[E-rundbrief] Info 1340 - Israeli assault on Gaza - WRI statement

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1340 - War Resisters International (WRI): WRI 
statement on the present Israeli assault on Gaza.

Bad Ischl, 11.7.2014

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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WRI statement on the present Israeli assault on Gaza

10.7.2014

The Assembly of the War Resisters’ International, gathered in the City 
Hall of Cape Town, South Africa, strongly condemns the ongoing assault 
by the Israeli military on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. War 
Resisters’ International considers all war a crime against humanity, 
and we therefore call for the immediate end of hostilities, and in 
particular the repeated aggression by the State of Israel against 
Palestinians.

As opponents of war, we also oppose the causes of war, and stand in 
solidarity with oppressed people all over the world. We therefore call 
for the end of the occupation of Palestine and—especially gathered at 
the building from which Nelson Mandela made his first speech after 
release from prison—we call for the end of all forms of Apartheid 
everywhere.

Israel’s apologists present its bombing of Gaza, yet again, as a form 
of self-defence, or as a mere response to hostilities from the other 
side. But we consider that this is, rather, a well-planned, precisely 
timed, assault, undertaken on the back of the dead, wounded, and 
traumatised civilians on both sides for clear political purposes.

The recent truce agreement between the Fatah and Hamas raised the 
possibility of a united Palestinian leadership as an adversary to 
Israel in resistance and a potential partner for peace. We believe it 
is this possibility that Israel is targeting with this assault, and 
that it seized on an opportunity to do so presented by the murder, by 
unknown assailants, of three young men from West Bank colonies. A 
media campaign was launched around the murder, first presented as a 
kidnapping, and this campaign provided the necessary pretext for a 
concentrated attack on Hamas activists throughout the West Bank and 
for breaking the terms of a relatively long-lasting truce agreement 
between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. After violating the truce agreement, 
Israel slowly escalated the bombings in the Gaza strip, until an 
all-out assault could be carried out, seemingly justified by the 
rocket fire from Gaza that Israel knowingly provoked.

We firmly believe that the most just and effective way of resistance, 
even to grave violence, is nonviolent resistance. Therefore, we choose 
to support those Palestinians and Israelis, as well as international 
activists, that undertake nonviolent resistance to the illegal 
occupation of Palestine. We do not support armed violence, whoever 
uses it, but we support the right of all oppressed people to struggle 
for their liberation.

We mourn all the dead and grief for all other victims of this conflict 
on both sides. We call on the Israeli military and the government it 
controls to immediately end this assault on Palestine and the 
occupation that is its root cause.

http://wri-irg.org/Gaza


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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
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