violence, with retribution and reprisals, can never lead to a just and lasting peace, one that allows for human flourishing.
In this spirit, we respectfully request that all parties to the conflict and in the international community work to stop the violence, release all hostages, and begin in earnest to negotiate a lasting peace. While the current pause in the fighting and the release of some hostages has been a hopeful step, only a negotiated permanent settlement will ensure that Israelis and Palestinians both live, side by side, securely and in peace.
The first step may be an admission of the complexity of the conflict, and each listening to the other side. As President Obama said recently on Pod Save America, “If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively, to do something, it will require an admission of complexity. And maintaining what, on the surface, may seem contradictory ideas. That what Hamas did was horrific and there’s no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable. […] And so, if you want to solve the problem then you have to take in the whole truth and you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean. That all of us are complicit to some degree. […] If you genuinely want to change this, then you’ve got to figure out how to speak to somebody on the other side and listen to them and understand what they are talking about and not dismiss it.”
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