Over the last 18 months – the world has watched in horror at the unfolding genocide in Gaza. Millions of people around the world protested, mock-died in the streets, wrote and sang and protested for Palestinians, with Palestinians. Our efforts driven in part by the belief that our actions would create change. If we could make the leaders understand the harm they were causing, the unbearable brutality of their decisions to unendingly supply Israel with weapons with which to slaughter Palestinians, we thought protest would at the very least slow the cruelty.

We were wrong.

Senators and representatives, Presidents and Administrations, they weren’t confused or questioning about their actions. Instead, they held – hold – an unwavering commitment to Netanyahu’s genocide. This wasn’t a situation in which decisions were made about collateral damage or moral injury, about noncombatants or slaughtering of innocent peoples.

To the contrary, our elected leaders were fully aware of their decisions, unwilling to reconsider no matter the outcry. The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, the destruction of their lives and their homes, their land and their history, it wasn’t a miscalculation. It was a plan. One with a specifically desired outcome.

In these days of horrors increasing in the United States – legal citizens removed in plain sight, in situations so torturous that rumors of suicide have already leaked out – it is impossible, then, to ignore the parallel. Who will this administration kill en masse, now that we are once again aware that imperialist and increasingly authoritarian leaders will continue to wantonly kill those who they deem expendable.

This is only the beginning. One day, millions of people will look back at the genocide in Gaza and realize this is when leaders around the world, and everyone who remained silent, everyone who supported these murders, one day they will see their complicity. And they will see what their complicity led to – ever more genocides of ever more people deemed expendable. They’re coming for immigrants. They’re coming for trans people. They’re coming, if more indirectly, for women, for disabled people, for those deemed less desirable, those who they believe the world would be better off without. And still, they come for Palestinians and Palestine.

In a mere number of weeks since the new Administration took power, we see the vestiges of civil society increasingly stripped away. People stunned into silence. Afraid to protest publicly. Fearful of fighting back. Far too many are simply obeying in advance, falling into line for fear of
what might happen to them if they don’t self-censor.

But what happens if we do? Where are the millions who protested for Palestine when we need you here too, protecting immigrants, trans people, and all those deemed unworthy? All those who will in short and horrifying order, suffer the same fate as Palestinians. Where are your hearts and bodies on the line? Does our solidarity with Palestinians and each other end now, as our own safety decreases?

For those who can’t speak for themselves, for those truly in harm’s way, we need you, every single one of you, now fighting a much wider fight, one we must survive together.

=========

Check out the following links:

Get Resources.

Subscribe to UUJME's email updates and be notified about action alerts and webinars: join our list.

Find or start a chapter: Chapters page.

Learn about UUJME.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact:

uujme @ uujme dot org

Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East marks 500+ communities pledging to be “Apartheid-Free”

March 21, 2025

Today, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME) joins with communities all over the world to mark an important milestone: over 500 congregations and organizations have taken a pledge declaring themselves “apartheid-free.” Pledge signers commit to cut ties with Israel’s apartheid regime against Palestinians and to oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression. These 500+ groups represent hundreds of thousands of constituents and include congregations, faith communities, solidarity organizations, non-profits, student organizations, veterans’ groups, businesses, and even municipalities.

A map and full list of apartheid-free communities can be found here.

The UUJME board stated this about the reason we signed the pledge, “Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East is a proud original signatory of the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge. We took the pledge because it invites commitment to collective study and action within a growing movement of communities in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. As Unitarian Universalists, we center love in human relations and believe in accountable transformation of injustice by building a united symphony of many voices for witness, education, organizing, and advocacy. Taking this pledge and organizing other groups to do so is one of the most meaningful commitments that a congregation or other group can make. UUJME worked in a coalition at the Unitarian Universalist Association 2024 General Assembly to overwhelmingly pass a resolution in solidarity with Palestinians which called for UU congregations to join Apartheid Free Communities. We are proud to support the adoption of the pledge in three UU congregations so far.”

The three Unitarian Universalist congregations that have signed the pledge include All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana; Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; and the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. Several other UU congregations are in discussion about the pledge.

For decades, the Palestinian people have faced Israeli occupation and systematic human rights abuses. Apartheid is defined under international law as a legally enforced system of separation and oppression based on race, creed, or ethnicity. Palestinian human rights groups have described Israel’s policies as apartheid for decades. Over the past few years, much of the international human rights community – including B’tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International – have also joined the call for an end to Israeli apartheid.  

The Apartheid-Free campaign originated in 2022 when an interdenominational coalition of faith groups in North America, convened by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), came together to organize the pledge.

We are proud to be among the original 13 national faith groups that organized and signed the pledge to be apartheid-free.

“The fact that more than 500 congregations, organizations, and businesses have come together to end Israeli apartheid fills me with hope,” said Noor Nabulsi, Apartheid-Free Communications Specialist for AFSC. “These groups represent hundreds of thousands of people from many different places, faiths, and walks of life. What we share is a belief that collectively we are growing the anti-apartheid movement and making it a 21st century issue.” 

Each community that signs the pledge commits to resisting apartheid and all forms of racism and discrimination, but this looks different in every community. It can include community education, political advocacy, divestment, protest, organizing ballot measures, or creative projects. 

UUJME supports local UU congregations in their journey to become apartheid-free.

Learn more at:  https://apartheid-free.org/ 

### 

Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East works within the Unitarian Universalist faith community to educate and mobilize individuals, congregations, and denominational leaders to recognize and counter inequality and injustice in Palestine-Israel and to support our allies in the global justice and anti-oppression movements.

I've been invited to join a Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) delegation to Palestine, April 1-8. This delegation is made up of leaders from advocacy organizations that focus on issues adjacent to Palestinian liberation, such as immigration, LGBTQIA+, housing, peacemaking, antiracism, environmentalism, and reproductive justice. We will meet with organizational leaders so that we may learn from, listen to, and relay the stories of the Palestinian people to our own communities when we return home.The goals of the delegation are: 

• Being with and encouraging the people who are under attack
• Exposing human rights violations
• Strengthening and encouraging U.S. advocacy for a just peace

The complicity of the United States in the ongoing forced displacement, illegal detainment, military occupation, and indiscriminate killing of Palestinians is clearer now than it ever has been. As we witness the continued violence of Israeli occupation, many have awakened to the realities of the ongoing Israeli project to destroy Palestinian culture, identity, society, and population. I believe we must continue sharing information and lifting up the moral imperative for Palestinian liberation. Therefore, I am putting my beliefs into action and going in person as a witness to the West Bank. 

I am embarking on this journey with a learner's mind. I know very well that I don’t know everything there is to know about the history of this crisis and the current situation on the ground, which is why I will go and learn from human rights organizations and faith-based organizations within Palestinian communities. I invite you to support this learning immersion journey through donations of any size. My participation is self-funded through my own personal contributions and my professional expenses, but additional funds raised through this platform will be donated to Sabeel for other delegates who do not have the funds to participate. 

If you choose to donate, you do NOT need to donate additional funds to the zeffy platform. Just select zero when it comes to that field on the form (www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/meagan-henry). I will share real-time experiences via social media (Instagram and Facebook) and I will be available to continue to share what I witness and learn upon my return. You can find me on Instagram (@revmeaganbelden) and Facebook (@meaganhenry). May we be mutual partners in the pursuit of freedom. 

In solidarity, Rev. Meagan

By this time, we know this Administration’s playbook. It looks haphazard, and perhaps some of it is, but much of it is calculated to drive us to despair and numbness, to focus our attention on the fear invoked by the Executive Orders and dramatic statements, to draw the eye away from what’s really happening. Underneath all the intended layoffs of federal workers, for example, is the truth in plain sight – Musk and other Administration Republicans are making themselves unthinkably wealthy by raiding public coffers. 

I know personally that this approach to distraction and fear is effective. As we well know, it’s the playbook of authoritarian regimes. A fate from which we as a country now recognize we are not exempt. 

Neither, however, are we powerless. 

In a call this week, a lawyer reminded us that the Executive Orders are no more than a wish at this point. Our current laws and protections still (largely) exist and can be fought for and defended. 

As I listen to Trump’s claim that he’ll move Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt and make Gaza instead “a luxury paradise,” I recognize that same distraction strategy. It’s not that he’s not serious in his intentions, as this would be consistent with his imperialist core. Instead, it’s the recognition that his bluster and bluffing is meant to distract us, again, from the very real dangers he is creating.

The same playbook Netanyahu has used for years. The lies that Israel was in danger and must defend itself against the Palestinians was never true. This claim is a gas lighting of the actual truth, that the deeply oppressed Palestinians fought back in the way they knew and know how against their captors.

It was this same justification that was underpinning Netanyahu’s absolutely leveling of Gaza, a genocide funded by this country and continuing to this day.  The false belief that the destruction of another – the Palestinians, immigrants, transgender individuals – is necessary to the success of society. This has never been true, but this “othering” provides wildly powerful cover for the very worst of human right abuses.

Which is where we find ourselves now. Fighting parallel wars, in the US, in Palestine, in much of the world, as humanity continues to try to hold back a rising tide of authoritarianism.

For it is all intertwined – our fight for our Palestinian siblings is tied up with the safety of our immigrant, transgender, and otherwise vilified cohabitants on this shared earth. When we can dehumanize one group, we don’t stop there. We find ever more groups to dehumanize, until there is nothing left but the “preferred” individuals. We know this horror all too well. 

What, then, do we do as Unitarian Universalists?  

This is the time, beloveds, to be brave in a way most of us never have before. When we were fighting safely from a far distance, with great intent and effort, but still essentially safe. That time is over. 

This administration threatens to deport students who protested the genocide in Gaza, to jail those who use “anti-Semitic” language (which is just code for speaking out against Israel’s actions), to separate us in ways that make us afraid of naming our own truths. 

Yet the Palestinians themselves teach us otherwise. For three-quarters of a century, they have fought for their home, for each other, for mutual care and the strength of love, against brutal conditions and captors.  

We are only just beginning that same fight for our homeland – and for theirs. And if we do it now, not stunned into inaction, we have some hope of saving our country before it descends into a truly authoritarian regime. The time to act is now. 

So, what do we do? 
One answer is to reach out to your local UUJME chapter. If you don’t easily find one, reach out to UUJME directly for help in getting involved UUs in many locations are drawing the connections between the multiple oppressions we face here and that the Palestinians face there, and moving people into meaningful action in community, accountable to the request of the Palestinian liberation movement. 

And this list gives great, finite, suggestions, for those just feeling stuck, not knowing where to begin. 

If you do nothing else, call your representatives every day, and remind them of their power to halt government gone astray. They have powers that they are not yet using. 

Keep the faith, friends. This is a fight we can win.

Rev. DL Helfer

We condemn efforts by the Trump Administration to perpetuate dire conditions for Palestinians.

Unitarian Universalists affirm the guiding power of Love and the values of Justice and Equity, as well as a belief in the dignity of all humans, democratic rights, and compassion in human relations. Our religion has a long and proud history of supporting the United Nations and its efforts toward global justice. UUJME takes inspiration from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Nearly three-fourths of delegates to the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in 2024 supported a resolution to take action in solidarity with Palestinians.

One of President Trump’s recent Executive Orders mandates withdrawing the U.S. from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and extends President Biden’s ban on United States funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main organization providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. This action continues a devastating impact on the UNRWA budget, restricting the amount of life-saving food and healthcare, as well as education, for millions of Palestinian refugees. The need for UNRWA is greater than it has ever been, after 15 months of genocidal attacks on Gaza, and an escalation of attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The Trump Administration is promoting outrageous designs to continue denying aid to Palestinians while continuing to supply weapons to Israel, and proposing a massive expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.

UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide support to the 750,000 Palestinians violently displaced from their homes and lands between 1946-1948 during the formation of the State of Israel. The protracted nature of the situation means that refugee status is retained across generations. The State of Israel’s army attacked numerous UNRWA schools and aid sites during a 15-month assault on Gaza and blocked UNRWA trucks carrying food and other aid during the war with full U.S. support. The Israeli parliament has just activated a ban on UNRWA operations in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, which is an illegal measure for a member state of the United Nations.  Despite Israel’s attempt at cancellation, “the UN Relief Works Agency continues to operate on the ground in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem, carrying out its life-saving humanitarian assistance at this critical moment,” as reported on February 4.

Support the campaigns of the UNRWA USA National Committee:

• Spread awareness. 

  • Distribute the #HandsOffUNRWA flyer in your congregation and other circles.

  • Speak up on social media using the sample posts in the flyer to repost the Hands Off UNRWA graphics on Instagram.

• Advocate. Contact your U.S. representatives using the UNRWA USA advocacy portal to urge them to restore US government funding.

• Donate to UNRWA (tax deductible) at https://donateunrwa.org/int/en/general.

• Stay informed. Check the UNRWA Situation Reports page and follow UNRWA USA on social media: @unrwausa

Our work and the work of UNRWA will continue until there is a just solution.