On January 9, 36 rabbis and rabbinical college students from Rabbis for Ceasefire took our prayers and outrage at Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza to the United Nations headquarters in New York Metropolis.
That is the second the UN was created for. Within the wake of the horrors of World Struggle II, the nations of the world got here collectively to constitution a brand new establishment that promised “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person”.
The UN was born with a daring and pressing mission to make sure the horrors of the Holocaust would by no means be visited upon the world once more. However proper now, we discover ourselves within the midst of what consultants extensively imagine is a genocide unfolding in Gaza.
Our protest was a prayer service as a result of our requires a ceasefire are sacred to us. In Jewish custom, saving a life is a central non secular worth. We’re obligated to interrupt the Sabbath if it means rescuing a single stranger. Prayer is an historic language Jews have used for hundreds of years to funnel our fears, goals, hopes and despair. These phrases that soothed and impressed our ancestors for millennia endure as autos for our hopes, righteous indignation and conviction at this time.
The UN’s Common Declaration of Human Rights begins a lot the identical means the Torah does. The preamble reads: “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Likewise, the primary chapter of the primary e book of the Torah affirms the dignity of every individual created within the picture of the Divine.
This concept of the inherent dignity and value of all human beings is the foundation of our name for ceasefire. As we are saying in our mission assertion: “Ceasefire means no more bombing. Ceasefire means no ground war. Ceasefire means all Israeli hostages must be released now. Ceasefire means immediate engagement by the international community toward a just and lasting peace in Israel-Palestine. Ceasefire is the only way to prevent more death and destruction.”
I began Rabbis for Ceasefire as a result of I imagine that rabbis have a particular accountability to hold the torch for a Judaism that affirms life. I grew to become a rabbi to caretake Jewish custom, in order that generations of Jewish knowledge can proceed as a scaffold for a lifetime of moral rigour and non secular depth. All of the extra so in occasions of disaster and trauma, rabbis are wanted to ensure a worthy Judaism might be handed to the approaching generations.
Our pressing plea for a ceasefire stems from our non secular convictions as rabbis. As rabbis we’ve devoted our lives to serve the Jewish individuals and to make sure our traditions endure as a supply of inspiration in direction of pursuing justice, peace and life. This accountability, to safeguard the moral core of Judaism, has by no means felt as pressing as it’s at this time.
Israel and the USA proceed to take care of that their actions are within the curiosity of Jewish individuals. As rabbis who serve the non secular and sensible wants of Jewish individuals, we all know this couldn’t be extra flawed. Greater than 23,000 Palestinians killed just isn’t within the curiosity of Jews. Ravenous Palestinians just isn’t within the curiosity of Jews. Denying Palestinians fundamental human rights just isn’t within the curiosity of Jews. We all know that what makes Jews really safer is solidarity and engagement from the worldwide group.
The banners we unfurled on the UN headquarters learn: “Biden: The World Says Ceasefire” and “Biden: Stop Vetoing Peace” – a reminder that the US and Israel stand alone in going headlong into loss of life and destruction as an alternative of diplomacy.
In latest weeks, US President Joe Biden’s administration has despatched enormous sums of cash and arms shipments with out consulting the US Congress. Israel has used this funding not for defence, however for slaughter.
The UN is aware of firsthand the price of permitting this struggle to proceed. Employees at numerous UN companies proceed to function on the bottom in Gaza in extraordinarily troublesome circumstances. The UN Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees, UNICEF, the World Meals Programme and the World Well being Group are doing unimaginable work regardless of the challenges they face. Thus far, greater than 140 UN staff have been killed in Gaza, probably the most UN staff misplaced in any single battle in its 78-year historical past.
And there’s no finish in sight – except the worldwide group refuses US intransigence on the UN. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the struggle would proceed for “many more months” however the individuals of Gaza won’t survive that. Presently, all of Gaza’s residents are going through hunger with greater than 90 % reporting that they often go with out meals for a complete day.
Jews have ended every meal and every prayer service by calling out for shalom all through historical past and across the globe. This historic dedication to peace continues by occasions of menace, persecution, isolation and hazard. In that custom, we took our prayers for a right away everlasting ceasefire into the hollowed chambers of the UN as a result of we all know peace is the one means for us all to outlive. President Biden, we invite you to hitch us and cease vetoing peace.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.