Our Call to Action
This is an invitation to all faiths, non-believers, and nationalities to join or organize peaceful, loving candlelight vigils on Christmas Eve to call for a lasting ceasefire and reparations in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, & Israel. We cannot celebrate the birth of Jesus, an apostle of peace, in Bethlehem, as if the people of his home place and neighboring communities in the region were not bearing a catastrophe of violence, war, subjugation, and suffering. We can’t celebrate the Christmas spirit of Santa Claus’s generosity to the children of the world as if Israeli and Palestinian children were not waiting for the return of their parents who are held captive to return home and the surviving children of Gaza were not living through hell on earth.
We will gather to embrace in our hearts the humanity of all people in the region, mourning all those who have died and suffered, with a commitment to upholding international law and rejecting war including a shared condemnation of any and all war crimes by any party.
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We say never again to the bombing of hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, & churches.
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We say never again to the murder of civilians, doctors, journalists, humanitarian relief workers, UN employees, poets, teachers, and children.
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We say never again towards genocide for anyone.
We call on the United Nations, United States of America, and all governments, to immediately cease military aid to all parties and use every diplomatic, legal, and financial lever to secure such a peaceful, democratic, and just resolution for the conflicts in and among these countries.
We call on the world to repair that which we helped destroy. We must surpass the funds that were mis-used for killing to be used now for repair and peace.
#CeasefireForChristmas #Peace&RepairForChristmas #peace&goodwilltoall
Please organize or attend a vigil in your community. See a toolkit here for more information.
Christmas Eve Vigils for
Permanent Ceasefire & Repair:
In Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria!
24-27 December 2024
27 -Dec. / Shepherdstown West Virginia USA
24-December 2024 /Washington DC
On Christmas Eve, Nonviolence International, alongside many groups and communities worldwide, organized vigils to honor the lives and humanity of those affected by ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.
In Washington, DC, 40 individuals gathered to light candles, share prayers, and reflect on the pressing need for peace and justice in the region. This gathering was part of a global movement inviting people of all faiths, beliefs, and nationalities to come together in solidarity.
The vigils aimed to center the catastrophic violence, war, and suffering endured by people in the Middle East—particularly in the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem. Participants rejected the notion of celebrating Christmas while ignoring the harsh realities faced by families and children in Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond.
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2023 Vigils for Ceasefire in Gaza, Dec. 24 & Jan. 6 (2024), Orthodox Christmas Eve In USA
January 6 2024 Photo
Washington DC
Report from Glenn Cratty in Manchester Center, Vermont
We had a vigil with 9 people and went well but forgot to get pictures. But a car full of young Palestinian American women stopped and gave us all cups of hot chocolate. So I was really glad we were there. The group decided to vigil there weekly on Sundays 12:30 to 1:30 starting next week.
December 24th, 2023
World Wide Christmas Eve Vigils for a Ceasefire conducted in at least 18 cities co-sponsored by Nonviolence International, Friends of Sabeel North American, Forall.org, Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Isaiah Project.
Christmas Eve, Dec 24th in Washington DC USA in front of the White House
&
Rolande Baker with citizens in Tuscon, Arizona USA
Cheryl Angel with other Lakota activists in Rapid City, South Dakota
Kai Newkirk in Pheonix, Arizona USA
& Instagram posting from Ashville North Carolina, USA.
& also from Oakland California. USA
Other cities included:
Asheville, NC
Bemidji, MN
Traverse City, MI
Greenbelt, MD:
Philadelphia, PA:
Salt Lake City, UT
Longmont, CO:
Silverdale, WA
Palo Alto, CA:
Berkeley, CA:
Albuquerque, NM:
Baltimore, MD:
Hayward, CA:
NVI fiscally sponsors groups that work to help Gazans. Please support them.
If you want to hear news and views directly from Gaza, please check the website and social media sites of We Are Not Numbers.
US Boats to Gaza is a member of the global Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They seek to bring humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza and break the siege. Learn more about their important work below.
Here are some photos from the big recent Washington, DC event for Palestinian humanity that was part of much larger global effort.
We are thrilled that Ahmed Alnaouq's powerful voice was included in the Washington Post.
Here is his excerpt and a link (behind a paywall) to the full article, which includes other perspectives - several not rooted in personal experience or basic human compassion for the suffering of others. When militarists are welcomed into the mainstream press, the media doesn't feel a need to provide "balance." But, for some reason, the few times that Palestinian voices are heard, they present another perspective that often negates Palestinian humanity.
The slaughter must end
Ahmed Alnaouq: Last week, Israel bombed my family home in Gaza, killing my father, as well as two brothers, three sisters and all of their children, in an instant. One friend described their bodies as “bags of meat” — an arm here, a leg there.
I write to you in mourning. Even now, we Palestinians are not granted the luxury to grieve. Instead, we are burdened with the responsibility to talk, to communicate the extent of our suffering and the injustice wielded against us.
So, first, I must say this: We demand an immediate cease-fire. We demand a lifting of the Israeli siege of Gaza and the restoration of electricity, fuel, water and food. And we demand unimpeded humanitarian access in line with international law.
Today, the word “genocide” is being widely used. I can’t think of another word that captures the magnitude of what Israel, a nuclear-armed military power, continues to unleash on a captive population of children and refugees. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the quiet part out loud: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before,” he said. “We will eliminate everything.”
But we Palestinians already knew what Gallant had in mind. Corralled in Gaza for the past 17 years, burdened with mass unemployment and poverty — even before white phosphorus filled the skies, or before we lay crushed beneath the rubble — we could not breathe. We were held captive like prisoners who had never committed a crime or shot down when we attempted to peacefully protest our incarceration.
Our 1 million children have never traveled outside Israel’s militarized cage and know nothing but the buzz of drones in the sky tracking their every move.
In the past week, I have lost everything. But I do not seek revenge. There is no “military solution” here, only a collective responsibility to finally grant Palestinians what they have demanded for decades, what they are owed: justice, freedom and their very basic rights as human beings.
Ahmed Alnaouq is the head of We Are Not Numbers, which pairs Palestinian writers with mentors overseas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/02/gaza-ceasefire-civilian-military-humanitarian/
Ahmed was also featured in this recent New York Times piece.
After the Israeli military killed his older brother in an airstrike in Gaza in 2014, Ahmed Alnaouq says, he almost lost his will to live. “I sank into a deep depression,” he told me in a recent phone call. But an American friend convinced him to write about his brother and channel his grief into something productive. Together, they founded We Are Not Numbers, a project that trains young writers in Gaza and publishes their personal essays in English.
The name is a nod to how numbing numbers can be. The higher the death toll, the less we are inclined to care, since the scale of human suffering can feel overwhelming. Statistics don’t trigger empathy and action. Personal stories do.
“This project changed my life because for the first time, I thought that some people can care about us,” Mr. Alnaouq said, describing the response it got outside Gaza.
We Are Not Numbers began as a way to memorialize the dead, but it quickly turned into a lifeline for the living. For young people in Gaza, stuck in a political system with few rights and a blockaded economy with few jobs, it provides a vital outlet for self-expression...
“After losing my family, I did not stop believing in what I believe in,” he told me. “I don’t want other people to feel what I am feeling. Not the Israelis, not the Palestinians.”
These very painful, honest, meaningful videos feature WANN's co-founder.
Trigger / harsh reality warning.
Sadly, this short NVI video clip from two years ago is still relevant.
Refaat Alareer, WANN's co-founder, killing featured in major media outlets.
CNN
Al Jazeera
Time
Michael Beer quoted in LA Times article on effective activism.
Please see these articles:
Writing while expecting to die “Can you kindly publish the attached stories if I die?” This is what we have been hearing from the young writers we work with from Gaza in the We Are Not Numbers project.
7 steps to end the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine:
The path to peace requires nonviolent action not just from Israelis and Palestinians, but also Americans, the media, aid organizations and others.
By NVI Founder, Mubarak Awad
When will we learn that violence doesn’t lead to security?
To support Israelis and Palestinians is to insist on their right to equally live in peace and freedom — not help structures of state violence and cultures of militarization.
By NVI Board member, Mohammed Abu-Nimer
Solidarity with Palestinians and Jews Sign on Statement.
By Jonathan Kuttab, NVI co-founder. Cat Zavis, Jewish Civil/Women's Rights Lawyer, Mediator, and Rabbi: Beyt Tikkun. Michael Lerner, Rabbi and Editor of Tikkun magazine.
Esther Azar, Arab Jewish Trauma Activist, and Rabbi: Trauma Informed Rabbinics.
Recent attacks by Israel on Gaza and Hamas fighters on Israel are tragic and will not resolve bring peace and justice to all.
NVI believes that nonviolence is the only way to end the savagery, brutality and cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
NVI urges all parties to cease all military attacks and prevent further escalation of violence that will only harm innocent civilians on both sides.
Call for an immediate ceasefire and end to all violence, including an immediate halt to attacks towards Israel and Israeli military attacks on Gaza.
Urgent humanitarian action is needed, including the establishment of a humanitarian corridor inside and out of Gaza, for the safe movement of people and the delivery of essential supplies. This includes opening Erez and Kerem Shalom / Abu Salem crossings to allow for the movement of people and goods and remove the ban on access to the sea.
End violations of international law and impunity, including settlement expansions, forcible transfer, demolitions, settler violence, all part of ongoing and illegal de facto annexation of West Bank territory. Immediately lift all movement restrictions on Palestinian communities in the West Bank to allow the movements of goods and services.
Take action at the UN Security Council to reaffirm UN Security Council resolutions calling for a nonviolent resolution of disputes, the reversal of the annexation of Greater East Jerusalem and the preservation of the status quo at holy sites.
NVI supports nonviolent political resolution of the conflict by ending the systemic policies of oppression and discrimination of Palestinians, including the 16-year siege on Gaza and 56-year military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including. East Jerusalem.
We hope you will find this helpful and will share it with others.
US Boats to Gaza is a fiscally sponsored partner of NVI and a member of the global Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They seek to bring humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza and break the siege. Learn more below.
In this video, Ann Wright, a leader of US Boats to Gaza, Veterans for Peace, and Code Pink interrupts the US Secretary of State to call for a Cease Fire Now. Timestamp 1:45
Check out this powerful video (from before the latest crisis), learn more about their important work, and please consider supporting this creative constructive nonviolent movement.