Joint Israeli-Palestinian call for ceasefire

Due to the severe escalation in and around the Gaza Strip, Israelis and Palestinians started an emergency initiative of collecting signatures on a joint petition calling for a ceasefire and end to the bloodshed, as well as an end to the siege on Gaza.  The Israeli Coalition Against the Siege, and the Gaza-based Campaign 'End the Siege', which jointly  organised the supply convoy last month, are mobilizing to promote this petition.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ceasefirenow

It is important to note that this petition is for Israelis and Palestinians, members of the two societies locked in detructive warfare. People who are neither Israelis nor Palestinians should NOT sign, but are most welcome to express support and make its text known to media, decision makers and the general public in their own countries. 

Here follows the text.

Ceasefire Now!

For translations to Arabic and Hebrew :
http://toibillboard.info/ceasefirepetition.en-ar-he.htm

The escalation in and around the Gaza Strip is causing terrible suffering to people - to men, women, elderly and children, Palestinian  as well as Israeli civilians.

The military offensive conducted by the Israeli armed forces has so  far caused hundreds of Palestinian casualties; many of them were  unarmed civilians. The siege and economic blockade have reduced most  of the Gaza Strip's population to abject poverty, devastated its  economy, and caused the death of critically ill patients, denied  access to vital treatment. The Palestinian attacks on Sderot have  severely traumatized its population, far beyond the physical  casualties caused among them. 

This is not a conflict between two equal forces. The most powerful  army in the Middle East, backed by the world's single remaining super-power, is daily using tanks, fighter planes, helicopters and gunships  against the lightly-armed militias and overcrowded population of a  small area whose people have lived under occupation and in poverty  long before the present siege.

Yet the individuals caught in the fighting are all suffering - on both sides of the fighting, among both peoples. The pain of living in daily fear, of being wounded and mutilated for life, of grieving for  the loss of loved ones, is the same pain - whether one's country be oppressed or oppressor, occupied or occupier, rich or poor, powerful or powerless.

The attacks on both sides of the border feed on each other and intensify each other. Palestinians in Gaza, rightly feeling  themselves still living under occupation despite the Israeli  'disengagement', seek to resist occupation, but when some use launching of rockets against civilians, they manage only to provide  an additional justification for tightening the siege on Gaza and the  escalation of Israeli violence.

The cycle of violence and bloodshed goes on and on, and the threat of  an overall invasion and re-conquest of the Gaza Strip is openly and  repeatedly made by the Israeli military and political leaders - with  the cost estimated at hundreds or thousands of casualties.

We, the undersigned - Israelis and Palestinians - do not accept this  grim reality as inevitable. There is a clear and obvious alternative  to bloody escalation and strangulating siege, an alternative  providing hope: an end to the siege of Gaza, and a ceasefire and  cessation of all hostilities.

The siege of Gaza and the collective punishment of its population are  totally unacceptable. It is a medieval form of war which is in utter  contradiction to the present norms of human rights and international  law - which Israel, as an occupying power, is bound to respect. There should be an immediate end to the siege, unconnected with any  other issue, and the Gaza Strip must have free access to the outside  world, for the free passage of persons and goods.

It has already been clearly seen that the suffering inflicted on  Palestinian civilians in Gaza did not and cannot solve the problem of  Sderot. The only solution is a complete and mutual ceasefire, an end  to all armed attacks by the Israeli occupation on Palestinians,  including all shootings by infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft and  gunboats, and all targeted killings, armed incursions and arrests  across the border, and an end to launching of rockets by Palestinians  on Israelis. In addition, this should involve a reopening of the prisoners issue,  starting with negotiations on the exchange of Israeli soldier Gilead  Shalit with Palestinian prisoners.

We regard such a ceasefire as an entirely realistic, achievable and  desirable act, which would save lives, alleviate misery and create  better conditions for any attempt to achieve peace between the two  peoples - while understanding that no long-lasting solution is  possible while the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East  Jerusalem continue to live under occupation.

[The following appears as ad in Haaretz,  today Feb. 29, 2008]

64% of the Israeli public already agree:

We must talk with Hamas about a

Cease Fire!

No Qassams! No targeted assassinations! No mortar shells! No incursions! No blockade!

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