Living Our Shared Values Amid Ongoing Violence

September 23, 2024

This statement was developed by the Office of the President and other senior national staff of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), grounded in the values of Unitarian Universalism and in conversation with previous resolutions, statements, and actions passed by General Assembly, the UUA’s democratically-elected governing body.

Raghad Ezzat Hamouda, a 19-year-old English literature student currently sheltering in Northern Gaza, registered for classes in September of 2023. Her aspiration was to finish her studies quickly so that she could get a job that would help sustain her family. In her words, “The war destroyed all my ambitions and there was nothing left.”

One year later, the few schoolbooks that remained accessible to students in the weeks after Hamas’ attacks on October 7th are now scattered and burned. With the death of parents, caregivers, and siblings across generations, many Palestinian children do not remember, or have never known, the feeling of security or predictability. This fall, Gaza’s 625,000 schoolchildren have virtually no access to their classes.

24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi was studying to become a Pilates instructor and worked as a bartender at the Nova Music Festival before she was abducted on October 7th. Her body was returned to her family in Israel in late August, along with those of five other hostages who had been held for over 300 days. Her death means that she will never finish her classes, nor teach others in the way she was called to do. The profound trauma of her loved ones and those who wait for word of hostages still held in captivity is beyond measure.

As air strikes and targeted attacks now alarmingly escalate along the Lebanese border, the high human cost of this conflict cannot be ignored. Mounting civilian casualties and further displacement push any negotiation of ceasefire further away, even as Israeli citizens take to the streets to demand the return of the hostages and full accountability from their elected leaders. Protest movements around the world — including those led by students, who have so often represented the conscience of nations – continue to demand basic human rights for the Palestinian people and an immediate end to the ongoing bloodshed. As obvious and fundamental as it may seem, those basic human rights must always be at the center of our commitments as we work toward global recognition of the humanity of all those involved.

Sorrow for one compounding tragedy does not imply lack of solidarity with another. There are tears enough to go around, and enough compassion to see us through.

Having condemned the horror of the initial 2023 attacks, called for cease-fire, spoken against the rise of antisemitism, anti-Arabism, and Islamophobia in the United States and passed both an Action of Immediate Witness in solidarity with the Palestinian people and a Responsive Resolution calling for the immediate release of the hostages, we Unitarian Universalists know we must reach out for further action to enact the values we have put into words. Our commitment, in partnership with all those who value basic human rights, only grows more urgent as the escalation of the conflict into Lebanon threatens to engulf the entire region.

As our Action of Immediate Witness articulates, Unitarian Universalists and our partners call for a robust international commitment to ending continued settler advancement and military occupation of the Palestinian territories, along with an end to unconditional military aid to the State of Israel until that goal is realized. Along with the Apartheid Free Communities Network, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee and other people of faith, we have pledged to align ourselves with the goals of freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people.

We further recognize that hostage-taking inherently violates those basic human rights, and that the release of hostages who have survived their long ordeal is an essential component of an end to this current phase of conflict.

The reality is that no statement is as powerful as the actions you can take to help stop this devastating and escalating conflict. Your vote. Your commitment to live out your values in public space. Democracy does not thrive in silence but is strengthened through faithful witness and collective action. In November, voters will choose leaders who have the power to change course on current governmental policy. No party or candidate is exempt from the accountability that is inherent in democracy.

Unitarian Universalists believe in creating a world centered in love, manifested through pluralism, justice and interdependence. Over generations, we have witnessed the courage and moral clarity of protest movements as they shape the conscience of this country and our world. History teaches us that responding to such voices with violence comes with tragic consequences to both its enactors and its victims.

This fall, as Unitarian Universalists regather in community for another congregational year, let us remember that we do not need to ration our tears. Sorrow for one compounding tragedy does not imply lack of solidarity with another. There are tears enough to go around, and enough compassion to see us through. The issues that we face together are existential, centered around the very survival of peoples and of nations.

Such existential issues can feel like an impossible gulf to bridge, not just halfway around the world, but present right in our own neighborhoods. Pluralism, justice, and interdependence are the shared values by which we affirm basic dignity and human rights in our own community, even when it feels as if our perspectives can never be reconciled.

Together, we are called to create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice. We work to repair harm and damaged relationships. Let us allow our values to guide us and recommit to learning as we go so that we may live in a world where violence does not beget violence, and all our children and young people can once again enter their classrooms in peace.