Statement on the Ongoing Violence in Israel and Palestine

At the Ashland Center for Nonviolence, we mourn the violence in Southern Israel and Gaza. Our hearts break over the loss of life, safety, and livelihood in Israeli and Palestinian communities. As conditions appear to worsen and tensions increase, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding.

We stand by the principles of nonviolence now more than ever. Violence should never be confused with justice nor can it achieve true and lasting peace. The dignity of every person is precious and must be upheld by policies and processes of community-building. Every individual has inherent worth regardless of their background, beliefs, or circumstances, emphasizing the need to treat all people with respect and fairness.

At ACN, we are committed to increasing understanding, especially when situations are complicated. This understanding takes patience, humility, and education. We also recommit ourselves to being guided by core principles of peace and justice. These look for shared solutions to problems for building a better future and are not content with only ending conflict—although this is of course no small goal, especially at the moment. Instead, as Martin Luther King, Jr. taught, creating a future situation in which violence isn't needed to protect and avenge can be achieved by meeting human needs and delivering justice evenly. Love names the preference for mutual benefit over retaliation and hostility.

There are no easy solutions to most conflicts, not least the conflicts between Israel and Palestine. The present escalation calls to mind the depth of the historical wounds involved, generations of persecution, pogroms, and displacement; decades of incomplete and sadly inadequate attempts at peacemaking, and ultimately the need for our world to devote sustained energies and resources to preventing the kinds of horrors we are seeing and to ensuring peaceful and just coexistence.

Peace,

Craig Hovey
Executive Director
Ashland Center for Nonviolence