#StopSendingArms: Die VDJ unterstützt die von mehr als 100 internationalen Organisationen unterzeichnete Erklärung zum Stopp von Waffenlieferung an Israel!

Die VDJ fordert die Bundesregierung auf, das in ihrer Macht stehende zu tun, um der Entscheidung des Internationalen Gerichtshofs (IGH) zur Wirksamkeit zu verhelfen. Die Bundesregierung sollte ihre voreilige Unterstützung für Israel in dem Hauptsacheverfahren vor dem IGH zurückzuziehen. Der IGH hat alle Länder aufgefordert, die Gefahr des Völkermords in Gaza durch Israel mit allen Mitteln zu begegnen. Die Bundesregierung muss deshalb die Waffenlieferungen an Israel beenden und sich für eine sofortige Waffenruhe einsetzen, um nicht selbst mitverantwortlich für einen möglichen Völkermord in Gaza zu werden.

Wir veröffentlichen hier den englischen Text der Erklärung:

#StopSendingArms - An Open Call to all UN Member States to stop fuelling the crisis in Gaza and avert further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life    

We, the undersigned organisations, call on all States to immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups while there is risk they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.

Israel’s bombardment and siege are depriving the civilian population of the basics to survive and rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Today, the civilian population in Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented severity and scale.

Furthermore, Palestinian armed group-led attacks killed around 1,200 people and took hundreds of Israeli and foreign hostages, including children, and continue to hold more than 130 hostages captive inside Gaza. Armed groups in Gaza have continued to indiscriminately fire rockets toward population centers in Israel, disrupting school for children, displacing and threatening the lives and well being of civilians. Hostage-taking and indiscriminate attacks are violations of international humanitarian law and must end immediately.

Humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, United Nations officials, and more than 153 member states have called for an immediate ceasefire. However, Israel continues to use explosive weapons and munitions in densely populated areas with massive humanitarian consequences for the people of Gaza.  World leaders have urged the Israeli government to reduce civilian casualties, yet Israeli military operations in Gaza continue to kill people at unprecedented levels, according to recent remarks by the UN Secretary-General. Member states have a legal responsibility to use all possible tools to leverage better protection of civilians and adherence to international humanitarian law. Gaza’s remaining lifeline – an internationally-funded humanitarian aid response – has been paralyzed by the intensity of the hostilities, which have included the shooting of aid convoys, recurrent communications blackouts, damaged roads, restrictions on essential supplies, an almost complete ban on commercial supplies, and a bureaucratic process to send aid into Gaza.  

Israel’s military activity has destroyed a substantial portion of Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, water infrastructure, shelters, and refugee camps; the indiscriminate nature of these bombings and, a pattern of apparently disproportionate civilian harm they routinely cause, is unacceptable. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned of the “heightened risk of atrocity crimes” being committed in Gaza and called on all states to prevent such crimes from unfolding. Since this call, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has only deteriorated further:

• More than 25,000 Palestinians, at least 10,000 of them children, have been killed in less than four months, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Thousands more are buried under the rubble and presumed dead.
• More than 62,000 people have been injured, many with life-changing injuries that will leave them with permanent disabilities; these include more than 1,000 Palestinian children who have lost one or more of their upper or lower limbs.
• An unknown number of Palestinian civilians, reportedly including children, have been unlawfully detained, according to the UN, and must be released.
• Palestinians continue to be killed nearly every day in areas the Israeli government told them to flee. In the first week of 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed 14 people - the majority children - near an area Israeli forces prescribed as a “humanitarian zone.”  
• Over 85% of Gaza’s population, around 1.9 million people, has been forcibly displaced. Many followed Israeli-issued orders to relocate south and are now being squeezed into tiny pockets of land that cannot sustain human life, which have become breeding ground for the spread of disease.
• More than half of a million Palestinians in Gaza face starvation and more than 90%  of the population faces acute food insecurity, the highest proportion ever recorded by a technical humanitarian body responsible for making evidence-based assessments of food insecurity.
• More than 70%  of Gaza’s homes, much of its schools, and its water and sanitation infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged and left the population with almost no access to clean water.
• Not a single medical facility in the enclave is fully operational and those partially functioning are overwhelmed with trauma cases and shortages of medical supplies and doctors. More than 300 health workers have been killed.
• At least 167* aid workers in Gaza have been killed, the highest of any conflict in this century.

Gaza today is the most dangerous place to be a child, a journalist, and an aid worker. Hospitals and schools should never become battlegrounds. These conditions have created a situation of utter desperation inside Gaza, leading top aid officials to declare that there are no longer the conditions for a meaningful humanitarian response in Gaza. This will not change until the siege, the bombardment and the fighting ends. The United Nations recently described humanitarian access in January so far as a “significant deterioration.” Israeli forces have repeatedly denied permission for aid convoys to reach areas north of Wadi Gaza where people are at the highest risk of starvation.

In recent weeks, high ranking Israeli officials have begun calling for the deportation of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza. The forcible transfer within Gaza and deportation of a portion of the population across borders, lacking any guarantees of return, would constitute a serious violation of international law, amounting to an atrocity crime.

We demand an immediate ceasefire and call on all states to halt the transfer of weapons that can be used to commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN Security Council must fulfill its responsibility to maintain global peace and security by adopting measures to halt the transfer of weapons to the Government of Israel and Palestinian armed groups and prevent the supply of arms that risk being used in the commission of international crimes, effective immediately.

All states have the obligation to prevent atrocity crimes and promote adherence to norms that protect civilians. The international community is long overdue to live up to these commitments.

Undersigned

1. Amnesty International
2. Norwegian Refugee Council
3. Save the Children
4. Oxfam
5. Federation Handicap International - Humanity & Inclusion
6. War Child Alliance
7. Christian Aid
8. Norwegian People’s Aid
9. Médecins du Monde International Network
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Medico international
12. Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)
13. Danish Refugee Council
14. Plan International
15. Diakonia
16. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
17. Welfare Association
18. War on Want
19. War Childhood Museum Foundation
20. WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
21. United Nations Association - UK
22. Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS)
23. Human Rights Sentinel
24. IM Swedish Development Partner
25. Firefly International
26. UOSSM GE
27. Nonviolent Peaceforce
28. Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
29. Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
30. France Palestine Mental Health Network
31. Syrian Network for Human Rights.
32. INGO ALG CONSULTANT GROUP
33. Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development
34. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
35. Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)
36. The National Organization of Yemeni Reporters SADA
37. UJFP
38. Development and Peace - Caritas Canada
39. EmpowerVan
40. Train of Hope Dortmund e.V.
41. Jewish Network for Palestine
42. مدافعات للحقوق والحريات والتنميه
43. PELDA
44. Ina autra senda - Swiss Friends of Combatants for Peace
45. Street Child
46. Polish Medical Mission
47. Peace SOS
48. Gender Advisory Team
49. Olof Palmes Internationella Center
50. Cordaid
51. Street Child España
    Share The World's Resources
    Church and Peace - Ecumenical Peace Church Network in Europe
    Terre des Hommes Netherlands
    Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine
    PAX
    EuroMed Rights
    CAFOD
    Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
    Secours catholique caritas France
    Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - UK
    Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - Germany
    Legal Action Worldwide (LAW)
    Cordaid
    MADRE
    ReThinking Foreign Policy
    pax christi - Deutsche Sektion e.V.
    Vredesactie
    Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
    Network for Children's Rights
    The United Church of Canada
    The Busines Plan for Peace
    Danish Muslim Aid
    Peace Direct
    Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine (BA4P)
    The United Church of Canada
    Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
    International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Germany
    Initiatives et Changement
    WeWorld
    Equal Legal Aid
    Action Corps
    Greek affiliate of IPPNW
    KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
    Committee of 100 in Finland
    Khulumani Support Group
    Amos Trust
    Centre for Peace Research and Advocacy -CPRA
    Avaaz
    Christian Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
    Salam For Yemen
    Emmaus International
    Palestinian farmers union
    Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
    Peace Action
    Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations
    ForcesWatch
    Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ
    The Presbyterian Church in Canada
    Ciusss centre sud
    Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy
    The Dallaire Institute for Children Peace and Security
    Creatura Think & Do Tank ry
    The Hague Peace Projects
    Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
    Nonviolence International
    Primate's World Relief and Development Fund
    The Anglican Church of Canada/L'Eglise anglican du Canada
    Ekō
    Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte
    Young Christian Students Movement South Africa
    Laurentiuskonvent e.V.
    Socialist Movement of Ghana
    Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation
    Japan Fellowship of Reconciliation
    EgyptWide for Human Rights
    Pax Christi International
    Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
    Sanad Basra Organization for Human Rights
    Association Pour Jérusalem
    Community of Christ
    Women Volunteers for Peace
    Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Societal Responsibility
    Vereinigung Demokratischer Juristinnen und Juristen e.V. (VDJ)
    AFPS Paris-Sud
    Culture de Palestine
    Kristna Fredsrörelsen / SweFOR
    Christian CND
    Medical Association for Prevention of War
    HelpAge International
    Quakers in Scotland (General Meeting for Scotland)
    Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e. V.
    DAWN MENA
    Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
    NVMP-Artsen voor vrede
    ActionAid France
    Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Societal Responsibility (FIfF) e.V.
    Pax Christi Scotland
    Shujaa-Initiative
    Pax Christi Italia
    Pax Christi - Perú
    Center for Jewish Nonviolence
    Peace Movement Aotearoa
    Center for Peace Education, Miriam College
    Amos Trust

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