Our brothers’ and sisters’ blood cries out to us from the ground.

We have watched with pain and sorrow as the recent wave of terror attacks have claimed too many lives and orphaned too many children. We unconditionally condemn these violent attacks on innocent Israeli citizens. No political motive justifies murdering or injuring civilians. We call on the Palestinian and international leadership to condemn these attacks in no uncertain terms.

We also know that the way out of violence is not more violence. We cry too for the Palestinians, including a thirteen-year-old whose death the army classifies as an accident, killed by live fire on demonstrators. They, too, are our brothers and sisters. Neither home demolitions nor widespread closures of roads and towns nor vigilante attacks by Israeli civilians will quell the violence. These responses both violate the human rights of Palestinians and escalate the conflict.

The only way out of this cycle of violence is to pursue a long-term peaceful solution, especially when the situation feels most difficult. Opponents of peace on both sides wish to maintain conflict, and to stop any progress toward creating a Palestinian state side-by-side with a secure Israel. We cannot let these enemies of peace win.

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