The Peace and Justice Center has publicly recognized Israel as an apartheid state and supported the campaign to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel since 2019. You can read our statement here. Since October, Israel has continued to escalate its crimes against Palestinian people, and we have joined with the millions, if not billions, of people worldwide calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
The Israeli military has killed over 34,000 Palestinians and Hamas has around 1,200 Israelis since October 7th. The majority of people killed by the Israeli military were civilians and at least 13,000 of them were children. Now over a million civilians are at imminent risk of being starved to death as the Israeli military continues to block almost all humanitarian aid from entering through their checkpoints. The Israeli military has also repeatedly bombed aid workers and stations housing humanitarian aid. And the invasion of Rafah continues, putting 2.3 million Palestinian lives at risk, despite the UN Security Council’s call for an immediate ceasefire.
In light of all of this, the Peace and Justice Center is joining the Apartheid Free Community Campaign as part of our continued effort to demand justice for the ongoing apartheid conditions and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people. We believe that what is going on in Israel and Palestine is a local issue, because our tax dollars are used to support the state of Israel, rather than being spent here on healthcare, housing, education, or environmental protection. The PJC has worked primarily on racial justice education in the past decade. We know from our experience working in the community that the U.S. and the state of Vermont are far from perfect. We are committed to continuing our work to end racism here and abroad. We want to live in a place where we and our neighbors are thriving, because we are using our resources to invest in building a strong and peaceful community, not war.