Walter Baier’s speech on Oct. 7th 2024
Walter Baier as the only Austrian politician to join the event of Standing Together, the platform of Jews, Muslims and Christians for a ceasefire and just negotiations for both sides.
Walter Baier 7.10.2024 Karlsplatz Vienna
Speech at the vigil on the first anniversary of the massacre on 7 October 2023
No nation can wage war against the rest of the world
We come together on this sad anniversary to do the obvious: to mourn the loss of sons,
daughters, grandchildren, mothers, fathers, siblings, wives, husbands, work and study
colleagues.
You might think that this list of the victims’ social connections is irrelevant. But this is
not the case, because we must not allow the abstract language of war to become one.
The victims on the battlefields are not statistics; it is not ideologies, religions or nations
that die in the bombed-out camps and cities, but people who hope, expect and design
their lives, on which the hopes, expectations and life designs of their neighbours are
built.
Only then does the monstrosity of 7 October, the subsequent war and every war become
comprehensible.
I am a communist and, like my generation, was politicised by the US imperialist war in
Vietnam. All my political life I have been an opponent of imperialism and colonialism.
However, my peers and I would never have thought of misunderstanding a massacre of
civilians, such as the one carried out by Hamas on 7 October, as an act in a legitimate
struggle for liberation.
To continue reading click the pdf:
A call for peace
Now more than ever: “Forge swords into plowshares”!
A Greeting to the Peace Event on Hiroshima Day, August 6, 2024
Prof. Ingeborg Gabriel is the former vice-head of the Department of Systematic Theology and Ethics as well as Chair of Social Ethics at the University of Vienna.
In the middle of a war, the Jewish prophet Isaiah launched a message of peace, a promise
from God, a flaming appeal to beat plowshares out of swords!
His words are written as an appeal on a plaque in front of the United Nations Headquarters in
New York. His desire for peace and his hope must be cultivated at any time but particularly
today when every day brings new reports of military escalation. Russia’s attack on Ukraine
and that of the terrorist Hamas on Israel have set off dynamics that can hardly be stopped.
Peace economies are being transformed into war economies. Trade flows are interrupted. The
geopolitical situation is explosive. Hatred and fear in states formerly oppressed by the Soviet
Union or colonial powers are driving processes of polarization. Arms producers and lobbyists
know how to use them for their own benefit. Armament spending has never risen as sharply as
in recent years. It is 1000 billion US dollars (!) higher today than it was in 2005 (SIPRI from
1443 to 2443 million US dollars, April 2024). In the territories of Ukraine subjugated by
Russia, appalling human rights violations are being committed (according to a UN report) and
there are daily attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. The consequence of the Israeli
government’s illusory assumption that Hamas can be eradicated root and branch after the
terror attack costs tens of thousands of civilians lives, it leads to violations of international
humanitarian law and a destabilization of the entire Middle East. An international order that,
despite all its weaknesses, has provided good diplomatic services for decades has fallen into
coma. But now more than ever, it is important to build up resistance and fight for peace
against a bellicosity that poisons international relations, cynical recklessness and lazy
resignation!
Every individual, every civil society and every religious organization, especially churches and
states, have a duty to engage in peace furthering activities. This also applies to art, as this
year’s opening speaker at the Salzburg Festival, Nina Khrushcheva, urgently demanded.
Peace has seemed to us a matter of course for too long! We have settled into it and only now
we see what an undeserved gift it was that needs to be preserved.
To continue reading click the pdf:
There are many people like us, who would always stand together for peace, equality and justice, in Israel and Palestine
Dr.Ruti Katz speech at the event of Standing Together in Vienna
Ruth was born and raised in Jerusalem, musician, educator, and a lifelong peace and human rights activist. A member of Machsom Watch, an Israeli women human rights organisation, and a friend of The Villages Group who operates in south month Hebron. She moved to Vienna in 2022, since then a member of One State Embassy and one of the founders of Standing together Vienna https://www.onestateembassy.com/standingtogethervienna
Regular events take place in Vienna since October 7th 2023 to mourn together – Israelis, Palestinians and civil society in Vienna – for the victims of both sides. It’s a sad, at times desperate, but common and unbreakable call to ceasefire and to negotiations.
RUTI KATZ speech at the event of Standing Together in Vienna – Karlsplatz – 7.7.2024
Karl Gustav Jung said: “We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it. We are the origin of all coming evil.”
It has been 9 months today, since a profound evil spread in our country and took it over. A kind of evil, which I have not imaged could exist in our present-day-society. Of course, I am aware of the daily atrocities, of the day-to-day evil which prevails in Palestine-Israel.But I am referring to a different, profoundly more frightening kind of cruelty. I want to focus on that cruelty and evil, which are inherent in the present war, in which it seems that the Israeli government, as the ruling body, its right-wing racist fanatic manipulators, and its fanatic followers, aim to eliminate the Palestinian presence in Gasa strip and the West Bank.
Resistance, even violent resistance, was to be expected as a reaction to the ongoing occupation, oppression, humiliation, and dehumanization of the people in Gaza and the West Bank. Shortage of water and only limited hours of electricity – which the supply of both is under Israeli control, extreme poverty, high unemployment, and sever restriction of movement which impairs every aspect of life, – all these led to losing hope for a better future, to realizing that there is no prospect for better, dignified lives. No chance at all to any dignified lives. These produced deep frustration and immense rage, which wide opened the doors for violent actions of resistance. All this was expected even as a logical outcome of the unbearable situation. Violence did not necessarily have to be the outcome, but this is the bitter fruit which grows in an oppressive violent environment. The attack of October 7th was predictable. What was not predictable was the level of cruelty that was involved and manifested through this attack.
To continue reading click the pdf:
Visit to the Ambassador of the State of Palestine
On Friday, May 17th 2024, representatives from OneStateEmbassy, Dialop, and the President of the European Left paid a visit to the Palestinian Ambassador at the Embassy in Vienna. During this important meeting, discussions focused on the ongoing war in Gaza and explored strategies for how we can effectively work together in Austria to address and stop the humanitarian disaster. This visit marks a significant step in strengthening our relations and our commitment to collaborative action.
DIALOGUE FOR A CEASEFIRE AND SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN THE NEAR EAST
Palestinian lives matter – Israeli lives matter!
Peace now!
With this event we would like to offer a space for dialogue between representatives of religions, politicians, Christians, Jews and Muslims.
We are concerned about the population in Gaza, the suffering and the ongoing Israeli campaign of annihilation of Hamas after the massacre of Oct. 7th, 2023, which at the same time extinguishes unbearable numbers of Palestinian lives and their livelihoods.
Furthermore, we are convinced that with this policy the question of the innocent hostages held by Hamas will remain unresolved and be exacerbated.
THE DECLARATION OF DIALOP ON THE WAR IN GAZA
Israeli lives and Palestinian lives matter – equally!
In its ruling of 26 January on Israel’s violation of the Convention and punishment of the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the International Criminal Court in The Hague found the charge of genocide to be plausible and well-founded. Although the Court could not decide to call for an immediate ceasefire, the measures to protect the population from the genocide to which it held Israel guilty can only be implemented under the conditions of a ceasefire.
We condemn the bombing of Palestinian cities without regard for civil society, which has killed more than 25,000 people and destroyed the livelihoods of 2.2 million Palestinians, with the same disgust and passion with which we condemned Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October, to which 1,200 Israeli citizens fell victim.
We join all international calls, particularly the UN General Assembly resolution, for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli administrative detention. We also join Pope Francis’ repeated calls for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims, and for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid.
The situation has also worsened in the West Bank, especially with the new far-right Israeli government under Netanyahu. The government program of the nationalist Israeli right-wing government openly declares that the Jewish people have an “exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the land of Israel.” In doing so, the Israeli government is going against international law and the resolutions of the UN General Assembly.
There is a risk of a full-scale regional war involving Lebanon and Iran, which could also trigger the involvement of the USA and other Western armed forces in the Middle East. We reject such a dangerous and destabilizing escalation scenario and call for the demilitarisation of the Middle East.
The international community must act now and do their utmost to promote a ceasefire and negotiations for a sustainable peace, based on a sustainable solution for the two states. However, the only way to achieve a solution for two states is to negotiate with each other; we therefore call for the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state of Palestine by the EU and the member states. .
The DIALOP coordination team
Vienna, January 2024
Standing together Jews-Arabs-Christians
Since October 7th 2023 DIALOP is supporting the art collective OneStateEmbassy of Vienna Home page | OneState (onestateembassy.com), which weekly calls to Standing Together Vienna on the streets of Vienna.
We mourn for all victims of the war in Israel and Gaza without discrimination, grieving that every victim of the war is too much, regardless nationality and faith Standing Together Vienna | OneState (onestateembassy.com). We are calling for ceasefire, freedom for the hostages, stop of occupation, persecution and oppression of Palestinian Citizens in Israel.
Dialop supports fully this beautiful initiative, which runs with extreme punctuality, peaceful, sad and touching, but also perseverant, courageous and strong, like the drop of water that digs the stone.
A space of friendship and common ground has arisen to shape this difficult time together, to let humanity win, to plan respectful and effective acting. And further we are looking continuously for a wide band of alliances for the best impact for peaceful initiatives and solutions. Report on this coming soon.
A joint jewish-arab declaration for peace
We – movements, organizations and activists, Jews and Arabs – write these words out of heavy mourning for the thousands of people killed in recent weeks, and out of terrible anxiety for the safety of the abducted and those who will still be harmed in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
The brutal massacre carried out by Hamas on 7 october left us all – Jews and Arabs – stunned and shocked. In the weeks that have passed since that cursed Sabbath, additional atrocities have been added to the atrocities committed by Hamas: thousands of people have been killed, are are still being killed, by the Israeli bombings on Gaza, many of whose residents have even been cut off from the water and electricity. Read more
A great internationalist movement for peace
In this article of Prof. José Manuel Pureza (university Coimbra) the author describes the need of a great internationalist peace movement. This sums up the lecture given by Pureza on “War, imperialisms and challenges of peace” that took place in Lisbon on March 11th 2023 with the support of transform!europe.
Portuguese version in https://www.esquerda.net/opiniao/um-grande-movimento-internacionalista-pela-paz/85566
Peace is our victory
On February 23rd 2023 the meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe took place in Vienna. During the OSCE session, representatives of the Austrian peace movement gather at the Vienna Hofburg and project their demand for peace in Russian, Ukrainian, English and German on the façade of the building complex where the delegates meet: “Peace is our victory”.
Hofburg im Friedenslicht - Appell internationaler und EU-Linkspolitiker*innen zum Jahrestag des Kriegsbeginns 
Beschluss der pax christi
Beschluss der pax christi pax christi – Internationale Katholische Friedensbewegung – Deutsche Sektion -Delegiertenversammlung am 23.10.2022 in Fulda
New publication:
Palaver, Wolfgang (2022): “Der Ukrainekrieg als Herausforderung kirchlicher Friedensethik”, in: Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift 170 (4): 395-403.
Petition to stop fighting in Ukraine
A petition was launched by DIALOP with over 650 signees to request a ceasefire on Christmas 2022 and the beginning of negotiations. The petition was sent a week before Christmas to both embassies in Vienna: the Ukrainian and the Russian.
6th December – Im Krieg den Frieden vorbereiten
Ein Gastbeitrag in der Berliner Zeitung vom Dienstag 6.12.2022 vom Prof. Michael Brie, Vorsitzenden des wissenschaftlichen Beirats der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung und des scientific board of DIALOP
June 21st – Ceasefire first!
During the research seminar of DIALOP from 20th to 22nd of June the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons (HINW22Vienna) took place in Vienna.
The researcher group deliberated in those days a document with the request of an immediate ceasefire between the belligerent parties. Pls. find and spread the text.
The war in Ukraine reached in the meantime the mark of 100 days and the toll of ten thousands of lives. And it keeps going on savagely. We cannot get used to it. In this column you will find the manyfold appeals to peace of different friends and associations linked to DIALOP beginning from March 2nd 2022.
12th June: Friedensbrief von Marlene Streeruwitz und Walter Baier
Der Brief ist am 12.6.2022 im PROFIL erschienen.
Sign on / Unterschreiben Sie unter https://www.friedensbrief.at/