Last January, I went on a speaking tour with FOSNA that was supposed to include Palestinian teen activist Ahed Tamimi. The tour was titled “Living Resistance: No Child Behind Bars,” and it focused on child detention and mass incarceration from the United States to Palestine. Unfortunately, today, 17-year-old Ahed herself is behind bars due to her activism. She spent her 17th birthday inside an Israeli prison.

Ahed was never granted a visa, so she could not physically be with us on the tour. However, we produced this short documentary of her speaking, in her own words, about her work and daily struggles. The video has been shared worldwide, and has garnered millions of views. Between the tour, which visited 18 U.S. cities in two weeks, and the video, Ahed’s powerful words and story have reached millions of people.

Though still just a child, Ahed has today become a prominent figure of nonviolent resistance, serving a leading role in her community of Nabi Saleh, which has staged nonviolent protests against Israel’s occupation for years. In the early morning hours of December 19, 2017, then-16-year-old Ahed Tamimi was arrested, along with her mother, Nariman, and cousin Nour. The women were arrested after a video of Ahed slapping an Israeli soldier went viral. The soldier had, just minutes before, shot her cousin point blank in the face, and was attempting to enter her home to shoot at other children. Ahed bravely stood up to the soldier, preventing him from entering her family’s home, and possibly saving other young people in the process.

Since her arrest, Ahed’s trial date before the Israeli military court (which has a 99.7% conviction rate for Palestinians) has been postponed multiple times and has been closed off to reporters. Her cousin was released, but her mother is still in prison, and the Israeli army recently arrested 10 other members of her family, including her cousin, Mohammad, who was shot in the face the day she was arrested, and is still recovering from his wounds.

Many Palestinians, including children, are subjected to torture and maltreatment while in Israeli custody. We are concerned for Ahed’s well-being in the Israeli prison, and join the chorus of people around the world demanding her immediate release. And while Ahed is an exceptionally brave young leader, her case is not unique. Hundreds of thousands of young Palestinian girls and women stand up to Israel’s occupation and aggression every day in Palestine. Many are arrested and tortured, without so much as a moment of media attention, for their acts of brave resistance.

Today, I call on women of faith all over the world, from all religious and denominational backgrounds, to join me in demanding the immediate release of Ahed and Nariman Tamimi, as well as the other members of their family.

Sincerely,

Rev. Amanda Weatherspoon
Unitarian Universalist Minister

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Norwegian parliamentarian and Red Party leader Bjørnar Moxnes officially nominated the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for a Nobel Peace Prize at the beginning of February. In his statement, Moxnes wrote, “It’s high time for us to commit to doing no harm, and for all states to withdraw their complicity in Israel’s military occupation, racist apartheid rule, ongoing theft of Palestinian land, and other egregious human rights violations.”

As activists and people of faith communities from around the world, representing multiple denominations and many religious backgrounds, we write today to affirm our support for the Nobel Peace Prize nomination. BDS is a powerful, rights-based, grassroots, and Palestinian-led initiative. It is supported by an overwhelming number of Palestinian civil society groups. BDS is an important tool for solidarity that allows the people of the world to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people, in the face of international bodies and world leaders who consistently fail to do so. In the 12 years since its 2005 launch, BDS has seen widespread international support. As Moxnes states in his letter, awarding the Nobel Prize to the movement for BDS “would be a powerful sign demonstrating that the international community is committed to supporting a just peace in the Middle East.”

The authors of the Kairos document, a Palestinian Christian call for justice, quote Jer. 6:14, writing: “‘They say: Peace, peace when there is no peace.’ These days, everyone is speaking about peace in the Middle East and the peace process. So far, however, these are simply words; the reality is one of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, deprivation of our freedom and all that results from this situation.” They call upon the international community to respond with “the beginning of a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel...this is not revenge but rather a serious action in order to reach a just and definitive peace that will put an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories and will guarantee security and peace for all.”

Please consider granting a Nobel Peace Prize to the BDS movement for Palestinian rights.

Throughout history, we Palestinians have been systematically left out of decision making processes that determine our fate. From the Balfour Declaration in 1917, to the UN Partition in 1947, and countless instances before and after, Palestinian voices have been continuously deemed irrelevant. On Wednesday, Donald Trump carried on that legacy, unilaterally making a decision that will have a serious impact on Palestinians for years to come.

Trump's naming of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not simply an act of disregard for our aspirations to justice and freedom, it is a blatant attack against them. It is in line with Trump’s racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Palestinian platform, which is legitimized using white and Christian supremacist rhetoric. As Palestinians, we call on people around the world to follow the leadership of the Palestinian people in our aspirations for justice as we are demanding it. We make this call alongside Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), a Christian ecumenical liberation organization that has been seeking justice in Palestine for over 20 years. We know that none of Trump’s actions are in line with Christian values, and we understand liberation as giving voice to the prophetic leaders of a community to determine their own fate, which is how God liberated his people throughout history.

There has been no lack of clarity on the position of Palestinians around the world when it comes to Jerusalem. Just ahead of Trump’s announcement, the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem issued a letter to the president, calling on “the United States to continue recognizing the present international status of Jerusalem,” while in the United States, the Palestine Youth Movement condemned the “sweeping imperial arrogance and ease with which these decisions are undertaken.” Meanwhile, protests erupted across the Middle East. From the streets of Gaza, to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Palestinians everywhere have unified and taken to the streets to demand justice, and will continue to do so in the coming days.

As people around the world prepare to observe the Christmas season, it is the duty of all people committed to justice to support Palestinian calls for sovereignty and freedom from Israel's military occupation of our land. Peace will not come to Jerusalem without justice, and today, with Trump's help, Israel continues to colonize the holy city as the world ignores Palestinian voices. This move is, ultimately, one that will help Israel in its campaign to push Palestinians out of the city. We call on everyone to take action today so that Palestinians of all faiths can continue to live in Jerusalem.

• Contact your congressional representatives, and tell them that this holiday season, they should do all they can to ensure that Jerusalem remains accessible to people of all faiths. You can do so online using the tool here and the text on this postcard as a template, or print the postcard and send it yourself.
• Call the White House at (202) 456-1414 to say no to the embassy move. 
• Attend local actions against Trump's embassy move in your city!

We applaud the recent unanimous decision of the Alliance of Baptists to divest from companies that profit from human rights violations as part of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The statement brought forward by the Justice in Palestine and Israel Community, which passed at the national gathering, also directs individual alliance members and congregations to strengthen their educational and advocacy efforts including boycotting settlement goods, advocating for an end to U.S. government support of the occupation, and challenging all forms of racism and religious bigotry directed against Jews and Muslims. We thank the Alliance of Baptists members for their support in passing this courageous statement and hope their inspiring action will serve as a model for other faith-based communities in the United States.