CPA Statement on Political Violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip

Dear CPA Members,

The Caribbean Philosophical Association recognizes the immensity of human suffering incurred by millions of people in Israel and the Gaza Strip. We recognize the long and complex history that bifurcates Israelis and Palestinians into politically opposed groups that fuels violence and creates cultures of retribution; we recognize this as antithetical to political processes that affirm difference and conflict as inevitable aspects of the desire to find peaceful co-existence among human beings, communities, and cultures. The affirmation of difference and conflict must not degrade into unrestrained hatred, the desire to kill and destroy the other, or to act out of retribution.

At the current moment we recognize that the immensity of human suffering already propagated by the October 7 attack on Israel have been extended through extensive bombing and the blocking of humanitarian aid into Gaza. A ground assault will proliferate human suffering exponentially. We stand against the reduction of political action to war and occupation and urge the building of cultures that can cultivate peaceful co-existence even in the midst of deeply imbued historical violence.

25 October 2023