To build a world without violence, a world where Peace is the most valuable thing, we need young people!
In many towns and cities, we gather weekly to share the pain we feel for the Palestinian people and to ask ourselves whether we can do something. We miss young people there.
Our young people have grown up in a privileged society: they have been able to go to school, even to university; if they are unwell, they receive health care; they live in towns and cities with running water, cleaning services, electricity, internet access… Often, they are very worried about their own problems, but many times these problems are quite small if we think of the difficulties faced by most young people in the world who live in poverty.
Perhaps they don’t realize that everything previous generations achieved is now at risk: social services, gender equality, labour rights…
The warmongers keep advancing, spreading collective fear. Now we can already see how in neighbouring France they want to cut social rights while increasing the military budget up to 5% of the gross domestic product. Or how in Germany they want to bring back compulsory military service.
The most valuable thing we have is in danger: Peace.
That is why, young people, we want to ask you to get involved, not to remain indifferent to what is happening in Palestine, or in Ukraine, or in Sudan, or to the suffering of the Sahrawi people, or the Rohingya people...
That is why, young people, we want to ask you not to leave us alone: join us to share the suffering of the Palestinian people. Join us to work for Peace. Help us to overcome these terrifying times our world is going through.
After the Second World War, Martin Niemöller, a German Protestant pastor, wrote:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Social Democrats, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Social Democrat.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not protest—because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not protest—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Palestinians, and I did not protest—because I was not a Palestinian.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
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