We, the Middle East Justice Project, come to you today with heavy hearts and ask that you join us in a moment of silence to mark a grim anniversary: one year of a genocidal assault on the Palestinian people carried out by the Israeli military with the full material, political, and diplomatic support of the United States. Our political leaders have rightfully commemorated the Israeli victims on October 7th, 2023. We humanize the nearly 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage; they have names, faces, families, and futures. Their fates are a tragedy. But the lines of what's considered acceptable political discourse have made it glaringly clear that the same level of empathy and human dignity are not afforded to the orders of magnitude larger number of Palestinian victims in the 76 years prior and 1 year since October 7th, 2023.
Our political leaders undermine the humanity and dignity of Arabs and Muslims with one-sided rhetoric in service to US political goals that ignore the horrors of human death, dispossession of land, political oppression, and environmental destruction when they think recognizing those tragedies would be inconvenient. Our principles here at First Unitarian call us to do better. When we say there is a unity that makes us one, we extend that to all people in this world. We stand with those who are dispossessed and suffering wherever they are, sharing in the full grief and joy of the human experience and striving for salvation for all people in this life.
Before we take our silence we ask that you internalize the following statistics not simply as numbers, but as whole human beings robbed of their lives and livelihoods. Since this war began in Gaza over 43,000 people, including over 12,000 children have been counted in the official death toll. Scholarly estimates of the full direct and indirect deaths range from 180,000 to 400,000 due to the inability to accurately count the dead and the continued blockade of water, fuel, electricity, medical equipment, and food. The official count includes over 900 entire families wiped out. The list of the dead includes 13 full pages of infants under the age of 1 year old and over 20,000 children have been orphaned. Additionally, over 170 journalists, 350 healthcare workers, and 200 aid workers have been directly targeted or deemed acceptable collateral damage.
The history of our time has not yet been written, but we are all but certain that it will see this as another genocide that America shares responsibility for. If we are to find the salvation that all hearts yearn for, it requires our shared liberation. We see the encroachment of fascism here at home and so many other countries, and governments inching toward war that threatens to become global. It is easier to look away and carry on with our busy lives, hoping "it can't happen here" but we know we must act, and we must care about liberation and justice not just here, but everywhere. Our own liberation is tied to Palestinian liberation by the actions of our government and by our shared humanity.
We now ask that you join us in silence and hope that you carry forward in your hearts these lost souls, shattered lives, and our call to action.
