October 7th, one year on - a WRI exec statement

One year ago today, a new phase in the generations-long conflict in Palestine began. A brutal assault by Hamas fighters from the occupied Gaza strip, killing hundreds of people and taking many hostage, has been met with a year, and counting, of genocidal violence from Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, as well as with multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity it has committed in the West Bank, in Lebanon, and elsewhere. It is important to view these events in the broader political context of a century-long dispossession, occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, as well as of violent resistance to it, and of multiple war crimes committed by all parties to the conflict. Nevertheless, we cannot dismiss or minimise the concrete impact of violence on individuals and their families, wherever they live and whichever “side” of the conflict they find themselves on.

As pacifists and antimilitarists we reject the use of violence to further one’s aims or objectives. We want to again send our solidarity to all those in the region committed to nonviolently resisting war and its causes, and we mourn alongside all those who have lost loved ones.

The war and conflict that has been ongoing in the Middle East for a year has again intensified over the past few days. It has become an even broader regional conflict. At the end of September 2024, Israel expanded its ongoing campaign of genocide and war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank and invaded Lebanon. It is becoming increasingly difficult to predict where this expansion will end in an environment where the fog of war is rising. Reaching a ceasefire agreement, let alone peace, is becoming an increasingly distant possibility.

Western states, especially the USA, directly or indirectly support Israel as it acts in flagrant violation of international law, are fueling this fire. They are continuing their economic and military aid to the war while pretending to call for peace in the international arena.

To be clear, our condemnation of US and Israeli genocidal imperialism does not mean that we support the actions and aspirations of other players in the region and beyond, who may currently stand in opposition to them, be it Iran, Russia, or any of the other states, military forces, and armed militias involved in the conflict. These actors, may point to the genocide and war crimes committed by Israel as a reason for their own actions and derive their legitimacy from this, but often they, too, serve to spread war and hatred in pursuit of their own geopolitical goals, and undermine the cause of just and equitable peace.

As War Resisters' International, we underline that there are no winners in war. We condemn all actors who are responsible for the great destruction that war is bringing to people, nature and life in the Middle East. We declare that there is a need to raise the voice of peace, to prevent more genocide and war crimes, to prevent the normalization of war and violence in the Middle East, and to end the increasing nationalist and militarist rhetoric around it. We call for the full recognition of the human rights and human dignity of all individuals in the region, because true peace, rather than the illusion of quiet born of oppression and subjugation, requires justice and equality. We stand in solidarity with all the peace activists, war resisters and conscientious objectors struggling in the Middle East.

We call on peace activists, war resisters and conscientious objectors, wherever they are in the world, to pressure their governments and the relevant organs of their states to promote peace, not war and genocide, in the Middle East and worldwide.

We want peace, right now.