Palo Alto: Emergency Peace Vigil and Leafletting to Call for an Immediate Ceasefire

The death toll in Lebanon now stands at nearly 400 people, nearly all of them non-combatant civilians. One third of the dead are children. Half a million people are now refugees in their own country, with nowhere to flee. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbor, said, "Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians," and she implied that it might constitute a war crime. On the other side, Hezbollah is also indiscriminately shelling cities in Israel, where civilians again pay the ultimate price.

In the face of all the killing, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and a growing chorus of international voices are very sensibly and compassionately calling for an immediate cease-fire. Yet the U.S. government, standing nearly alone – again – in the international arena, rejects this urgently necessary step. Congress has also, almost unanimously, rejected a cease-fire by passing unquestioning resolutions in support of Israel.

We will publicly call on our leaders to help save innocent lives by supporting a cease-fire. We will also distribute leaflets with this same message to passersby.