Peace House received the following from our partners at Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) — who are convening an Emergency Summit in partnership with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in early January to bring together people from all walks of life to plan courageous action.

This is the message from FOR’s Executive Director, Ariel Gold.

I apologize for the graphic description to follow: This morning, a little over an hour ago, as I was watching Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud report live from the evacuation zone in Rafah when massive explosions appeared behind him in the area of the Kuwaiti Hospital. The people who had been sheltering in the area bombed were mostly women and children. Hani watched helplessly as people ran with dead bodies in their arms and carts pulled by donkeys of the dead and injured. “Why?” he said. Since American officials have been visiting Gaza, airstrikes, which were already constant, have massively increased.

This Can’t Go On!


Since the grotesque Hamas terror attack on October 7 and Israel’s near-continuous unprecedented bombardment of Gaza ever since, I, like you have been filled with shock and grief at the utter disregard for lives, all created in the image of G-d.


In response to our government’s failure and refusal to stop this horror, we at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are proud to be partnering with Rev. Jesse Jackson in calling for an Emergency Summit on Gaza, on January 12 and 13 in Chicago.


Register now to attend this event virtually.

Emergency Summit for Gaza: Call to Action

We are faith leaders, and civil and human rights advocates, all united in this moment of moral reckoning to affirm the sanctity of all human life. We call on the Biden Administration and Congress to act for justice and the preservation of Palestinian and Israeli lives now.

We unequivocally condemn attacks on all innocent civilians, including the October 7th Hamas-led attacks in Israel which killed 1200 Israelis and saw 240 people taken hostage. We condemn the Israeli government’s military siege and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, where U.S.-made weapons have contributed to the loss of nearly 20,000 Palestinian lives and thousands more still buried under the rubble of what used to be their homes. Right now in Gaza, there are 1.8 million people who are experiencing starvation and disease due to forced displacement, destruction of essential civilian infrastructure, and denial of clean water, food, and fuel. The number of Palestinians, including children, held without charges in Israeli prisons is growing at an unprecedented rate. It is our moral obligation to leverage our collective power to end the escalation of death and ongoing humanitarian crises.

• We demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners held without charges or due process.
• We urge the US to lead the international community and facilitate unimpeded UN-supervised humanitarian aid in Gaza. This includes but is not limited to the immediate delivery of lifesaving aid, the reconstruction, restabilization, and return of Palestinians displaced from their homes and neighborhoods.
• We urge the US to abide by its own regulations and condition funding to Israel on its adherence to U.S. law just as is required for every other nation that receives U.S. military financing.

United in shared humanity, we collectively urge the United States to leverage its power to end the atrocities underway now in Gaza, atrocities that meet the definition of genocide. A ceasefire is just the beginning. The staggering civilian casualties highlight a fundamental truth: there is no military resolution that can bring justice for Palestinians and security for Israelis. Indeed, we understand the safety and security of Israelis and Palestinians to be inextricably intertwined, a safety for both peoples predicated on a diplomatic solution that puts an end to apartheid and occupation. Further, we condemn the rising antisemitic and anti-Arab, especially anti-Palestinian, incidents of hate and attacks, and we commit to work together to combat them. These hate incidents and hate crimes are occurring during an alarming climate of doxxing, censorship, and intimidation of voices advocating for Palestinian human rights, including young Jewish, Muslim, and Black voices.

We gather to build upon the historical legacy and current global movements for peace, justice, and liberation. In the words of Rev. Jesse Jackson in Lebanon in 1979, “we do not seek to exchange sufferers but rather to stop suffering.”