A Call for an Immediate and Comprehensive Ceasefire in Gaza & Southern Israel and Our Renewed Commitment to Civic Discourse in Los Angeles
“We have inherited a big house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.
– Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Lecture 1964
As Christians, Jews, and Muslims, heirs to the great legacy of Abraham, we affirm that all human beings are created in the image of God. We do not discriminate when violence is directed against innocents or when rage, fear and recrimination disturb the quiet of our streets.
As a multireligious community concerned about the security of Israel and the Palestinians, we join with those who seek not only an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire but also a commitment to find new avenues of reconciliation rooted in our shared values of healing, justice, and mercy.
Let us be clear about our immediate priority: the dire human suffering in Gaza and southern Israel must be brought to a swift end.
With echoes of the conflict resounding here in southern California, we stand together to deplore the isolationism that divides us from one another as citizens of our city, Los Angeles, and of the global village.
The passions generated by war and propaganda—including some hateful words and images crossing our boulevards—threaten to blur our shared vision of justice, peace and love, but we stand together to affirm that every person, even those who believe differently from us, is sacred and precious to God.
We reject the politics of suspicion, the manipulation of emotion, and the manufacture of fear. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., we “refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” We must create and maintain respectful space for each of us to contribute the best of our differing journeys.
The only peace possible is a peace that insists on human dignity and justice for every person.
Therefore, we join our fellow Americans in urging the incoming administration to work at once for an immediate end to violence and engagement with all parties in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to break the cycle of violence and seek broader diplomatic resolutions to the crisis.
We call on our neighbors here at home to join us in renewing our commitment to the civic fabric that unites us—beyond all other classifications and categories—as citizens and residents of Los Angeles.
And we call on our fellow inhabitants of the earth to join with us in learning to live with one another in peace.
Abrahamic Faiths Peace Initiative
Friday, January 16, 2009
SIGNERS AS OF 1/16/09
Salam Al-Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council
Pastor Frank Alton, Immanuel Presbyterian Church
Reverend Edwin J. Bacon, All Saints Church
Rabbi Leonard Beerman
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak
Pastor Ryan J. Bell, Hollywood Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Rabbi Linda Bertenthal, Union for Reform Judaism
Rabbi Sharon Brous
Reverend Louis A. Chase
Rabbi Ken Chasen
Virginia Classick
Aryeh Cohen, Ph.D.
Reverend Matthew Colwell, Knox Presbyterian Church
Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels, Beth Shir Sholom
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Area
Reverend Susan Halcomb Craig
Reverend Paige Eaves, Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church
Sister Anne Field, SSS
Rabbi Allen I. Freehling, Human Relations Commission of City of Los Angeles
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Dr. Maher Hathout
Reverend Anne Felton Hines, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church
The Very Reverend David Hilton Jackson, Bloy House: The Episcopal Theological School at Claremont
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs
Dr. Nazir Khaja
Lori Kizzia, All Saints Church
Reverend Peter Laarman, Progressive Christians Uniting
Shawn Landres
Jack Miles
David N. Myers
Father Chris Ponnet, St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care/Pax Christi Los Angeles
Progressive Jewish Alliance
Reverend Dr. George F. Regas
Reverend Bear Ride
Stephen Rohde
Jihad Turk, The Islamic Center of Southern California
Bishop Gabino Zavala, Los Angeles Archdiocese