After the Ceasefire: We Can’t Afford Silence- Re: Message to HHS After Ceasefire

From: GreenFaith Boulder County <GFBC@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Subject: greenfaith-boulder-county - Google Groups: Message Pending [{IN6wtv6-ja74OCoCb2kwAwkvrzIqYAbc0}]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Micha K. Ben David"
To: gfbc@googlegroups.com
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2025 14:38:45 -0600
Subject: After the Ceasefire: We Can’t Afford Silence- Re: Message to HHS After Ceasefire

Dear Friends of Faith and the GreenFaith Network of Boulder County,

The return of hostages to Israel is a moment of deep human relief. I say that not abstractly, but as an Israeli, a military veteran—someone who has lived this trauma not just in theory, but in the fabric of my life.

But we must speak plainly.

This is not peace. This is not reconciliation. This is the end of a single, horrific chapter in a much larger, ongoing tragedy. As we mark the return of some, we cannot ignore the many hundreds of thousands who still cannot return—to their homes, their land, their lives—because they are Palestinian.

We cannot let the word “ceasefire” hypnotize us into silence. The Israeli government—now the most openly racist, ultra-nationalist, and fanatically right-wing in its history—remains committed to a project of dispossession. Entire communities in the West Bank and Gaza are being erased, not metaphorically but physically. Bulldozed. Bombed. Displaced under the pretense of “security.” This is not defense. This is ethnic cleansing. That’s not dramatic language—it’s accurate.

It is not just Israel. This regime of domination is reinforced by the full backing of U.S. power. This week, President Trump was welcomed in the Israeli Knesset- the parliament - with open arms—an unmistakable sign of ideological alignment between white Christian nationalism and Jewish supremacy. These are not distant forces. These are our policies, our money, our theological justifications twisted into empire.

Let’s not pretend these systems are confined to borders. The same logic of land theft and racial hierarchy that builds illegal settlements also builds oil pipelines through Indigenous land, criminalizes protest, and pours tear gas into American cities. Settler colonialism, militarized policing, and environmental destruction are not separate crises—they are a shared blueprint of force.

If you care about climate justice, this is your fight.

The destruction of Palestinian olive groves, the military control of water in Gaza, the demolition of solar panels, ancient water structures and farming terraces in West Bank villages—these are ecological crimes. Occupation is an environmental issue. Faith communities cannot claim to protect creation while funding its destruction through war, surveillance, and dispossession.

That’s why it’s time to divest.

If you want to act—not just reflect—start here:

• Jewish Voice for Peace – Divest Campaigns
• AFSC Investigate – Who Profits from Occupation
• Adalah Justice Project
• GreenFaith – Sacred People, Sacred Earth
• Movement Generation – Just Transition
• Indigenous Environmental Network

And if you're still unsure what's happening on the ground, or who’s profiting from it:

• B’Tselem: This Is Apartheid
• Human Rights Watch: A Threshold Crossed
• UN OCHA: West Bank Displacement Tracker

In our tradition, we hold brokenness and wholeness in the same ark. But we are called to do more than carry both—we are called to repair. And that starts by defending the defenseless.

As the prophet Jeremiah teaches:
"וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָה לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְ נְאֻם־ה’ וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם"
“There is hope for your future—declares God; your children shall return to their country.” (Jeremiah 31:17)

Yes. All the children. Not just the Jewish ones. Not just the Israeli ones. The Palestinian children, too—those in Rafah, in Jenin, in Khan Younis—deserve that same future, and they are being robbed of it in real time.

Hope, in our tradition, is not permission to look away. It’s a sacred instruction to act. This ceasefire may have ended the latest wave of slaughter. But the system that enables and justifies it remains. If we want real peace, we must dismantle the violence at its root.

And we must do it together.

In persistence, in grief, and in sacred rage,

Micha K. Ben David
Israeli | Military Veteran | Advocate for Collective Liberation and Climate Justice

On Oct 13, 2025, at 9:50 PM, Donna Daniell <donnalcsw@gmail.com> wrote:


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Congregation Har HaShem <info@hhs.org>
Date: Mon, Oct 13, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Subject: Message to HHS After Ceasefire
To: gfbc@gmail.com>



This message was sent to gfbc@gmail.com by Congregation Har HaShem, 3950 Baseline Road, Boulder, CO 80303

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