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Our Mission and Vision:

Vision: We envisage a future where international relations are based on cooperation instead of competition and conflict, and where mutual benefit and shared security lead to a more peaceful and just global community.

Mission: NH Peace Action educates, mobilizes, and organizes, to build a more peaceful and just future for all.

For more information, read our “Peace Pillars” here


NH Peace Action Statement on Palestine and Israel

Since October 7, the horrors of war and violence have again taken center stage in the world. We at NH Peace Action see how the cycle of violence and retribution brings continuing terror and pain to all. Thus, we promote nonviolent solutions to problems, local and global, instead. We believe killing people is a problem, not a solution. We believe everyone, including Israelis and Palestinians, deserve better.

We condemn Hamas for its attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7. We condemn Israel’s military response against the Palestinians in the occupied territories, particularly in Gaza. We call for an end to the violence, and we call for the courage to look at the historical context in which it is happening. The only way to solve the problem is to understand it.

Many people have been speaking out for decades about the dangerous situation in Israel and Palestine. However, leaders around the world neglect the issue. The space for even talking about this conflict is narrow. NH Peace Action will continue to try to be a voice that advocates for valuing every person, listening to each other even when we disagree, and calling for nonviolent solutions. Until the root causes are addressed and a new system that honors the dignity of all people is in place, outbreaks of violence will never end.

We have heard over and over that the situation in The Holy Land is so complicated, it’s been going on thousands of years, it’s just hopeless, what can we do? However, we work with organizations that prove this wrong and show that the people of that region are perfectly able to get along. Combatants for Peace, The Parents Circle Families Forum, and Standing Together are a few organizations comprised of Israelis and Palestinians working together for justice and security for all. In the
US, Jewish Voice for Peace advocates for an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people.

We’re also told that humans are simply inherently aggressive and war-like. However, decades of research proves this wrong. Humans are capable of good and bad behaviors. How we act depends on the context. Violence researchers have learned a lot about what promotes prosocial behaviors. If we are willing to try to understand everyone we are in a position to greatly decrease violence. Understanding is not condoning. Understanding is a key to prevention and empowers us to make the world
safer for all.

Although this is happening far away, we know that Israel depends on U.S. money and weapons and diplomatic protection, making us complicit in everything they do and giving us the power to make change. We are further reminded that there are some winners in war – U.S. weapons sellers especially. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes on a Q3 Earnings Call on October 24, 2023 said: “I think really across the entire Raytheon portfolio, you’re going to see a benefit.”

[Note that NH Peace Action is against arming both Israeli and Palestinian militant groups. We speak out most strongly against the Israeli government’s violence because the U.S. Government, thus American taxpayers, directly fund it.]

While our NH Senators Shaheen and Hassan and our Representatives Kuster and Pappas have correctly condemned Hamas for its horrible attacks on civilians, they offer unqualified support and funding for Israel’s government while its military collectively punishes civilians, bombs schools and hospitals, forcefully relocates citizens and deprives the people of Gaza of food, water, shelter, health care, fuel, and more.

At this moment we are calling on our U.S. Representatives to:

-Demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire
-End U.S. military support to the Israeli government
-Call for an end to the blockade of Gaza
-Allow extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza
-Support meaningful peace talks based on human rights and international law
-Do not support actions that widen this conflict and could lead to a world war

We are asking all our members and supporters to call your Senators and Congresspeople every day with these messages. We also encourage you to donate to the civil organizations who continue to work for peace, even amid the sorrow and the rubble. Join with others, through NH Peace Action or another group, to act and to advocate for a safer future for us all.

It is heartening that by now the rest of the nations of the world and most of the people of every nation are speaking up for this violence to end. We will continue to do our work to move U.S. legislators to do so as well.

Some people refer to October 7 as Israel’s 9/11. While that comparison is questionable, maybe there are lessons from 9/11 that would be useful. In the aftermath of that moment, the U.S. launched a war that encompassed much of the Middle East and led to a death toll of 4.5-4.7 million, to the displacement of 38 million people, to serious erosions in civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad, the destabilization of an entire region of the globe and cost us about $8 trillion. The choices we made then have made the world less safe. We are closer to nuclear war than ever in history, have a worldwide refugee crisis, and more fear and anger towards the U.S. The wars have contributed significantly to environmental problems, since the Defense
Department is one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters. (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/summary)

Peace activists are often told that we’re naive to think that nonviolence will be effective. Many of us think the idea that violence will bring about peace is far less sensible. In a world with nuclear weapons and serious environmental problems, war is too dangerous and costly for us all at this point.

History is filled with examples of how wars have ended and how people have learned to live together even after horrors have been inflicted. There are many recent instances, such as in Northern Ireland, where U.S. support for diplomacy instead of weapons shipments helped end the bloodshed, and South Africa.

We are publishing this just before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2024, so end with this quote from him: “We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.”


National Peace Action: A Briefing & Action Steps on the War in Ukraine

click here to learn more.

Working for Peace in the Time of COVID

To read our statement on continuing our work for a more peaceful world during the corona virus pandemic click here.

Pushing Back Against the War Budget

To see our statement on our Representatives failure to support modest pentagon cuts

Click here

Sign our petition pushing our congressional team to speak out against Biden’s 813$ billion 2023 military budget recommendation.

Click here

Our Partners

National Peace Action    Back From the Brink     American Friends Service Committee

 

New Hampshire Peace Action