Thank you for your Faithfulness and testimony that compassionate listening / Compassionate Listening does not fail us, arduous though it may be.

I’d like to commend the fine collaboration of Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis:

http://www.justvision.org/

Some of you may know the documentary, “Encounter Point.”

http://www.encounterpoint.com

Love,

Martha

I can share with you some good news from Lake Erie Yearly Meeting, which I attended in early June. Betty Ford of Grand Rapids Meeting and I created a display where we posted minutes adopted by several US Meetings, including your Gaza community-based minute from earlier this year. The knowledge that Friends around the country are beginning to lift their voices is buoying to others. We can make a beautiful Friendly chorus that may be heard in Washington, DC, if your contacts with Senators Kennedy and Kerry are an indication.

Lake Erie’s Peace Committee adopted a minute that was later strengthened and adopted by LEYM’s Meeting for Worship for Business. The clerk then forwarded it to President Obama and our national Senators, Representatives. Here is the wording, for your consideration:

As Quakers, we urge the President and Congress to stop military equipment exports to Israel, to work for an end to all violence, and to press for unimpeded delivery of humanitarian supplies and rebuilding equipment into Gaza. We urge adoption of a viable peace agreement grounded in the human rights and security needs of both Israelis and Palestinians and providing for the just sharing of land and water.

I’ll share your good description with our Palestine-Israel Action Group in AAFM, and I commend to you the Quaker Action page in QuakerPI.org, where you will find minutes adopted by other Meetings.

Let us carry on together, Friends, heartening and helping each other. Human rights and safety for all those now sensing danger are a great goal worth working for.