Witness at Raytheon, RTX

Over 50 people gathered outside Raytheon, one of ten weapons contractors in Ft Wayne, IN, on the afternoon of September 5. Participants representing at least six COB congregations from the two Districts of Indiana and a group of ten from the Manchester University Kenapocomoco Peace Coalition were joined by other Christians, Muslims, Jews, and non-faith folks to say a strong "NO!" to the Israeli/US genocide against Gaza.

Veterans For Peace, VFP, had initiated this week of Solidarity with the People of Gaza by earlier sending a well-documented eleven page letter to US State Department offices across the country pointing out the ways that US military munitions and enabling actions in support of Israel break many US and international laws that are in place to prevent genocide and human rights violations.

This first week of September VFP and friends were delivering the same letter to congressional offices, military bases, and military contractors in dozens of locations across the country. With the goal of ending the genocide in Gaza the local Ft Wayne Coalition "asked" the contractors to 1) stop sales of weapons used by Israel in Gaza, 2) compel the US Administration to institute a total arms embargo of Israel, and 3) transform their production lines to build tools that care for and nurture all the peoples of the globe. The Coalition is expecting a rapid response.

Interestingly, Parkview Health, a major regional healthcare provider, leases space and buildings to two of the arms manufacturers complicit in the massive onslaught in Gaza. Because targeting all the health facilities in Gaza, most mosques and churches, schools, 80% of the homes, the clean water sources, food supplies, energy sources, humanitarian aid, and sites where IDF forces have encouraged the population to move for safety is clearly not improving health for the people of Gaza, the Coalition has asked that 1) Parkview terminate its leases with the military contractors, 2) lead the way among national health providers to compel the US Administration to implement a total arms embargo on Israel, and 3) send health teams to assist Doctors Without Borders in their Gaza clinics.

The Coalition, which had very strong COB participation, is asking everyone, Coalition members included, to respond positively to these "invitations to goodness," recognizing that all of us are guilty of not stopping that genocide in Gaza over the last eleven months. Clearly our taxes and our inaction allow that genocide to continue unimpeded. Appropriate actions of goodness might include prayers, walking off the weapons assembly lines, divesting from weapons stocks and Israeli companies that support the occupation, teaching our children and grandchildren the ways of peace, and stepping away from our economic constructs that demand profit at all costs, that prioritize money over people.

By Cliff Kindy