World YWCA Action Alert Regarding the Escalation in the Middle East

The World YWCA calls on YWCA leaders and all global citizens, especially those not living in crisis in the Middle East, including allies of countries directly involved, to exert immediate pressure on Israel and all other parties involved to stop this war that has already produced thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries, especially in Palestine and Lebanon. We especially urge those in formal power and member states of the United Nations to immediately cease hostilities and prevent further injury, death, displacement, and trauma to the peoples of the Middle East. Moreover, immediate humanitarian aid must be mobilised to meet the urgent needs of those affected.

Since 1948, the Israeli Occupation and successive aggressions on the Palestinian territories and neighboring countries have directly impacted millions of women and children in the Middle East region, leaving them homeless, displaced, with no protection, and, most recently, with no safe space to go to. We affirm the need for the Israeli Occupation to end, for there can be no peace and justice with the Occupation.

Yet again, the disease of war rears its head – continued attacks by Israel on Lebanon and Palestine and the spread to Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. This is then followed by a cycle of counter-response, in a cycle of violence.

The World YWCA movement stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of the Middle East, especially children and women of the Middle East, who have been and continue to be disproportionately and negatively impacted by this escalation. Already, they endure the harsh realities of occupation, consistent violence and aggression, violation of their basic rights, systemic exclusion and marginalization, mobility restrictions, and all forms of injustice, including economic and political injustice. This is not tolerable.

We call upon every global citizen to take action: to speak, to write, to post on social media – advocate for an end to the violence in the Middle East. Individual actions turn into collective action, which is how we change unjust power structures.

The YWCA’s longstanding solidarity for peace and justice in the region began formally in 1967 at a meeting of YWCA leaders from around the world in Melbourne, Australia, and has culminated in twelve formal statements of support and calls to action.

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Thursday, October 3rd, 2024