Northwest Quarterly Meeting calls for Friends to join the non-violent action of boycotting products made in Israel’s illegal settlements and to divest from companies that support and benefit from Israel’s military occupation and repression of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.

As Quakers we endeavor to listen deeply to all sides in any situation of conflict in the belief that all sides deserve a respectful hearing, and that no lasting solution to conflict can come unless the just claims of all sides are in some measure satisfied. In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which so sorely torments the international community generally and the peoples of the Middle East in particular, Israel’s just claim for security is fully heard and supported by our government, and we support Israel’s claim for a secure existence. The just claims of the Palestinians, on the other hand, are not widely recognized nor discussed in this country. We support the rights of Jews, Palestinians, and indeed all people to live in peace and security.

The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory beyond the 1949 Armistice Line (the Green Line) is illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. Article 49 of that Convention specifically prohibits an occupying power from transferring members of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Thus the steady acquisition of Palestinian land for Israeli settlement development is illegal and is eroding the Palestinians’ right to a viable homeland. We support the non-violent actions of Israelis and Palestinians to bring about an end to this occupation.

We join with the American Friends Service Committee, Britain Yearly Meeting, various other Monthly and Yearly Meetings, and religious and civil society organizations in the US and throughout the world in taking such steps in working for peace. In the tradition of the Friends’ statement “that Friend speaks my mind”, we acknowledge that some of the text in this minute is adopted and/or adapted from Minutes of other Meetings.