(See below for French and German.)
Everyday we hear the screams of despair from Gaza. The entire world sees the fear in the faces of children, women, and men. We feel their hopelessness, as they are trapped, without any possibilities of escaping the danger, coming from the air and the seas, of bombs, grenades, and the weapons of the Israeli aggressors. We need to extend our compassion and our solidarity to these people; they are suffering without adequate amounts of food, electricity, or even clean water, and they are fighting to survive. We share the feelings of the nurses, doctors, and medical professionals who tenaciously stand by those who are dying, and are trying to assist the wounded without bandages, medicines, or pain killers. We are witnesses to the cynical experiment of over powered military might trying to break the Palestinian people’s will to live free lives. We take the grievousness and consternation of the Israeli peace movement seriously that they experience how war hysteria makes so many of their people blind to the suffering they are causing their neighbours and that this war brings Israel even less of a promising future to look forward to.
The most important prerequisite is the solution of this conflict: Lay down your weapons! The cry of the Nobel Peace Prize holding Bertha von Suttner, has become more real than ever. This calling also brings the experience of the, since 60 years raging and unsolved, Middle East conflict to mind.
Palestine is in need of the freedom of self-determination, a free voice of theirs, and viable and independent state and has been hindered from such a goal due to the decade long occupation of Israel. Israel is in need of security. Security is unreachable through violent methods, it instead must be won through a peace process involving all parties concerned; Israel, Palestine, and the other Middle Eastern countries. Violence generates hate, and hate becomes a continuous and ever growing cycle. We want to break through this cataclysmic spiral. For this reason we support above all, the work of women, both Palestinian and Israeli women, who for years have built bridges leading to understanding and agreement. Presently these figurative bridges of understanding are also being bombed. We must, and we certainly want to protect these bridges, because they are the only wise paths to an absolutely necessary peace.
We are appalled by the roll the Governing Bodies of the EU member countries, and the EU itself, have played in this war. Now we are the ones who charge the EU with the task of bringing their politics into concurrence with the policy of human rights; that is to say in immediately implementing: a cessation of all forms of military cooperation being currently conducted with Israel, suspension of all associational agreements with Israel, and political pressure to implement a cease-fire.
Our criticism is directed toward the UNO, which is being dominated by the current overpowered government systems. We demand that the UNO begin to play an active role and to contribute to a peacful solution and lead to a peacekeeping process in the Middle East conflict. We demand an enactment of the prior agreed upon cease-fire of the Security Council, and an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The military escalation is considerably caused by the Military-Industrial Complex and through the International Military Lobby. We demand an end to their bloody business.
We hope on all Peace and Women’s movements, and on the good will of all people, that we can create a peaceful political climate, in which the Way-of-the-Weapon will be abandoned in favour of peaceful dialogue. We will gladly support the peace activists of both sides, Palestinian and Israeli, on this path; it will be a difficult path to follow, one full of self-reflection and the acceptance of "the other". The UN Resolution 1325, which pushes for the participation of women in the process of conflict solution and peacekeeping, outlines a good basis for dialogue by highlighting that all women in social movements and in civil society should join the talks and address these issues with their own voice.
Leipzig, 18 January 2009
