JAI Call for Action: On UN Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People, Give Peace a Chance

by Middle East and Europe | published on Dec 18, 2014

For peace to have a chance there must be justice for #Palestinians.

Give Peace a Chance is the theme for this year’s day of solidarity. But for peace to have a chance there must be justice. The Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and YWCA of Palestine invite you to show your solidarity by joining us in working for a just peace that will ensure dignity and freedom, security and protection for all.

The Israeli military occupation with its ongoing policies of forced displacement and dispossession, colonialism and apartheid, war crimes in Gaza and escalating violence in East Jerusalem including attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque severely violates the Palestinian people’s human rights. In addition, the increase of arrests and administrative detention is at a new high from daily arrests and nightly raids and 20 year sentences for people who throw stones. And this is on top of more and more dunams of land have being confiscated, and trees uprooted or burned for new by-pass roads, settlement expansions, or state lands.

2014 was designated as the year of solidarity with Palestine yet while thousands took to the streets in demonstrations to show solidarity during the bombardment on Gaza or demanded calls for trade or weapon embargos, the world leaders allowed Israel once again to act with impunity and even now continue its policies of racial profiling and incitement.

JAI asks you to join them in supporting both the goals and calls for action from The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Global Movement. These goals include ending the occupation, equal rights for all living within ’48, and the Right of Return for Refugees.

On this day which commemorates UN Resolution 181, Palestine’s inalienable right to self determination and a right to national independence and sovereignty, we invite you to show your solidarity by supporting one or more of these actions:

Join national or local solidarity events or actions;
Write an Op Ed for your newspaper;
Demand the EU suspend all EU-Israel Association Agreements until international law is respected;
Demand the United States suspend military aid to Israel because it breaks national laws;
Demand the release of all administrative detainees especially children;
Support States to recognize the State of Palestine;
Support the UN Human Rights Council Investigation into the Gaza bombardment.