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Peace Action

Baltimore

Affiliated with peaceaction.org

Mobilizing for Action to Create Peace with Justice

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Baltimore Peace Action Members join a sit-in to end the genocide in Gaza outside of Congressman Mfume's office in Baltimore.

Members stage a protest in front of Rep. Ruppersberger's to stop the genocide in Gaza.

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Baltimore Peace Action Members hold signs and banners over I-83 JFX, eliciting honks from cars.

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Baltimore Peace Action Members join a protest march in Washington, D.C. to urge Congress
and President Biden to support a ceasefire in Gaza now. 

Member Lou Curren with Ambassador from
Sierra Leone on Jan. 24, 2024, when she received a certificate of appreciation for signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, now ratified by 70 nations and signed by many more. 

Typical certificate presented to 70 Ambassadors in DC by Maryland Peace Action members.

Baltimore Peace Action members presented a letter to the CEO of Northrop-Grumman on Jan. 22, 2024, asking for economic conversion to peaceful products.

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Sanity VS Doomsday, a song by Peace Action Baltimore member Richard Ochs.

We envision a world without war and without nuclear weapons, with resources devoted to human needs and a sustainable environment, rather than militarism.

If we don’t work for peace, who will?  An obscene and ever-increasing military budget, some 800 U.S. foreign military bases, “kinetic” wars in several countries, a dramatic increase in the threat of nuclear war, the decimation of diplomacy as a tool—before it is too late, let’s build the political will to change U.S. foreign policy.

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Who We Are

Baltimore Peace Action is a chapter of Maryland Peace Action, the Maryland affiliate of Peace Action, the nation’s largest peace organization. Baltimore Peace Action is also a member of the Peace in Ukraine Coalition: https://www.peaceinukraine.org/

and Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal:

https://merchantsofdeath.org/

 

Current issues

Nuclear Disarmament,

Negotiations for an End to the Ukraine War

Palestinian Freedom.

 

Join Us

Baltimore Peace Action meets monthly and virtually on the first Tuesday at 11 AM.  We send the zoom link phone numbers to members. We also meet monthly in-person on the third Saturday in Charles Village. Non-members may request info at: info@peaceactionmd.org​

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Global Firepower - 2024 World Military Strength Rankings Reference detailing major and minor global military powers through accumulated statistics and rankings. www.globalfirepower.com

Recent News

Israel’s ‘Two-State’ Smokescreen for Ethnic Cleansing

December 7, 2023

 

The genocide in Gaza must not be viewed in isolation, writes Hamza Ali Shah. It is inextricably linked to what is happening in the West Bank. By Hamza Ali Shah Declassified UK

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“The two-state solution is no longer possible”. Those were the uncharacteristically honest words of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Tzipi Hotovely, last week.

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From the person who callously denied a humanitarian catastrophe existed in Gaza and had the audacity to dismiss the idea that innocent Palestinians were being murdered by Israeli bombardment, it was a rare moment.

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However, her admission that a two-state solution was out of the equation and an “independent state of Palestine was politically impossible” was framed as a seemingly unfortunate and unwelcome policy development. 

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The indirect implication is that as a result of 7 October, when Hamas attacked Israel, changed political circumstances render a Palestinian state problematic.

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The reality is far simpler than that: a two-state solution, or any tangible framework that upholds Palestinian statehood, is unachievable because decades of Israeli state policy is working as intended.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made unambiguously clear in July that Israel must “crush” Palestinian statehood ambitions. 

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Nor is it a new standpoint. In his 2015 election campaign, he made clear there would beno Palestinian state under his watch.

That same Netanyahu, at a United Nations General Assembly speech earlier this year,presented a map showing the “new Middle East,” wherein the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip were part of Israel.

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Perpetual Anguish

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The state of perpetual anguish is the only type of Palestinian state that Israel is willing to accommodate.

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Yet the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, the only two parties that can realistically govern Britain, appear to live in an illusory world where the two-state solution is alive and Israel allows the establishment of a sovereign Palestine. 

Both leaders of the parties have reiterated those policy positions in recent weeks.

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By persisting with the robotic recitations about a two-state solution, Britain’s political class are providing the perfect smokescreen for Israel as it deliberately nullifies the possibility of Palestinian statehood and consolidates the one-apartheid-state reality.

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Indeed, Netanyahu’s map that erased Palestine chillingly captured the undeniable trajectory on the ground.

This year has seen the Israeli government take ruthless steps to annex the West Bank. Within the first six months of the year, Israel’s government approved the construction of a record number of settler housing units. 

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According to the U.N., around 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, a number which has grown by 180,000 since 2012. 

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Israel’s strategy coincides with an intensification of housing demolitions. During the first quarter of the year, Israeli authorities also demolished, forced people to demolish or seized 290 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, forcing many of them to leave their communities. 

This marked a 46 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022.

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Record Killings in West Bank 

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Where Palestinians were not being displaced, their lives were at the mercy of Israel’s unsparing occupation forces. Between 1 January and 6 October, Israeli forces killed more Palestinians in the West Bank than in any other year since 2005.

It also marked the deadliest year on record for children murdered in the West Bank.

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The systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that was being perpetrated was as undeniable as it was unforgiving.

And that was before the international green light for Palestinian mass slaughter and displacement was awarded to Israel after 7 October. Since then, human rights organisations describe Israeli policy in the West Bank as the most aggressive land grab since 1967.

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Settlers in particular have been emboldened and are imposing a reign of terror. The U.N. has recorded at least 281 settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October.

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers in the last six weeks. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have murdered at least 201 Palestinians including 52 children in the same period.

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More than 1,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, often citing settler violence and intimidation as a primary reason. Many have been kept at gunpoint, abused and humiliated.

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End Game

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“All Arabs should die. All who don’t die should go to Jordan,” one Palestinian recalls an illegal settler shouting whilst beating him.

It’s imperative that such fascistic tendencies are not treated as fringe views. Rather, they characterise the Israeli establishment’s strategic objective, and the settlers are facilitating it. 

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In fact, the idea of Palestinians being killed or emigrating is precisely what Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich considers the only logical option available for Palestinians. He calls this the West Bank’s end game: complete Israeli seizure of the territory in order to make the Jewish state an accomplished fact.

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The West Bank was always deemed an intrinsic part of any future, independent Palestinian state. But the options Palestinians face are all on the spectrum of cruelty: remain under permanent occupation or be subjected to ethnic cleansing and land usurpation. 

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One option that is being viciously ruled out is self-determination.

Importantly, this crystallises why the genocide in Gaza must not be viewed in isolation and is inextricably linked to what is happening in the West Bank. 

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When Israeli ministers openly boast about “rolling out the Nakba” whilst other former ministers go on television to underscore that “we all need 2 million to leave” in reference to the optimal scenario for Gaza’s future, signs of a sweeping land grab become painfully noticeable.

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When both Netanyahu and Smotrich hint that Israel will retain operational and security control of Gaza — effectively synonyms for occupation — the outlook for residents in Gaza already grappling with so much destruction is compounded. Worse still, in deplorable circumstances, like in the West Bank, draconian Israeli occupation seemingly represents the least bad option.

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A think tank with close ties to Netanyahu issued a report shortly after 7 October advocating the “relocation and final settlement of the entire Gaza population.” It cited Israel’s war on Gaza as a “unique and rare opportunity” to carry it out. The methods may differ in the scale and speed of enforcement. But the fundamental intention is multi-pronged and in full swing: systematically obliterate any prospect of a Palestinian state by leaving no Palestinians, nor land for them to inhabit.

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For politicians to sincerely place Palestinian rights at the heart of any campaign would be to acknowledge the deep-seated settler colonial ethos that has long instructed Israel’s operations and the apartheid structures that sustain it.

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Jewish Supremacy

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The bare minimum should be a demand for a reversal of the one-state reality defined by Jewish supremacy that has long been structurally embedded in Israeli law, politics and society.

But a Labour and Conservative political class that firmly voted against a ceasefire, overwhelmingly opposes and criminalises non-violent avenues that seek to isolate Israel, like imposing sanctions, and have no qualms about arming Israel’s war machine

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These figures also fundamentally reject the description of apartheid, showing they are only interested in maintaining the British foreign policy tradition of propping up a colonial regime.

Two definitive points become unavoidable: That whilst the two-state paradigm is defunct, the struggle for Palestinian freedom will not disappear no matter the circumstances.

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And secondly, that the British political establishment are certainly not allies in that struggle. As Israeli officials demand Gaza becomes “a place where no human can exist” whilst the military sings from the same hymn sheet, it would be erroneous to suggest that is merely an unconventional hardline attitude to Palestinian existence and freedom that 7 October gave birth to.

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Hamza Ali Shah is a British-Palestinian writer and journalist whose work focuses on Palestine. He has reported on daily life under occupation for Palestinians including home demolitions and forced expulsion and the conditions for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. He has also extensively covered the British political establishment’s legislation and policies towards Palestine. He has contributed to Tribune Magazine, Jacobin, +972 Magazine and New Internationalist. This article is from Declassified UK.

Palestine before October 7: desperation and anger

 

Israel has been massacring Palestinians for decades

 

Kill ratio in Israel/Palestine since 2000:

 

Since 2000, the average kill ratio has been 6 Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed by each other prior to October 7. Since then, the kill ratio is 33 to one.
 

From January 1, 2000 to October 7, 2023, at least 18,097 Palestinians and 2,746 Israelis have been killed by someone from the other side.

These charts were published in the Baltimore Sun on October 11, 2023:

https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/charts/

 

From 2005 to 2022, approximately 4,460 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army and settlers during those 16 years. In 2014, the IDF raided Gaza, costing 100 Israeli lives and 2,200 Palestinian lives, or a ratio of 22 to 1.

Since 2000 at least 2,434 Palestinian children and 143 Israeli children have been killed by someone from the other side prior to October 7, 2023. That is a ratio of 17 to 1.

 

 

 

The Hamas raid on settlers on Oct. 7 occurred after the killing of 4,460 Palestinians by the IDF and settlers. The 2014 IDF raid into Gaza produced a ratio of 22 to 1 deaths. However, Hamas’s killing on October 7 now results in Israeli revenge bombing of genocidal proportions. With 40,000 Palestinians killed since Oct. 7, the kill ratio is now 33 to one.

The complicity of the Biden administration with genocide and war crimes is isolating the US around the world. Most of the world knows the truth, but the U.S. and European media is hiding the above truth from their citizens. The genocide is a public relations disaster for Israel, but blinded by hatred and revenge, traditional values of Judaism have been destroyed by Zionist apartheid.

The global sympathy for Jews after the Holocaust has unfortunately been squandered. The Jewish diaspora was well-placed to provide international leadership against racism, as they did in the civil rights movement. Now that has been overshadowed by Israel’s crimes in Palestine. The Jewish moral high ground has been damaged. However, Jewish leadership in the student encampment movement against genocide may turn the tide.

The root cause of this crisis goes to the US. and European leaders who hypocritically supported the Zionist project to limit the number of Jewish immigrants into their own countries. The Exodus ship was turned back. Jews were violently forced upon Palestine, then 80% Arab, creating perpetual warfare, now resulting in genocide. That was an anti-Semitic and anti-Arab set-up by Western powers who are now pretending to be protectors of Jews while profiting from weapon sales.

The above comments are by Richard J. Ochs of Baltimore Peace Action.

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Ceasefire to stop genocide on Gaza and West Bank

Cut US money and weapons.

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Cut fossil fuels

More jobs are created per federal dollar spent on environment than on weapons. Tell Congress to prevent more floods, fires, droughts, and storms with solar and wind. Climate chaos kills!

 

Rejoin Obama’s Iran Deal

Tell members of Congress and President Biden to rejoin the Iran deal which was working.  Sanctions on Iran need to be lifted to comply with the agreement.

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Abolish nuclear weapons

The U.S. and the others that possess nuclear weapons are in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NNPT). Nuclear powers must start disarmament.  The US should take the lead before anyone blunders over Ukraine.

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Stop U.S. forever wars

Congress is wasting trillions of dollars in wars. The Iraq and Syrian governments want U.S. troops out. Tell Congress to stop these illegal invasions.

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Cut war budget and refund people

Profiteering weapons manufacturers bribe Congress to promote wars while Americans and others suffer.

Tell Congress to cut the war budget in half!

 

Talk peace with China & Russia

China & Russia need not be our enemies. We need to cooperate to prevent climate collapse & pandemics & promote trade. Tell Congress to stop provoking Russia & China with bases & weapons.

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Stop sanctions which kill millions

The US. has illegal embargoes on Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen blocking food and medicine, spreading disease, and killing millions.

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You can tell Congress to stop U.S. militarism by calling 202-225-3121.

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