My friends,
Please help our American friends to bring sanity to their country and peace to Syria. Please sign the petition and call on your friends, whereever they live, to do the same.
With solidary greetings from Elias Davidsson
October 31, 2016
Dear Members and Friends of Hands Off Syria Coalition,
We write to you with great sense of apprehension that we are on the eve of wider war against Syria. The [U.S.-based] Hands Off Syria Coalition’s Coordinating Committee expresses its most sincere gratitude for your commitment to peace. As you can see from the list of endorsers on the Coalition’s web site, the response to the Hands Off Syria Statement of Unity has been tremendous. It has been translated into 6 languages, has well over a thousand signers and has sparked a desperately needed discussion. It is now time for us to put the force of this unity into action and work together to bring an end to the war on Syria and its people.
The process of drafting a unity statement to oppose the war on Syria started a couple of months ago, when leading members of several peace organizations initiated a discussion on the need to stand up to the intense war propaganda justifying U.S. / NATO intervention in Syria. “Points of Unity” were drafted and approved by the initiating group based on the painful experience of lies and fabricated charges used in past U.S. wars. We then reached out to about 50 other organizations and leading individuals in the peace and justice movement for their comments and feedback. It was only after their feedback was incorporated into a final Points of Unity Statement that the document was publicized broadly. This is how the Hands Off Syria Coalition was formed.
Faced with the great urgency of this expanding war, all of us feel the great need to create the broadest possible coalition of peace forces and activists, from all perspectives, to join hands and fight collectively to fight for an end to the ongoing war against Syria.
We are faced with the urgent issue of war and peace in Syria and the Syrian people’s right to independence and self-determination. And, on this basis, we once again ask you to distribute this statement more broadly and invite all your organizations, colleagues and friends to sign the Hands Off Syria Points of Unity Statement and join this Coalition effort to work collectively for peace in Syria. Please also encourage your colleagues and friends to visit the Coalition’s web site and Facebook page.
Once again, we express our sincere thanks for your determined support.
Coordinating Committee of Hands Off Syria Coalition:
Bahman Azad, Executive Board Member and Organizational Secretary, U.S. Peace Council
Dr. Issa Chaer, Board of Syria Solidarity Movement and Syrian Social Club, UK
Gerry Condon, National Board Vice President, Veterans For Peace* (for identification only)
Sara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action Center
Margaret Kimberly, Editor and Senior Columnist, Black Agenda Report
Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinator, United National Anti-War Coalition
HandsOffSyriaCoalition.net