Standing Together (22.10.2023)
- volpoinbal
- Oct 17, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 8, 2024
A vigil for the civilian victims in Israel and Palestine
United for peace, justice and security for all
We stand together to commemorate the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians lost through terror and war. We mourn the more than thousand Israelis who were gruesomely killed in the terrorist attack by Hamas, and pray for the over a hundred women, men and children who were taken hostage. We mourn for the thousands of Palestinians who were killed and continue to be killed in the relentless assaults by the Israeli military in Gaza, and pray for the hundreds of thousands of families who were forced to leave their homes and face an uncertain future. There is no justification for killing civilians, whether committed in the name of a struggle against oppression or of a war against terror.
We stand together against selective grief. Every single innocent life lost is a tragedy and must be mourned with sincerity. We vehemently oppose the manipulation of grief as a tool to perpetuate violence. We will not let ourselves be divided by fear and hatred.
We stand in solidarity with all marginalized people in Vienna immediately affected by the ongoing war. We stand with our Jewish community who fear going to school, work or synagogue because of growing antisemitic incitement and hatred, and we stand with our Muslim, Arab or Palestinian communities, subjected to racist bias and often unjustly accused of supporting terrorism or antisemitism. We are united by the shared impact of these horrific events and bound together in our grief and mourning. Let’s commit to fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism through lived solidarity with one another.
We stand together believing that all people in Israel and Palestine may live in freedom and safety. We call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the Israeli army’s bombings and mass expulsions of Palestinians. We call for a deal to release Israeli civilians held by Hamas and an end to the inhumane siege of Gaza. There is no just military solution to this conflict. Only equal rights for all and an end to the occupation will bring peace, justice, and security to Israelis and Palestinians alike.
For many of us, these past weeks have been extremely difficult. Uncertainty, confusion, and feelings of powerlessness prevail. Many of us have friends, family, and loved ones directly involved in the bloodshed. Let us stand together to give expression to these feelings.
When? Sunday, October 22, 17:00
Where? Platz der Menschenrechte, Mariahilferstraße 1, 1070, Vienna
A note about the event:
We people from different ethnic and religious groups are coming together in mourning and solidarity. To prevent any conflict, we will not permit any flags or logos of political organizations. We ask you to refrain from chanting or shouting in order not to disrupt people’s grieving. You are welcome to bring candles. Please note that no incitement nor bigoted language will be tolerated. We firmly stand together against any forms of racism, antisemitism, sexism and queerphobia.
………………………..
Zusammenstehen
Eine Mahnwache für die zivilen Opfer in Israel und Palästina
Vereint für Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Sicherheit für alle
Wir stehen zusammen, um der israelischen und palästinensischen Zivilist*innen zu gedenken, die durch Terror und Krieg ihr Leben verloren haben. Wir trauern um die mehr als tausend Israelis, die bei dem Terroranschlag der Hamas auf grausame Weise ums Leben kamen, und beten für die über hundert Frauen, Männer und Kinder, die als Geiseln genommen wurden. Wir trauern um die tausenden Palästinenser*innen, die bei den unerbittlichen Angriffen des israelischen Militärs im Gazastreifen getötet wurden und weiterhin getötet werden, und beten für die hunderttausenden Familien, die gezwungen werden, ihre Häuser zu verlassen und einer ungewissen Zukunft entgegensehen. Es gibt keine Rechtfertigung für die Tötung von Zivilisten, ob sie nun im Namen eines Kampfes gegen Unterdrückung oder eines Krieges gegen den Terror begangen wird.
Wir stehen zusammen gegen selektive Trauer. Jedes einzelne verlorene unschuldige Leben ist eine Tragödie und muss mit Aufrichtigkeit betrauert werden. Wir wenden uns entschieden gegen die Manipulation von Trauer als Mittel zur Aufrechterhaltung von Gewalt. Wir werden nicht zulassen, dass wir durch Angst und Hass gespalten werden.
Wir stehen zusammen an der Seite aller ausgegrenzten Menschen in Wien, deren Leben durch den anhaltenden Krieg unmittelbar betroffen ist. Wir stehen mit unserer jüdischen Gemeinschaft, die Angst hat, zur Schule, zur Arbeit oder in die Synagoge zu gehen, weil antisemitische Hetze und Hass zunehmen, und wir stehen mit unseren muslimischen, arabischen und palästinensischen Gemeinschaften, die rassistischen Vorurteilen ausgesetzt sind und oft zu Unrecht beschuldigt werden, Terrorismus oder Antisemitismus zu unterstützen. Wir sind durch die gemeinsamen Auswirkungen dieser schrecklichen Ereignisse geeint und in unserer Trauer miteinander verbunden. Wir wollen uns verpflichten, Antisemitismus, Islamophobie und Rassismus durch gelebte Solidarität miteinander zu bekämpfen.
Wir stehen zusammen im Glauben, dass alle Menschen in Israel und Palästina in Freiheit und Sicherheit leben können. Wir fordern einen sofortigen Waffenstillstand und einen Stopp der Bombardierungen und Massenvertreibungen von Palästinenser*innen durch die israelische Armee. Wir fordern ein Abkommen zur Freilassung der von der Hamas gefangen gehaltenen israelischen Zivilist*innen und ein Ende der unmenschlichen Belagerung des Gazastreifens. Es gibt keine gerechte militärische Lösung für diesen Konflikt. Nur gleiche Rechte für alle und ein Ende der Besatzung werden Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Sicherheit für Israelis und Palästinenser*innen gleichermaßen bringen.
Für viele von uns waren die letzten Wochen äußerst schwierig. Ungewissheit, Verwirrung und das Gefühl der Machtlosigkeit sind allgegenwärtig. Viele von uns haben Freunde, Familienangehörige und Angehörige, die direkt in das Blutvergießen verwickelt sind. Lasst uns zusammenstehen, um diesen Gefühlen Ausdruck zu verleihen.
Wann? Sonntag, 22. Oktober, 17:00
Wo? Platz der Menschenrechte, Mariahilferstraße 1, 1070 Wien
Eine Anmerkung zu dieser Veranstaltung:
Wir Menschen aus verschiedenen ethnischen und religiösen Gruppen kommen in Trauer und Solidarität zusammen. Um eine weitere Zweckentfremdung der Trauer zu verhindern, werden wir keine Fahnen oder Logos von politischen Organisationen zulassen. Wir bitten Sie, von Sprechchören oder Rufen abzusehen, um die Trauer der Menschen nicht zu stören. Sie können gerne Kerzen mitbringen, aber bitte beachten Sie, dass keine Aufwiegelung oder Bigotterie geduldet wird. Wir stehen fest zusammen gegen jede Form von Rassismus, Antisemitismus, Sexismus und Queerphobie.
Program:
17:00 Music performance: Ode to Peace
17:05 Introduction
17:10 OneStateEmbassy Diplomatic performance
17:15 Opening speech
17:20 Statement from Standing Together & Sons of Abraham
17:25 Speech: Saad Al Ghefari
17:35 Music performance: Natalie Adler-Oppenheim
17:45 Statements from Breaking the Silence & Yesh Din
17:55 Music performance: Isabel Frey
18:05 Statements from The Villages Group
18:10 Speech: Noy Katsman
18:20 Music performance: Golnar Shahyar
Statements from the event
Sons of Abraham
Simeon and Levi are brothers; Their weapons are tools of lawlessness. Let not my person be included in their council, let not my being be counted in their assembly. For when angry they slay a man, and when pleased they maim an ox. Cursed be their anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless. I will divide them in Jacob, scatter them in Israel — Genesis 49:5-7
Over the past days, we are drowning in unfathomable depths of grief, pain, loss, and anger. We are facing unprecedented feelings of insecurity, helplessness, uncertainty, and fear about what the future holds. It is impossible to find words which can express our heartbrokenness and the atrocities which we have witnessed, the terrifying slaughter of over one thousand people, Jews and Arabs alike, soldiers like civilians, infants and elders, women and men, with unthinkable cruelty, and the taking of around two hundred people as hostages to Gaza. Our hearts rage and our blood boils over the cruel and lowly murderers who shot infants and the elderly in their beds. But this is not just a time of grief and anger. It is a fateful moment when we are compelled to make crucial decisions which may determine the destiny of many people on both sides of the border.
We remain faithful to the simple and illuminating words of R. Isaac Aboab in Menorat ha-Me’or, who wrote: “Great is peace, for all the qualities that were created by the Blessed One, He has restrained them by providing them with limitation and purpose, except for two qualities: Torah and Peace.” As he quotes from the Midrash: “Great is peace, for even in times of war, peace is needed, as it is said ‘If you draw near a city to do battle with it, then you shall call out to it for peace’ (Deut. 20:10)” (Sifrei Bamidbar 6:26). Even with regards to the Egyptians it is said in the Midrash: “After all the evil they did to Israel, the Torah has mercy on them and it is said ‘You shall not abhor an Egyptian for you were a stranger in his land’ (Deut. 23:8), but rather pursue peace as it is written ‘seek peace and pursue it’ (Psalms 34:15).” (Devarim Rabbah 5:15) We learn that peace and compassion are of the essence, and that we must pursue such values with all our might, especially in times of war, and by whatever means possible.
Although we know that “a person should not be judged in his time of his pain,” and all the more so in these times of great darkness and deep grief for all of Israeli society— we are mortified by the voices which echo in our community which callously call to disregard the lives of innocent civilians, mothers and their infants, children and the elderly, under the pretext that in wartime one need not consider the loss of life of the Palestinian civilian population. Such voices claim that since Hamas wishes to kill and destroy indiscriminately, we are also permitted to do the very same and to indiscriminately inflict harm on the people of Gaza. Some went so far as to blatantly and repugnantly compared the residents of the Gaza strip with Amalek, declaring a holy war against them, contrary to the well-known statement of R. Joseph Babad that “We are not commanded to do so in our times” (Minchat Chinuch Commandment 604). These voices seek to justify the annihilation of the desperate and destitute, women and children, and actively oppose the “restriction of war”, as if war, destruction, and loss of life were our heart’s desire or the essence of our Torah. We are frightened to witness how their Torah has become an elixir of death, rather than a tree of life; how her peaceful paths have become pathways of war, crime, and fury, a Torah of vengeance. While the leaders of Hamas have vowed to kill and destroy our bodies, it appears that some of our fellow Jews have vowed to destroy our souls and good traits.
We turn towards the remnant whom God calls, to all whom have a trace of Torah, fear of Heaven, and good traits within them, not to heed to these foul and destructive proclamations, that gush forth from improper instincts of vengeance and rage, which tempt our evil inclination and the most vengeful and wicked of our traits, trying to arouse us to commit unspeakable acts. Against false permissions to kill and destroy without limit, which rely on a crumbling moral foundation and utterly futile arguments, there stands one of the three most severe prohibitions in the Torah, a verse which does not depart from its literal meaning: “Thou shall not kill” (Exod. 20:13) and “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make man” (Gen. 9:6). As R. Yehuda Herzl Henkin wrote clearly, to kill a gentile is surely bloodshed, for it said, ‘whoever shed the blood of man.’ Moreover, regarding gentiles we are also told to be killed rather than transgress and take their life (Bnei Banim 3:43). Under no circumstances does the Torah allow us to spill the blood of innocents ruthlessly and carelessly.
Woe unto us from the day of rebuke if we shall find ourselves standing, Heaven forbid, on the ruins of a vast land of many people, two million human beings, men, women, elderly, children and infants that have not sinned. Who will then be able to wash their hands of the innocent blood that calls out from the ground? Will we be able, at the end of this terrible “round of warfare,” to contend that our souls remain pure, that we acted out of necessity and discretion, and not from destructive feelings of rage and vengeance, that stirred within us a desire for blood? If we indeed have become thirsty for blood and revenge and, Heaven forbid, storm the battlefield with such desires, if we will not strive to distinguish between blood and blood, how will we differ from those who pursue us?
Against the calls for vengeance, and against the justifications of widespread killings of innocent civilians, a story about the Hasidic Rebbe, R. Tzvi Hirsch of Zidichov, the Ateret Tzvi, hovers above us like a Divine Echo. It is told of the Rebbe that he once dined with R. Moshe Yoel Teitelbaum, the Yismach Moshe. “After the meal, the Yismach Moshe said to the Ateret Tzvi: If your honor has the Holy Spirit, why does he not bring our Righteous Messiah? The Ateret Tzvi replied to him: Your honor must believe me, that it is as easy for me to bring the Messiah, as it is for me to turn the palm of my hand. The Yismach Moshe asked: So why then is your honor not summoning him? He replied: For I fear the birth pangs of the Messiah, that we will not endure the great troubles and decrees and murders, God forbid. The Yismach Moshe said: If I could summon the Messiah, I would do so, even if we would have to walk in blood until our knees. The Ateret Tzvi said to him: That, your honor, is the reason you cannot summon him” (Likutei Tzvi on the Torah).
We will not destroy our souls by killing of children and innocent civilians. Hands contaminated by innocent blood will not bring about true redemption. We will continue, even during this crisis, to seek peace and pursue it. Bnei Avraham Sons of Abraham
Gadir hani | standing together
I want to be able to believe in hope.
I pray that from this horrible tragedy redemption can take seed.
I see around us so much darkness, heartbreaking pain, that all of us are feeling as we hear the stories from survivors of the massacre.
I read and listen to more and more stories about the murdered and the survivors. It was just a matter of chance, the difference between the cruel death and the few people who were saved by God’s hand.
For every person within their life story, who saw the face of evil, I know how hard it is to stop the feeling of revenge. Believe me, I too feel profound pain. But I have one request of you, remember that the civilians in Gaza, in their overwhelming majority, are also victims of the abhorrent regime of terror. They should not be punished with death but rather freed from years of oppression.
I was once told by a laborer from Gaza who received a work visa in Israel how much he prayed that his children would also be able to study and to work and to get out of Gaza. That was his dream. What we need to do now is not massacre a civilian population.
An international coalition of different countries is the hope for Israel and for the civilians of Gaza. We need a coalition to help rehabilitate the Gaza strip and its citizens. The price for our children and our elderly should not be starvation or death from lack of water. The Jewish faith forbids this – as I’ve learned from my friends who are Rabbis.
No to revenge. No to losing our humanity. No one can knowingly face God if they have cast off the divine commandments.
I ask from the bottom of my heart that we all say a prayer – Jews and Arabs from all the religions and faiths, let us sanctify the memories of the people who were murdered.
Let us raise a prayer for the lives of all of us who reside in the Holy Land.
And in your prayer, think of Vivian – my friend and activist for peace whose tracks disappeared and has apparently been abducted into Gaza on that dark Saturday. I believe that my words are also hers.
Gadir hani | standing together
Press
Zeit im Bild:
Photos from the event
