Dear Beloved Community,
 
This is the cruelest time for human beings in Palestine and Israel. The pain is profound. Children are, yet again, paying the highest price. But we must not sit idly by as the violence traumatizes yet another generation.

At House of Hope, we believe in peace. We also believe the magnificent dream of a lasting peace won't come without justice. We also believe in love's transformative, limitless power— love for you, me, and all. We also believe in the two-state solution, where the two nations of Palestine and Israel live side-by-side in peace and prosperity.

In the West Bank, we are living under a military siege and have little freedom of movement. Israeli army checkpoints block our town's entrances and exits. Most of our roads are closed. Tear gas seeps into the rooms in our homes. 

We are suffering a lot, not just because of our villages' conditions. We also feel the pain of the people of Gaza, who are aggressively bombed and have no solutions for their lives and dreams. Our Palestinian children in Gaza feel internationally isolated and that their lives don't matter as they watch more buildings collapse into rubble as death comes closer.

Our students' dreams are simple: to play with no army around them. No sounds of gun shooting. And no home demolitions in their neighborhood.

Their dreams are our dreams. And since we are ALL children of God, your dreams are our dreams, too. We all want to live peacefully, healed from intergenerational trauma and fear.

Let us stop this war.
Let us stop supporting weapons sales.
Let us stop preaching hate.
Let us stop hiding in our ideological tribes.
Let us stop making innocent people pay for another government's evil.
Let us stop discriminating and murdering beloved children of God.

At House of Hope, we provide our children with an education that heals. In our healing classrooms, we promote diversity, interreligious dialogue, freedom of speech, and respect for differences.

Please stand with us. Keep us in your prayers and good deeds toward a better future in Palestine.

Salaam,

Milad Vosgueritchian,  Co-Founder and Peace Education Director, House of Hope Vision School