T’ruah calls on the leadership of Israel and of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to work toward a swift cessation of violence that will protect both Israelis and Palestinians from further danger.
The most recent escalation began early Tuesday morning, when the IDF killed a senior leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), despite an official Israeli army policy against targeted killings, and despite the fact that past targeted assassinations have never led to long-term safety for Israelis. PIJ has responded with a barrage of rocket attacks at civilian targets within Israel, which T’ruah condemns unequivocally, as they are in violation of human rights law. We pray for the safety of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, who will be the ones to suffer from any further escalation of violence.
We call on the Israeli government to exercise restraint and to work with Hamas and Islamic Jihad to achieve a ceasefire, as the groups have done many times before. This includes putting aside political considerations and ambitions in favor of protecting the civilian population.
Escalation of violence will neither keep Israelis safer nor solve the persistent humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In the long term, only a peace agreement including an end to the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state to exist in mutual respect side-by-side with Israel will end the on-again, off-again violence in Gaza and in southern Israel, which causes such unbearable suffering for residents of Gaza and Israelis living near the border.
One of Israel’s most elegant moral voices, the great poet Yehuda Amichai, once lamented our leaders’ tragic habit of reaching “rusty and twisted conclusions from our old lives.” Returning to violence yet again, in the vain hope that it will somehow become a solution instead of aggravating the problem, is the rustiest and most twisted conclusion of all. We call upon the Israeli government, Hamas and Islamic Jihad to restore the ceasefire and honor the sanctity of life.
