WILPF calls for all parties to be at the table

The US Section of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom at its Triennial Congress 2014 passed a resolution demanding:

• That the US government immediately support a complete cease fire in Gaza and the lifting of the siege of Gaza.
• That WILPF US call for an end of US aid to Israel, according to US laws, as long as Israel violates human rights.
• That we call for an end of the occupation and immediate negotiations with all parties, including Hamas, invited to the peace table.

This resolution, approved August 3, 2014, updates the resolution approved July 26, 2014, calling for a cease fire in Gaza.

WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE & FREEDOM
UNITED STATES SECTION
STATEMENT ON ISRAEL AND GAZA

JULY 26, 2014

We, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom - US Section (WILPF US), join with people pouring into the streets in cities the world over, to stand up for the Palestinian people of Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We must continue to speak out until the onslaught stops and the illegal occupation is finally ended.

Along with many individuals and groups, we stand for:

• A cease fire
• Negotiations by all parties
• Multinational humanitarian aid to Gaza
• Accountability required of the US and Israel

WILPF US demands a cease fire negotiated by all parties, including Hamas, the duly elected representative of Gaza and recently joined with the West Bank in a Unity Government. It must not be merely a surrender forced upon the victims. Negotiations must be ongoing until there is an end to the illegal occupation and hostile military actions on both sides. Hamas has offered a viable Ten Year Truce proposal which has been ignored. (http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/report-israel-conditions.html)

We believe that all will benefit from a cease fire, an end to the blockade and eventual peace agreement, whether they be Israeli or Palestinian.

This is war; it is an invasion. Palestine has no army, no air force, no navy, and no weapons to compare with those of Israel. Instead Gazans are a population living in a constant state of siege, having been driven from their homes and into refugee camps for decades, where they have been denied sufficient food, potable water, electricity and medical supplies ongoing. They are now driven from even those homes when there is no more places to go.

The denial of human rights and human needs has yet again created a humanitarian crisis of death and destruction, the enormity of which is daily being documented for the world to see. The spokesman of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs declared that there is no safe place in Gaza, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has said that, “There seems to be a strong possibility that International law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.”

• WILPF US demands that our US government immediately suspend military aid to Israel, and instead use our tax dollars for humanitarian aid to Gaza.
• WILPF US urges that all nations calling for a cease fire will also join the call to give assistance to the Palestinian refugees.
• WILPF US further demands that US military aid to Israel remain suspended pending investigation of violations of US and international law for crimes against Palestinian civilians with the weapons thus obtained.

The world has stood by and allowed these atrocities to happen again and again. No more.

Image: Palestinian woman stands in front of the ruins of her house demolished during the Israeli operations in Ash Shuja'iyeh area east of Gaza City.  July 20. 2014. By Eloise Bollack / Zuma Press / Creative Commons license