96 Years from the Date of his Birth, the Organization MLK Belonged to Celebrates the Announcement of a Gaza Ceasefire Agreement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ariel Gold | [email protected] | 510 599-5330
January 15, 2025 – The Fellowship of Reconciliation welcomes the news of a 42-day ceasefire in Gaza. Announced on the 96-year anniversary of the birthday of FOR member Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we cleave to the hope that Israel’s military bombardments and starvation of the people in Gaza will halt on the scheduled day of January 19, 2025, and that the hostages being held in Gaza will be returned to their families.
Although imperfect and tenuous every movement towards peace and de-escalation of violence is cause for rejoicing and the pursuit of alignment with G-d, all of our creator. A cessation of the war that has been raging for the last 15 months, even if it turns out to be temporary, gives Palestinians, and the Israeli soldiers conscripted into hatred, violence, and militarism, a much-needed chance to rest, heal, grieve, bury the dead, and reflect on another path, one of peace. “The ceasefire agreement is the best news of 2025,” said FOR board member and former moderator for Presbyterian Church USA. “We continue to pray for permanent peace based on justice.”
As the oldest multi-faith peace organization in the country and world, and as one of the only two organizations that Dr. King was a member of, we pray that the ceasefire is enacted and holds. We pray that all of the hostages are released, all of the wounded attended to, all of the displaced are allowed to return, and all of the dead are identified and respectfully buried. We call for the unfettered entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and for the United States and all countries to support the ceasefire deal by conditioning military assistance to Israel in accordance with U.S. and international humanitarian law. May the ceasefire agreement reached today pave the way for true peace and liberation for all people in Palestine and Israel.
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