Epistle on Palestine

Photo: Lit tea candles on a Keffiyeh that creates a shrine.

Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) is founded upon the values of peace and community-building. We believe there is a Divine Light in every person. Because of our values and beliefs, it has been devastating to witness six months of consistent bombardment on the Palestinian people. We would like to add our voice to the global community now to say that our belief in the Divine in every person means that, with over 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza killed, our world is growing darker.

QVS staff have hosted weekly Meetings for Worship with an Attention to Gaza and shared the voices of Quakers and others calling for a ceasefire. We join with people throughout the world calling for an immediate ceasefire and for the provision of desperately needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. We celebrate members of our community who are in the streets, fundraising for Palestinians, and advocating for our legislators to stop this violence.

The United States, where QVS is based, is responsible for much of the weapons sent to Israel in the occupation of Palestine. The QVS community reckons with the harm that colonial violence and genocide has caused to indigenous peoples here on Turtle Island (so called United States). Meanwhile, our Quaker ancestors were complicit in Indian Boarding Schools*; the Religious Society of Friends continues to be complicit in colonization globally. We in the US and we as Quakers see the genocide and harm done by these institutions and bodies of people. As we witness the horrors unfolding in Palestine and beyond we see that history of genocide and colonialism repeating itself now.

In order to be faithful we stand with Palestine and for the liberation of all occupied peoples globally. We do not comment on every atrocity in which the US is involved but silence is also a statement. We demand a permanent ceasefire now.

* To learn more about Quakers’ involvement in Indian Boarding Schools in the US please read this article from Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Please read more on Palestine from our Friends at Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting.

“QVS made me such a better teacher.”

Abby Brown served at Germantown Friends School (GFS) for her 2014-2015 QVS year in Philadelphia, and has continued working in education ever since. “QVS was asking us every week to be incredibly self-reflective, and in tune with our work and ourselves... [Topics] we...