Our hearts are heavy as we write to you all yet again about the loss of human lives. Shortly after the statement that we posted yesterday, Hamas and other Palestinian militants began firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. Israel responded by bombing Gaza, and the escalation of violence is continuing even as we write these words. While we stand by our statement from yesterday, we also know that the overall situation has deteriorated rapidly and will continue to change.
As tempting as it is to be left with feelings of hopelessness, we do not have that privilege. As tempting as it is to try to center one voice over others, we know that this is not an effective approach to such a complicated and nuanced situation. Lives are being lost. People are living in fear. We continue to center the value of human lives in our processing of these tragedies. We will continue to work for and dream of an Israel where no one, neither Palestinian nor Israeli, has to worry about bombs or rockets being fired at their homes. We can believe all of this because we are a movement that values human lives, shivyon erech ha’adam, above all else. We stand strongly and loudly in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli civilians affected by this violence, including the Habonim Dror olim and our partners in NOAL, and are sending love and strength to them.
We wanted to end this by looking towards the future, but it currently feels somewhat impossible to imagine a future where this reality is long gone and both Jewish and Palestinian liberation can be realized. What we can say is that in those dreams, we will continue to center the voices and experiences of the people who are doing work on the ground and whose lives are being directly affected. We urge everyone to put humanity, Israeli and Palestinian lives, and shivyon erech ha’adam at the core of their actions and conversations moving forward. Only when all people deeply understand the value of each and every life will we be able to see a future that is worth dreaming about.