On April 3, 2024, aid workers from World Central Kitchen traveled in the Gaza strip to deliver food aid to Palestinians using a route pre-approved by the Israeli military. They were moving in a caravan of three vehicles, with logos on top of the vehicles. Why would you need a logo on top of a vehicle? You would need it in Gaza, where planes and drones flying overhead identify targets and could avoid blowing up an aid vehicle by spotting the logo. They are intended to keep protected categories of people safe. But, despite advance coordination, Israel bombed not just one but all three of the aid vehicles one after the other. As one was hit, the aid workers moved to the next vehicle, until they ended up in the third vehicle in which all seven were killed. No one has been safe in Gaza.

The head of World Central Kitchen condemned this action by the Israeli military. He was very clear about it not being an accident. The fact that most of the aid workers were European or North American caused this to be a bigger outrage in much of international media than the killing of more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7.

Every incident that has unfolded is bringing more eyes to the situation in Palestine and Israel and making people ask questions and want to know more.

The continuing massacres in Gaza and the escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem at the hands of settlers and the military make it clearer every day that the global community must come together to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

The behavior of the Israeli state in bombing the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1, killing seven officials, along with the Iranian retaliation, which destroyed some military facilities, terrified millions of people, and injured one person, have brought us closer to a world war. 

UUJME calls on Unitarian Universalists everywhere to connect with us and organize together in community in support of ceasefire and justice for Palestinians, and for the U.S. to oppose actions that could lead to serious international consequences for human life.

Connect with UUs organizing for Palestine.

Sign up for our emails at https://www.uujme.org/join.

To get support in starting a UUJME chapter or similar group in your congregation or city/town, email us at [email protected]. 

Job Title: UUJME Organizer
Pay: $25 an hour at 15 hours a week for 25 weeks, independent contractor
Possibility of expanding to 20 hours a week for 52 weeks depending on future funding.
Remote - US only
Deadline: April 30, 2024
Start:  May 31, 2024

Position purpose: The organizer will mobilize UU congregations and regional groups to UUJME to expand our multi-racial, multi-generational base of UUs for Palestinian liberation across varied local contexts. This especially includes young, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), Jewish, Muslim, Christian, people of other faith backgrounds, and trans, queer, working-class, poor, and/or disabled UUs. This will be accomplished by targeted organizing based on strength and strategic goals of UUJME. This position will report to the President of UUJME.

Responsibilities:
• Coordinate with UUJME Organizing Committee and other priority groups identified by the Board and Organizing Committee.
• Support new chapters and local advocates and other groups as directed
• Coach new chapter leaders
• Supervise a core of volunteers that will increase chapter leaders and regional leaders.
• Create volunteer resources for training materials and scheduled training sessions
• Participate in monthly Chapter calls and create regional communication calls
• Meet quarterly with internal groups within UUJME
• Stay current with relevant efforts within the UUA and other faith communities including the American Friends Service Committee, Apartheid-Free Communities, Friends of Sabeel North America, Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, Churches for Middle East Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, Christians for Palestine, Black Christians for Palestine, and the various Palestine/Israel Networks of different denominations as well as non-faith-based solidarity groups.

Skills and qualities for this position:
• 2+ years experience in community, labor, faith, or electoral organizing
• Proficiency with organizing systems (Action Network, Mailchimp, Facebook, Zoom, and Nation Builder a plus. Also Google Suite applications - Sheets, Docs, Slides, Forms)
• Ability to identify and develop leadership
• Excellent oral and written skills

Other information:
Travel:  This position is largely remote and can be based anywhere in US. Occasional compensated travel may be required, such as attending General Assembly. 
Required: Regular access to computer, Internet, and mobile phone. 
Schedule: Flexible. Some weekend and evening hours may be required as well as physically sitting for long periods of time in front of computer.
Applicants should review uujme.org to understand the principles and values of UUJME.

How to Apply
Cover letter and CV/resume should be sent to [email protected] by April 30, 2024.

UUJME Brief Situation Update

Two million Palestinians in Gaza are being starved and bombed, still! Please find a way to take action: write letters, show up for protests, make phone calls, and VERY IMPORTANTLY work on increasing the number of UUs who are involved collectively. You can build these numbers by sharing this email with your congregation's religious professionals and leaders.

Yesterday, the Israeli military bombed a vehicle carrying staff from World Central Kitchen, killing seven people. As a result, the organization has halted its relief operations.

The United Nations Security Council resolution for a ceasefire is an important step. But it won't help until sufficient pressure is brought to bear on the enablers of the genocide - the United States and our tax dollars. Every action you take builds pressure for the end of this nightmare. You make a difference!

The situation is causing an increase in requests for help in forming local UUJME chapters - we are growing! Three new chapters formed in March, and we have more requests for information in April. As a result, we also need more volunteers. Reply if you are able to help with welcoming, communications, data crunching, or Zoom support. 

Sign up for these important events happening in April.

Sign up for these important events happening in April.

Challenge Christian Zionism: Online Training April 3 & Actions Mon. and Tues. April 8-9 in D.C.

Event Training, Wednesday April 3, 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern

You don't have to be Christian to support and attend this event!

Christians for a Free Palestine is calling for a mass mobilization to Washington DC, April 8-9, in order to use a public voice and collective power to challenge Christian Zionism, advocate for a permanent ceasefire, demand an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, and ensure a long-lasting, just, and sustainable peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

On Tuesday, April 9, hundreds of Christians will hold a public peace service outside the Capitol, praying, singing, and breaking bread together, while others take action to amplify our demands.

Event Training, Wednesday April 3, 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern

Register for the April 3rd online training: https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/events/dc-info-call-4-3

In-Person Events on Monday and Tuesday April 8-9:

On Monday, April 8, there is a comprehensive training in Washington DC to prepare all those who plan to take peaceful action. 

Register for April 8-9 in-person event: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJmzzXentPSWF-xHrenlQ1SVThHNeW1gz8EJYu-PE3ZYTG-w/viewform

As concerned UUs across the country try to make UUs more visible at actions, please type "Unitarian Universalist" in the Denomination field so you can be connected with a UU organizer for meeting up and attending together as a group.

You can check out the Christians for a Free Palestine's principles at https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/about.

Educational Event Date: Sun. April 7 at 12:30-2:00 pm Eastern on Zoom (9:30-11 am Pacific)

UUJME Webinar - Resources for UUs Engaging on Israel/Palestine

Register: https://www.uujme.org/resources_for_uus_engaging_on_israel_palestine

During this 1.5-hour event, you will learn about the Palestine/Israel conflict and the situation in Gaza from excerpts of a recorded video of 6 UU ministers and 3 people from Palestine/Israel. Following the video presentation, you will be invited to attend facilitated breakout room discussions using the approach in a UUA commissioned template for congregational conversations designed with the intention to create safe spaces for sharing.

Ceasefire Now Advocacy Days with Peace Action and Co-Sponsors: April 9-19 - in person and virtual options - Speak Truth to Power!

UUJME and other organizations have endorsed this event led by Peace Action.

Learn more and see the list of co-sponsors: https://www.peaceaction.org/2024/03/20/grassroots-advocacy-days-spring-2024/

Register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1M_UcvSVGRRcXkCLeHIoQ37ShCDe-xHFSyJdyFT02AeA/viewform?edit_requested=true 

When you register, you will receive an email with details about optional virtual lobby trainings on April 3 and April 4. Don't delay signing up if you can only do virtual lobbying!

Educational Event Date: Tuesday April 30, 6 pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern - Virtual Talk and Q&A with Raz Segal

Israeli historian, Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"Israel and Gaza: The Question of Genocide, International Law, and the Struggle for Palestinian Liberation"

Visit https://bit.ly/49fHwSN for details.

The Palestine-Israel Justice Team of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego invites you to join us for a virtual talk titled “Israel and Gaza: The Question of Genocide, International Law, and the Struggle for Palestinian Liberation” with guest speaker Prof. Raz Segal, Israeli historian, Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University. The event will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, April 30th, at 6pm PDT. You can register for the event here.

Dr. Segal will discuss a number of topics, including the definition of genocide under international law and how it applies to Israel’s, and possibly Hamas’, conduct on and after October 7th as well as within the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the international response to the horrific violence; potential interventions by the international community; and what we as individuals can do to help bring an end to this appalling human tragedy. After his presentation, Dr. Segal will conduct a Q&A with the audience.

Dr. Segal has held a Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship and was recently a Senior Fellow at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (2023). His publications include Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown, and Mass Violence, 1914-1945 (2016); and Days of Ruin: The Jews of Munkács during the Holocaust (2013). He was also guest editor of the Hebrew-language special issue on Genocide: Mass Violence and Cultural Erasure of Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly (2018).

This event is co-sponsored by UUs for Justice in the Middle East.

Questions? Send email to [email protected]

UUJME Google Actions and Info Doc

This document is available for you to view and use to take actions at any time. Link for view access to this doc; feel free to share:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sd0qMqrDoFZNMS4iT-KHoWeSGpTQZY6lh7N2HHqSYkw/edit?usp=sharing 

Every Day and Every Friday - Take Action for Ceasefire online with JVP and AFSC

There are often excellent speakers during these online gatherings.

Every day at 12 pm Pacific/3 pm Eastern, take action for ceasefire with Jewish Voice for Peace.

Register at this link.

If the Zoom room is full, join here: https://www.youtube.com/@JewishVoiceforPeace/streams.

Every Friday, take action with the American Friends Service Committee.

To register: https://secure.afsc.org/a/afsc-action-hour-ceasefire-now 

Writing from the Universalizing Zone,
Ralph Blickenstaff Galen, M.Div.

Content warning: images of people self-immolating (in flames)

Soon after October 7th I started to realize that a genocide was unfolding. I didn’t so much think about it as feel about it. Without thinking about it, my feelings as a war resister to the American War in Vietnam, as it is properly called, which formed my political and spiritual outlook for life, conflated with my response to what was happening in Gaza. Past trauma, which is never past, and always requiring attention and compassion, reasserted itself strongly. I know many of you are experiencing what is happening in Palestine as something very close to home.

I have been indebted to the Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, considered to be the modern exponent of engaged Buddhism, and have been intensively practicing in the Plum Village tradition he created. As the massacre unfolded, I turned to his first book in English, Lotus in a Sea of Fire, published in 1967 as a plan for peace in Vietnam, and which also provides a contemporary blueprint for putting an end to the genocide and securing the freedom of Palestinians. It starts with a ceasefire, of course, then the removal of American occupation forces, and reparations to restore the ravages to Vietnam.

Thich Nhat Hanh begins his book with this account:

The world first began to give real consideration to the Vietnamese problem and the role of the Buddhists only after the venerable Thich Quang-Duc burned himself on the Phan-ding-Phung Street in Saigon on June 11, 1963, to call the attention of the world public to the sufferings of the Vietnamese people under Ngo Dinh Diem’s oppressive regime. The venerable Thich Quang-Duc’s self-immolation had a far greater emotional impact on the West than on the East because of the great
difference in religious and cultural backgrounds.

On a trip from New York to Stockholm, I met an American woman doctor on the plane. She asked me many questions about Vietnam. Although she agreed with the motives behind the movement and the Vietnam war, she was quite unable to accept the Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation, which seemed to her the act of an abnormal person. She saw self-burning as an act of savagery, violence, and fanaticism, requiring a condition of mental unbalance. When I explained to her that the venerable Thich Quang-Duc was over 70, that I had lived with him for nearly one year at Long-Vinh pagoda and found him a very kind and lucid person, and that he was calm and in full possession of his mental faculties when he burned himself, she could not believe it. I said no more, realizing then that she could never understand. She could not understand because she was unable, though not unwilling, to look at the act of self-burning from any angle but her own.

Thich Nhat Hanh later explained: When you commit suicide, [it’s because] you are in despair, you can no longer bear to live. But Venerable Quảng Đức was not like that. He wanted to live. He wanted his friends and other living beings to live; he loved being alive. But he was free enough to offer his body in order to get the message across that we are suffering, we need your help.

Photography by Malcolm Browne

President John F. Kennedy reacted that "no news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."

On Saturday I attended a workshop by Alex McDonald, a committed Quaker peace activist. A key takeaway from "How to Have Successful Conversations about Israel/Palestine," is that it is practically useless to debate facts if our goal is to end the apartheid occupation. It is much more likely that ideologies will shift when we appeal to the emotions that undergird them.

Photo from Talia Jane on X

The report on X/Twitter is of Aaron Bushnell, verified as being US Airforce active duty, stated “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” and set himself on fire, shouting “Free Palestine.”

We also recall a woman whose name is unknown to me who self-immolated on December 1 in Atlanta, outside the Israeli consulate. We never really know what goes on inside a person. However they got to this point in their lives, I am comfortable seeing their actions as being brave and unselfish. We hope recent events serve to uplift all the sacrifices that have been made by you and millions of our sisters and brothers who have struggled with great dignity and courage for far too long.

May all be well.

The Fire That Consumes My Brother,
by Thich Nhat Han

December 1963

The fire that burns him
burns in my body.
And the world around me
burns with the same fire
that burns my brother...
let me kneel
upon the precious ashes
of your flesh and bones.
Let me summon your young spirit from the shadows
and give it life in the form of a flower,
the first lotus of the season,
before anyone has picked it,
the first new bloom before the sun goes down.
I hear you now.
The storm screams with your cries.
Hearing you, each cell in me,
O my brother, brims with tears.
I still hear you, your appeal from heaven or hell,
and I turn to you, wherever you are.
For a moment the world's heart stops,
while Earth looks at Sky, and each one asks,

"Where is high and where is low?"
Your name in the blinking stars has been inscribed in space.
The fire that burns you burns my flesh with such pain,
that all my tears are not enough to cool your sacred soul.
Deeply wounded, I remain here
keeping your hopes and promises for the young.
I will not betray you—
are you listening?
I remain here
because your very heart
is now my own.