Gaza Invasion Resources

Before the glow of Christmas faded the world was shocked by the news of the Israeli bombing of Gaza and the subsequent invasion.  We invite everyone to join First Mennonite Church in praying and acting for peace and for justice.  Here are some resources.

Mennonite Central Committee Canada Letter to Prime Minister - January 5, 2009

Israel claims that its attacks on Gaza are a response to Hamas militant rocket attacks on Israel. We deplore these rocket attacks. They kill people, damage property, and exacerbate the fear and insecurity that many Israelis experience.

That said, we believe that Israel's response of heavy bombing, with more than 300 dead, more than 1000 injured, and thousands more traumatized, is drastic and devastating, and it compounds an already serious humanitarian crisis. Moreover, this response fails to acknowledge and take responsibility for the tremendous suffering that Israel has imposed on Palestinians through its eighteen-month siege on Gaza, and, perhaps more importantly, the occupation under which Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have lived for more than forty years. It is this very suffering, we believe, which fuels the rage which leads to the rocket attacks and ongoing anger and unrest.

Read the entire letter.

MCC Boosts Humanitarian Aid to Gaza in Wake of Attacks

MCC Palestine Blog

Gene Stoltzfus - Gaza: Just Such a Time as This

Israel is outraged due to persistent rocket attacks from Gaza. Hamas is outraged by the Israeli authorities' ongoing harassment at border checkpoints where supplies and people must travel from Gaza's confined space to the rest of the world.

There is also an elephant in the room that most governments across the world are ignoring; the attack and destabilisation of a duly elected government. In the most recent elections in the Palestinian territories including Gaza, Hamas won with wide popular support. There were good reasons for this, relating to governance by the Palestinian Authority over the past decade. But when democracy is promoted across the world and the people elect a government that other nations do not like, by what guide of democracy can the outside world unilaterally decide that this is not acceptable and deliberately undermine that election? Grumbling about an elected government is part of democracy everywhere, but destabilizing an elected government is not a part of the democratic way of life.

Read the entire blog entry.

Gene Stoltzfus is the founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams.