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Abdullah Al-Fdeilat, Renae Al-Fdeilat, Michael Alpert, Omar Conteh, Jonathan Falk, Marwa Hassanien, Laura Levenson, Vickie Mayer, Todd Miller, Laurie Osher, Sondra Siegel and Dina Yacoubagha are Jewish and Muslims friends from eastern Maine supporting a just and moral peace.
For the last year, the world has witnessed horrendous violence. Images of brutality against innocent people in Israel and Gaza, including the killing of young children, have frightened and sickened all of us. This column is in response to what we have seen.
We are an informal group of eastern Maine Muslims and Jews who are committed to peace. We want an end to the suffering of all people in Israel, Gaza and the surrounding areas. We are grateful for the blessing of friendship that exists among us here in Maine, so we are speaking together even as we share the torment of watching combatants debase the sacred ideals that we hold dear.
There is a long history of cooperation between our people and an equally strong bond between our religions. Both Islam and Judaism value peace. Both faiths are centered on the absolute sanctity of every human life without exception. This sanctity has been violated again and again during the current war. The brutal attack of Hamas on innocent Israelis and the ongoing brutal Israeli military attacks against innocent Gazans are impossible to accept. As the war continues, we are witnessing a chronic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, given the onslaught of indiscriminate bombardment, killing of thousands upon thousands of women and children, continuous forced displacement, deliberate starvation and catastrophic levels of hunger and famine, bombing of safe zones such as schools and hospitals, and violence from Israel Defense Forces and settlers in the West Bank. Likewise, Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel are unacceptable, as is the killing of defenseless hostages.
A cease-fire that will lead to lasting peace is long overdue. The release of all hostages and political prisoners is long overdue. The cessation of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is long overdue. The end of threats to Israel by surrounding countries and governments is long overdue. The end of rocket attacks on Israel is long overdue. Justice for all people living in Israel and nearby countries is long overdue. Palestinian self-determination and the right to live in freedom, dignity and the full enjoyment of all fundamental human rights is long overdue.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders must become peacemakers and end this war. We demand that our government (along with other governments) do everything it can to stop the war and rebuild the neighborhoods and cities that have been destroyed.
Everything that we want and demand is in accordance with proposals that have languished for decades. The worst kind of political leadership has prevented peace. The suffering of the Palestinian people makes a mockery of the highest values found in Judaism and Islam.
For some of us the war has been much too close. Within our group are both Muslims and Jews whose relatives — in some cases, dozens of relatives — have been killed in this war. The violence is not distant; it is not abstract. The conversations among us have been forthright and difficult. We have cried together for the lost loved ones whose memories will endure for the rest of our lives. We have expressed our deeply felt anguish as we have privately met. In our grief, there are no “sides.”
We ask the larger Maine community to no longer tolerate any vestige of Islamophobia or antisemitism. If we who practice our traditional faiths can gather with affection and understanding, we feel that our neighbors can also have genuine sympathy for those who are suffering and can also put an end to old hatreds. We want Mainers of good will to intervene when they hear neighbors or family members express racial or cultural bigotry. In a kinder world, every individual will have the opportunity to find freedom and true peace. Many of our neighbors are people of generosity and compassion. In solidarity with us, they know that the world desperately needs repair. The place to start for each of us is as close as one’s own heart.
