C4C: All Souls/Saints Day 2024 - nonviolent witness & prayer service outside the White House

Nov 1

From Noon-1pm today, 26 peacemakers commemorated All Saints Day (and tomorrow All Souls Day) by holding a nonviolent witness/prayer service outside the White House calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, an Arms Embargo for Israel, and an End to U.S. Complicity in Israeli Genocide!

This witness was sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Groups represented at the witness included members of Christians 4 Ceasefire, Pax Christi USA national council, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, Franciscan Action Network, St. Camillus Church, Assisi Community, Holy Redeemer Church, and Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.

Due to construction of special reviewing stands for the inaugural parade in January, part of Lafayette Square and most of Pennsylvania Ave. is closed off to the public. However, the area near the Old Executive Office Building on Pennsylvania Ave. is open, still in proximity to the White House, and that's where the vigil was held (see attached photo).

The prayer service included a sung Litany of the Cloud of Witnesses, a Litany of Women, scripture readings from the Book of Revelations (7:2-4,9-14), Isaiah (59: 1-5,6-10, 12-15, 58: 6-8, 10-12) and Luke (6: 20-28), an update and statement about the genocide in Gaza (see excerpt below), a Litany of Lament, Know Their Names Litany (see below), Pax Christi Litany of Repentance, and a recitation of the Lord's Prayer. We concluded the witness with introductions and singing the Vine and Fig Tree song. A special updated prayer card for the election season, written by the late Sr. Dianna Ortiz, was also distributed.

Special thanks to everyone who attended this witness and did readings as well as for those who could not attend and expressed their prayerful solidarity.

During this perilous time, we beckon the Saints and all the Holy Cloud of Witnesses to advocate on our behalf. We pray for the moral clarity that Isaiah and Jesus speak of (see readings) as we strive to be faithful followers of Jesus living in this warmaking empire. Now more than ever we need to live and proclaim the Gospel of Nonviolence!

Statement/Update

Surrounded by a Holy Cloud of Witnesses, we come to the White House today to say Yes to the God of Love, justice and nonviolence and No to the idolatrous forces of greed, oppression, violence, death and destruction. We are here today because we refuse to be indifferent to evil—the evil of injustice, killing, war and genocide. We ask God's mercy for the ways in which we and our nation have been indifferent to and complicit in evil. We feel and hear the suffering cries of human beings in our world, and especially in the land called "Holy." Mindful of our personal and societal need for repentance and conversion, we recognize that it is our responsibility to do what God commands: to revere all life as sacred, to love our neighbor, to beat swords into plowshares, and never to kill. We therefore believe that to love our neighbor means we must renounce all injustice, violence and killing, no matter who the perpetrator is. And we must denounce all forms of racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia!

We decry the genocidal war Israel is carrying out in Gaza and Lebanon—all with direct U.S. military support! Last Friday during our vigil here, we, in solidarity with many worldwide, appealed that the Israeli government, with support from the Pentagon, not attack Iran. On Saturday, this attack focused on military targets was carried out, further perpetuating the cycle of violence and enmity. We also heard about those living under siege in northern Gaza, that over 770 people have been killed over a 3 week period and that people are “lost between a war and an extermination.”

Earlier this week the following tragic news was reported on Democracy Now:

On Tuesday, Israel’s military once again bombed residential buildings in Beit Lahia, killing at least 19 Palestinians just hours after a separate attack killed at least 93 people, including 25 children.” Beit Lahia has been declared a “disaster area” amid weeks of relentless Israeli bombings and military siege. Also "The World Food Program is calling for immediate action to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip, warning Palestinians across the besieged territory are losing hope of finding any food for their starving children. The aid agency said it has nearly 100,000 tons of food ready for shipment from Egypt and Jordan — enough to feed a million Palestinians for four months — but that Israel has largely denied access to convoys. The situation is most dire in northern Gaza, where the Israeli army has blocked all aid access for a 25th consecutive day. This comes amid dire warnings from aid organizations over Israel’s decision to ban the U.N. relief agency UNRWA...the U.N. humanitarian office called the policy “collective punishment” — a war crime."
Meanwhile, a new report by the research group Forensic Architecture finds Israel is systematically committing crimes of persecution and destruction in Gaza, amounting to genocide. The group found Israel has destroyed over 83% of all plant life in Gaza, over 70% of agricultural land, nearly half of all groundwater wells and two-thirds of water tanks. Of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, Israel has forced 35 to stop service at least once, targeted 31 in bombings and attacks, and violently invaded 10 hospitals.
In Lebanon, residents of the city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley rushed to flee their homes and businesses today after Israel’s military ordered them to leave the city and surrounding villages. The panicked forced displacement came after two days of stepped-up attacks by Israel killed at least 60 people in Baalbek. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 77 people across Lebanon. Among the dead are 10 people, mostly women and children, killed when Israel bombed a residential block in the town of Sarafand.

And yesterday there was this news:

As of last week, Israel killed over 160 health and rescue workers across Lebanon and damaged over 150 ambulances and 55 hospitals . . . In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers have carried out more raids, including on the Nur Shams refugee camp, where at least three Palestinians were killed...

According to the Washington Post,

The Biden administration has received nearly 500 reports of Israel using U.S.-supplied weapons for attacks that killed and maimed civilians in the Gaza Strip, but it has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims...

On Monday of this week, South Africa filed over 750 pages of evidence in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The case lays out how Israel is “promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza, physically killing them with an assortment of destructive weapons, depriving them access to humanitarian assistance, causing conditions of life which are aimed at their physical destruction, … and using starvation as a weapon of war and to further Israel’s aims to depopulate Gaza through mass death and forced displacement of Palestinians.” Over 30 countries and regional blocs are supporting South Africa’s case at the ICJ.

Lastly, it was reported yesterday that 95 people were killed in Gaza by Israeli forces. In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers are now branding Palestinians prisoners by writing numbers on their forehead. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/1/headlines

We pray and stand in solidarity with all who grieve today and who are acting for peace. We pray and stand with Palestinian and Jewish brothers and sisters, as well as all Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all people of goodwill everywhere who are advocating for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, an Arms Embargo of Israel, and for an end to the cycle of violence.

In the name of God who commands us not to kill, we appeal to all people of people of faith and conscience to call for:

An end to the Israeli siege and bombing in northern Gaza, now in its 27th consecutive day!
A ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon!
U.S. Arms Embargo for Israel!
Removal of U.S. troops and weapons systems to Israel!
Removal of the USS Georgia Trident nuclear submarine with 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Middle East region!
An end to settler violence and Israeli attacks in the West Bank and confiscation of Palestinian homes and land!
Release of all hostages and prisoners!
Unimpeded delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza!
UNRWA be allowed to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza and that the U.S. restore funding for it!
An end to apartheid and occupation in Palestine and self-determination for Palestinian people!
Just peace for Palestine and Israel!
Comprehensive peace with Iran, Israel and the U.S.!

As we remember all Palestinian, Israeli, and Lebanese victims who have been killed, and as Palestinians face forced displacement, starvation, torture and endure living in an apartheid state—all with U.S.-backed military assistance—let us act in solidarity with everyone advocating for nonviolent solutions to end this tragic conflict and bring about a just peace in the Holy Land and the Middle East/ West Asia. This includes courageous student groups, 100 city councils across the country who have passed cease-fire resolutions, and the more than 150 NGOs Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel and End to Impunity amid a Spiraling Humanitarian Catastrophe and Escalating Regional Conflict. U.S. complicity in supporting Israel's genocidal war must end!

On Oct. 18, 2023, Pope Francis declared:

“The number of victims is growing and the situation in Gaza is desperate. Everything possible must be done to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. The world already witnesses so many open war fronts. Lay down weapons and heed the cries for peace from the poor, the people, and the innocent children. War solves no problems. It only sows' death and destruction, increases hatred, multiplies revenge. War erases the future; it erases the future. I urge all believers to take one side only: that of peace."

Now more than ever we need to heed Dr. King’s prophetic words: the choice before us is "nonviolence or nonexistence."