GitHub link for contributing edits
A war criminal and crook sits in the Oval Office.[Link]
A war criminal and crook is the leading candidate of the Republican party.[Link]
A war criminal sits in 10 Downing Street.[Link]
Hamas has yet to unilaterally release hostages and surrender unconditionally.[Link]
Israel continues to kill civilians in Gaza, and refuses to honor its treaty obligations.[Link]
The United States has vetoed a resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for a ceasefire, and continues to provide munitions to Israel.[Link]
Iran has yet to disavow the actions of Hamas and remove their funding.[Link]
Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to resign.[Link]
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" - Hillel the Elder
"That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." - Hillel the Elder
"The believers, in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other are like one body. If any part aches, the whole body feels pain." (Sahih Muslim)
"The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr." (Hadith)
"The best of people are those that bring most benefit to the rest of mankind." (Daraqutni, Hasan)
"The best jihad is the word of justice in front of the oppressive sultan." (Abu Dawud, Hasan)
"O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another." (Quran 49:13)
"And do not kill yourselves [or one another]. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful." (Quran 4:29)
"And what will explain to you what the steep path is? It is the freeing of a slave or feeding on a day of severe hunger, an orphan of near relationship, or a needy person in misery." (Quran 90:12-16)
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9, New Testament)
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21, New Testament)
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?" (James 2:14, New Testament)
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." (Matthew 25:35, New Testament)
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein
"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein
"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means." - Ronald Reagan
"Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences." - Mikhail Gorbachev
"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." - John F. Kennedy
"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace." - Buddha
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." - Nelson Mandela
"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." - Buddha
"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true." - Buddha
"Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule." - Buddha
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." - Buddha
"I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done." - Buddha
"The root of suffering is attachment." - Buddha
"To understand everything is to forgive everything." - Buddha
"Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life." - Buddha
"A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity." - Buddha
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." - Albert Camus
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama
"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
"There's a Palestine that dwells inside all of us, a Palestine that needs to be rescued: a free Palestine where all people regardless of color, religion, or race coexist; a Palestine where the meaning of the word "occupation" is only restricted to what the dictionary says rather than those plenty of meanings and connotations of death, destruction, pain, suffering, deprivation, isolation and restrictions that Israel has injected the word with." - Refaat Alareer
"What is there beyond the sky?' I asked my mother. 'Paradise.' 'What does it look like?' 'Like children’s dreams. - Refaat Alareer
"All that I can tell you is that nothing can justify it, not even the most sacred ends in the world, not even peace itself, understand me?' 'Yes, Mom. Nothing can justify our scars." - Refaat Alareer
"What to tell you? Gaza is frustrating these days—well, these years. It’s a good exercise in patience, at least." - Refaat Alareer
"It is when darkness prevails that I sit by the window to look past all those electricity-free houses, smell the sweet scent of a calm Gazan night, feel the fresh air going straight to my heart, and think of you, of me, of Palestine, of the crack, of the blank wall, of you, of Mama, of you, of my history class, of you, of God, of Palestine—of our incomplete story." - Refaat Alareer
"It took only one gunshot. His brother and the canary were silenced forever, in front of his eyes..." - Refaat Alareer
"Of all the people around me, you know best that it takes two to complete a story; it always does." - Refaat Alareer
"The refugee card was and continues to be an insult to remind us of the little that refugees get in comparison with what they have really lost. Would a bag of flour compensate for the farmland they once had? Would a bag of sugar make up for the bitter misery those people have always felt after losing their sweet homes to dwell in refugee camps? Would the two bottles of oil make them forget their olive trees, which had been mercilessly uprooted as they themselves were? Or maybe it is simply a declaration that they are temporary refugees who once had the land which, as long as this card is still in their hands, would still be waiting for them to return. Only a shot of sharp pain brought me back to the present." - Refaat Alareer
"A picture is not going to be like a stone that has been subjected to the rain and the heat and the cold and the dirt and the smell of Jerusalem. This stone is Jerusalem. It is." - Refaat Alareer
"Sometimes I lay under the moon and thank God I'm breathing. Then I pray, don't take me soon 'cause I am here for a reason." - Matisyahu
"All my life I've been waiting for, I've been praying for, for the people to say that we don't wanna fight no more, there'll be no more wars, and our children will play." - Matisyahu
"Jerusalem, if I forget you, fire not gonna come from my tongue." - Matisyahu
"Rebuild the temple and the crown of glory. Years gone by, about sixty. Burn in the oven in this century, and the gas tried to choke, but it couldn't choke me." - Matisyahu
"Keep on moving to the first rays of dawn, keeping it on 'til the day stays strong. Run till the night time blazes on." - Matisyahu
"Youth is the engine of the world." - Matisyahu
"Vote." - Barack Obama
Any Israeli or Palestinian civilian killed in any way on or after October 7th, as well as any Israeli military personnel killed before October 8th. Please contact us (@peacecraft2023 on Twitter) to suggest more relevant names; please provide links to reputable news sources so that we can verify the names of the dead. By preference, we request Haaretz links for Israeli dead and Twitter/X links from reputable non-Hamas-aligned journalists for Palestinian dead.
Refaat Alareer[Link]
Aviv Atzili[Link]
Our inspiration for this project is the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Vietnam War Memorial is a black wall with the names of all the American soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. The wall is a powerful reminder of the human cost of war, and it is a place where people can go to mourn their loved ones. We hope that this project can serve a similar purpose for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Phase 1 will be the creation of a website that will serve as a memorial for the dead. It will include a list of the dead, as well as a link for each name to a reputable news source reporting on the death of the individual.
Phase 2 will be the construction of a temporary border wall in downtown Berkeley, California, as well as any other location where people are working toward peace. The wall will be constructed of wood and paper, and will sit on wheels for easy movement. The wall will be constructed in a public space. The names of the Israeli dead will be on the side meant to face the Gaza Strip, and the names of the Palestinian dead will be on the side meant to face Israel. (The intent here is that more killing will only serve to add more names to the list that one's descendants will be looking at for generations to come.) Both sides will have extensive artwork and extensive quotes from various wisdom traditions. All the names of the dead will be written in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, and will have QR codes that link to the reputable news source describing their death. An Israeli flag will be placed on the side of the wall meant to face Israel, and a Palestinian flag will be placed on the side of the wall meant to face Gaza. American and Iranian flags will be placed atop the wall, in recognition of the role of more powerful countries in prolonging the conflict. It is hoped that the walls that are built throughout the world will become places of peaceful protest and respectful debate. But they will also be fairly natural targets for terrorists of all nations, so it will require both courage and dedication to build them in public places, and they will need to be well-defended by local police and security forces.
Phase 3 will be the construction of a temporary border wall in Gaza, after there is a ceasefire. The wall will be constructed of the finest cedar wood that can be obtained with donated funds that could have otherwise gone to take care of the remaining civilians in Gaza, and otherwise similar to the wall in Berkeley. The wall will be constructed in a public space. The names of the Israeli dead will be on the side facing Gaza, and the names of the Palestinian dead will be on the side facing Israel. Both sides will have extensive artwork and extensive quotes from various wisdom traditions. The wall will remain on wheels until there is a formal peace process mediated by the UN that results in the creation of two coequal states; this is meant to emphasize the temporary nature of any resolution to the conflict that is not rooted in true reconciliation and hope for a just and lasting peace.
Phase 4 will be the construction of a permanent border wall. The wall will be constructed of material sufficiently strong to withstand a suicide bombing, and otherwise made of the finest material that can be obtained with donated funds that could have otherwise gone to take care of the remaining survivors on both sides. The wall will be constructed in a public space. The names of the Israeli dead will be on the side facing Gaza. The names of the Palestinian dead will be on the side facing Israel. Both sides will have extensive artwork and extensive quotes from various wisdom traditions. It is hoped that peacekeeping forces can maintain order well enough that the wall will not need to be on wheels.