March 28, 2024 (EIRNS)—In a pre-Easter call to action, issued yesterday, 140-plus faith leaders, from across the world, “call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, urge the U.S. and other world powers to halt additional arms sales to Israel, and make clear that Israel, the U.S., and all countries must abide by [the] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” Signers include “a U.S. Catholic Bishop, a Catholic Cardinal, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, an Anglican Dean, and many other notable figures from a wide range of churches, including Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite, Quaker, and Evangelical leaders.”
Ridiculing the response of “world leaders” to the cries of the Palestinian people, the letter dated March 26 scores their “empty rhetoric and political volleying” in handling the “humanitarian crisis” as they, in fact, are “ignoring the direct causes of the catastrophe”—the daily Israeli “bombings and ground invasions, the shutting off of basic life-sustaining services to two million people … suffering the consequences of their own crimes.” The signers counterpose “desperate” children “dying from hunger and dehydration” to the “horrific actions of Hamas” on Oct. 7, to argue that the latter can “in no way justify the massive deaths.”
Critically, the signers state: “The U.S., the U.K., Israel, and other countries must uphold their responsibility as signatories to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The United States and other nations’ further militarization of the conflict makes no one safer and instead prolongs suffering and causes more death and destruction. We call on the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and France to join the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Japan to halt additional military support and arms to Israel and not be complicit in the ongoing military campaign…” [emphases throughout are in the original].
