{"id":1317,"date":"2021-05-30T13:27:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-30T12:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=1317"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:31:14","slug":"voices-for-peace-in-israel-and-colombia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/june-2021\/voices-for-peace-in-israel-and-colombia\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices for Peace in Israel and Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gwithian Doswell<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 15 May the Peace Pledge Union held its annual vigil to commemorate International Conscientious Objector Day. As last year, most of the event was online. Many Friends were in attendance.<\/p>\n

We remembered the witness of countless men and women who have stood up throughout history to establish and maintain the right to refuse to kill. As well as celebrating the memory of past conscientious objectors, we stood in solidarity with all those across the world who are imprisoned or forced to flee their homes for refusing to join the armed forces today, and all who work for peace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the contributors to the online vigil was Atalya Ben-Abba, a young Israeli conscientious objector. For her clear and brave refusal to be conscripted, the 18 year-old spent 110 days in military prison. She felt that her action enabled her to show that things need to change vis \u00e0 vis the military occupation of Palestine, and allowed her to reach out to Palestinians in partnership for a more peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Israeli conscientious objectors, I recommend listening to the following webinar, recorded in March this year, before the latest upsurge in violence in Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Israel. In the recording, Atalya talks with two other Israeli COs about what motivated them to refuse to serve, and about the consequences of their actions.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/icahd.org\/2021\/03\/03\/icahd-uk-webinarcritical-young-israelis-speak-about-the-future-wed17th-march-at-5-00pm-uk-time\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

Another contributor to this year\u2019s peace event was Natalia Garc\u00eda Cort\u00e9s, a member of War Resisters International (WRI) Colombia. Natalia explained the worldwide work of WRI. She specifically highlighted what we can do to support conscientious objectors in Turkey this year.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/wri-irg.org\/en\/CODay2021<\/a><\/p>\n

It was good to see a Colombian talking about WRI and know that peace-activists are very much present in that country. At the beginning of May, a dear friend in Bogot\u00e1 had phoned me in deep distress. \u2018They are killing people in the streets<\/em>,\u2019 he said. A quick look online confirmed this. Peaceful demonstrators in the major Colombian cities were being attacked by a highly militarised police force. Thirty-seven people had died and over 80 more had \u2018disappeared\u2019.<\/p>\n

Natalia\u2018s presentation on 15 May was pre-recorded, so it made no mention of the ongoing violence in her home country. Since then, Natalia and War Resisters International have made a webinar series called Spreading Antimilitarism: Global Week in Solidarity with Colombia.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/warresistersint\/videos\/3342032232689945 <\/a><\/p>\n

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Clematis montana. Photo by SL Granum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colombian pacifists and peace activists are actively and creatively saying \u2018no’ to war today, and they \u2013 like the Israeli peace activists \u2013 are inspiring voices. As one of the Colombian activists, Santiago Forero, remarked, \u2018Every person in this country needs a mechanism to say no to wa<\/em>r.\u2019 Here in the UK, I believe we should use all the mechanisms we have to hand to say the same thing – \u2018No to War!\u2019<\/p>\n

\n

Back to June 2021 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-Three<\/em> Newsletter \u2022 Number 506 \u2022 June 2021
\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gwithian Doswell On 15 May the Peace Pledge Union held its annual vigil to commemorate International Conscientious Objector Day. As last year, most of the event was online. Many Friends were in attendance. We remembered the witness of countless men and women who have stood up throughout history to establish and maintain the right to … Continue reading Voices for Peace in Israel and Colombia<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":1313,"menu_order":44,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1322,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1317\/revisions\/1322"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}