Martin Luther King said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction … The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
The Foundation reminds those responsible for the wanton barbarity against civilians in the current middle east war that violence does not solve conflicts. Hundreds of innocent people, many of them children have been unlawfully killed and injured.
The use of air strikes, missiles and artillery on civilian populations constitutes war crimes under international law. The blowing up of residential buildings and the wanton murder of children, innocent women and men in cold blood cannot be justified. Sanctioned mob rule against Israeli citizens resulting in the lynching of civilians, destruction of their property and the ransacking of their homes all fall in the category of war crimes. The deliberate targeting of journalists and blowing up offices of international media institutions covering the conflict is a clear violation of the Geneva conventions.
The Foundation calls on the United Nations Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire. We further call for an independent United Nations peacekeeping force to protect both Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem to prevent the desecration of places of Worship.
Attempted ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem of Palestinians, deliberate attacks on peaceful worshippers inside The Al Aqsa Mosque are a direct provocation that can lead to a wider prolonged war. Attacks on any places of worship are utterly reprehensible. Poorly thought through political considerations and the ‘humane’ warfare being touted against civilians will constitute part of the institutional memory of this conflict at the International Criminal Court.
‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’
