Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King released the following statement condemning the Israeli government’s military takeover of the Rafah crossing:
This operation puts over a million civilians, of which 600,000 are children, into the crossfire of an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life to the eradication of violence. In 1964, he said that nonviolence is the answer to the political and moral questions of our time. The same is true today and that is why we are calling for the global community to stand firmly against this latest move.
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1964
We continue to urge the return of all hostages and an end to hostilities. The bloodshed must stop, and the Israeli government must withdraw from Rafah. We cannot stand by while thousands of lives are lost by the pursuit of vengeance — seventy percent of which have been women and children. Peace must prevail.