Quaker organizations express concern over potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank

Amid uncertainty around threatened Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, Quaker Peace & Social Witness has joined American Friends Service Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation to express their deep concern. They say annexation would make permanent a system of inequality and would deny justice to Palestinians whose rights have already been violated.

As organizations that are part of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), we are deeply concerned about the threatened Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank. Such an action would violate international law, formalize land theft, further entrench inequalities and the denial of Palestinian rights, intensify human suffering, and make realizing a just and lasting peace more difficult.

For nearly 150 years Quakers have maintained close ties and relationships with the people living in what are now Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. These connections began with the establishment of a Quaker Meeting and school in Ramallah in the late 1880s, grew as Quakers worked with both Palestinians and Jews displaced and impacted during the 1948 war, and thrive today through educational, peacebuilding, and human rights work that continues on the ground.

As Quakers we are guided by our commitment to the principles of truth, integrity, equality, and peace. It is these values that lead us to speak out and to call for concrete and effective action to both oppose annexation and to counter the ongoing denial of Palestinian rights.

Over the last decades we have seen systems of government, law, and military control that privileges the rights of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians develop and become entrenched in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.

We have witnessed inequalities deepen. Palestinian land is confiscated and given to Israeli settlers. Palestinian access to natural resources, water, and agricultural land is restricted while Israeli citizens and companies benefit from these resources. Settlements, checkpoints, land confiscation, and the Wall have all resulted in geographic, social, and political fragmentation that limit Palestinian development and life.

Annexation would make permanent this system of inequality and would deny justice to Palestinians whose rights have already been violated.

Further, the Israeli government has said that it will not give citizenship to Palestinians living in areas that it annexes. While a two-tiered system of rights already exists in the occupied Palestinian territory, an annexation process that took land without granting rights to those living on that land would add yet another level of discrimination onto the existing system.

Annexation also violates international law. Article 2 of the UN Charter and customary international law prohibit the acquisition of territory by force. The Quakers emphasize that such actions undermine the principles of justice and peace they have long upheld.

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