The Stones Cry Out Delegation
From the Ground in Palestine to the US Government and Churches
February 27-March 4, 2024
Part 3 of 3 (A U.S. War and Conclusion)
• This is a US war; the weapons are US made. The money is US money. The shameful United Nations veto against a cease fire is US policy. We say it again loudly and clearly: This is a US war.
• The US selectively applies international law. Compare the US response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the US response to Israel’s open genocide in Gaza and its takeover and oppression in the West Bank. The world is watching. We continually heard the words applied to the United States – “hypocrisy,” “double standard.”
• The nations supporting a ceasefire, who continue their support of Palestine, the South Africa ICJ case – the Global South understands and is making their voices heard. The people of the Global South see the hypocrisy.
• The West’s response is profoundly racist. Again, compare the response to Ukraine, a predominantly white Christian country, to the response to Palestine, a predominantly Arab Muslim country. The world is watching. The people of the Global South see the injustice.
• They – and we – say to our churches: Both those who unconditionally support Israel as well as those who are silent, not wanting to offend,
“You are complicit in Israel’s genocide of Gaza!” Following Jesus, listening to Jesus’ Gospel message, loving your neighbor, even your enemy – that is our call. It is morally derelict that some Christians insist on undying loyalty to Israel. Scripture is not to be manipulated to crush one of God’s peoples for the gain of another. We heard from many about the scourge of Christian Zionism. It is equally sickening to be silent in the face of evil.
• Nonviolent resistance can only succeed if people of good conscience take bold and decisive action in support of the cause. The Palestinian people cry out, “Hear our call. Take up our cross with us.” How many Palestinians beyond the 30,000 must be murdered, plus 8,000 estimated dead under the rubble, for Israel to be satiated? For the US to decry the killings? For the world to intervene and say, “No”?
We say it again: This is a US war. We are party to genocide. We give Israel a free pass. Israel continues to violate international law with impunity. The slaughter could not happen without the backing of the US government. Our tax dollars provide billions in aid to Israel, weapons, and full cover for Israel’s crimes. The fighter jets, bombs, tanks, chemical weapons are US made. The US vetoes UN cease fire resolutions.
The US believes it is in its geopolitical interest to protect Israel, believing Israel is key to the strategic military, economic, and political interests of the US. On the contrary, as Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing inside Palestine continue, Israel and the US are less safe, they are pariahs on the world stage, with other countries looking to China and Russia for support. The US is a shield and bank for Israel to commit war crimes. Our adversaries are watching and exploiting our moral failing to perpetuate their own.
We heard various political solutions offered, but all agree that Zionism – and support by the US government and Christian Zionists in the West – is the problem. The racist, settler colonial project that is Zionism must be rejected out of hand, dismantled, and a system of government based on equity, human dignity, and full civil, political, and human rights created. Zionism makes Jews around the world less safe and contributes to antisemitism. If the US wants to be Israel’s friend, it must realize that this genocidal action fosters even more acts of antisemitism and disgust for the US. It is in no one’s interest, no one’s.
We call on the United States to follow international law, including support for the recent ICJ ruling declaring a “plausible case” for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Palestinians no longer want to hear Western and US platitudes about democratic values and equal rights. The words are a lie. The US needs to apply the values that it espouses equally – democracy, human rights, equality, and equity. Put up or shut up.
Each of the speakers with whom we met were activist leaders committed to non-violence. Each refuses to hate; they acknowledge that Palestinians over the years have compromised for peace. The response has been more illegal settlements (major towns, illegal outposts with populations in the tens of thousands) in the West Bank, more checkpoints, more restrictions of movement, more killings, more children imprisoned.
Israel and US decry violence but at the same time actively suppress nonviolent resistance and muzzle nonviolent activists. One nonviolent speaker told us that he was arrested on October 7 and tortured. When released, the IDF ordered him to leave his home for his own security. When he refused, the IDF forcibly removed him. They wanted him to leave to steal his property for a military outpost.
The world condemns Hamas. But years of non-violent resistance, including BDS, is – and has been – rejected out of hand. Hypocrisy. Double standards. That same activist said, “Violence is condemned. Non-violent resistance, BDS, and others are rejected. This shows what they really want. They want us gone.”
Conclusion
Zionism is a force of destruction. Vicious and hateful “settlers” do the dirty work for the state, with impunity and protection of the IDF, the police, and the courts. The settlers are armed with automatic weapons and present bold menace in the streets. Their assaults on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank go unpunished. We encountered a party of settlers, parading through the streets of Hebron while the IDF protected them, their machine guns cocked and pointed at us, a group of Americans as they hustled us out of the way. Many of these violent, extremist, fascist settlers are now leaders in the Israeli cabinet.
Last week a US Air Force serviceman immolated himself in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. His act of self-sacrifice reverberated across the globe. Every day Palestinians mentioned him, they said they will remember him long after he has become just the answer to a trivia question in the west. His name. Aaron Bushnell. We conclude with his words:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, You are doing it now. Right now.
And we, too, say “Free Palestine!”