Thousands of young Israelis are on the streets demanding that their government halts the invasion of Gaza. Many have been imprisoned, just like the conscientious objectors, soldiers or conscripts that refuse to cross the border into Palestinian territory.

Palestinian youth are protesting against Israeli violence but also to demand that Hamas halts the attacks with missiles or anything else.

Jewish and Palestinian organisations are united in the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, awakening the consciousness of the peoples to put an end to the madness of violence.

It’s not easy to raise one’s voice for Peace when violence has been unleashed, nor is it easy to bear the aggression against your own people when you are at the receiving end of other people’s fear and anger. The Palestinian and Israeli pacifists are an example for the whole world.

It is not their point of view that is published in the newspapers; it is not their efforts that the press shows. We only get the propaganda and the counter propaganda of those who lead one faction or another, justifying their actions.

The population is scared and the violent of both factions are trying to scare them even more. And so, contaminated with fear and revenge they try to control us for their own interests.

We repudiate the violence of the State of Israel and we repudiate the violence of the armed Palestinian groups. Only a non-violent consciousness will be able to halt the violence and if, today, this consciousness is small we will have to make it grow.

The invasion of Gaza by the Israeli army must cease immediately. Palestinian pacifism must be strengthened to stop Hamas and any other armed group. A Palestinian State is necessary and the International community is responsible for this to happen. We are all responsible for the humanisation of our peoples.

Situations of extreme violence are being unleashed throughout the world, and they are more and more difficult to stop. We have to change the psycho-social atmosphere we are immersed in. This is the objective of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence and this is its most important request: World Nuclear Disarmament. This is the first step to reverse the direction of events. To achieve it is a revolutionary change for humanity. What will be our destiny if we don’t try?

The World March is a cause, in which all races will converge, all peoples, all cultures, all religions, surpassing the suffering that we cause to other peoples and the suffering that others have caused us. We are uniting to achieve the non-violent future that is already emerging in the depths of Human Beings.

Patricia Arriagada Feliú - Organising Committee World March - Palestine
Roberto Kohanoff - Organising Committee World March – Israel
Giorgio Schultze - European Spokesperson for New Humanism