At Meeting for Business 9-7-25, Homewood Friends endorsed a statement responding to “the brutal continuation of a 76-year project of displacement and denial of Palestinians’ human rights” and recognizing the current situation as genocide, as perpetrated by the Israeli government and its supporters.

“However, through our decades of humanitarian work and accompaniment with Palestinian
and Israeli communities we have witnessed the relentless erosion of justice. This lack of
justice and the current violence is rooted in the systemic and violent dispossession of
Palestinians from their lands and decades of occupation, apartheid policies, and the
systematic denial of Palestinian rights.”

Outlining the top level demands:

1. An Immediate, Permanent Ceasefire & Full Humanitarian Access
   
2. The Application of Robust, Targeted, and Timebound Sanctions, including a Comprehensive Arms Embargo, aimed at ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the related system of Apartheid
   
3. Respect for International Law and Accountability
   
4. Protection of Free Speech and the Right to Protest
   
5. Dismantling Oppression and Establishing a Just and Permanent Peace

Read the full statement here:
Quakers Discern Genocide is Occurring in Gaza and Urge Courageous Action

We especially encourage our Homewood Friends community to become familiar with the full statement since it calls us to action, and suggests a level of commitment and a range of components and strategies to which we are resolving to aspire. As Quaker signatories, we commit to (for instance):

• Advocate relentlessly for the end of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the deliberate
  starvation campaign, a permanent ceasefire and accountability for atrocities
  committed in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
  
• Boycott settlement goods and divest from companies profiting from occupation,
  apartheid, or genocide (e.g., arms manufacturers, settlement financiers).
  
• Reach out in love to Jewish, Muslim and Palestinian communities, confronting
  antisemitism, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate while refusing to be silent in the
  face of oppression.

There are several more actions we are committing to: Read the full statement here.

Homewood Friends has named a working group that will identify actions we will take collectively.