Before moving to Easthampton a year ago, I was the director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office in New York. Mennonites are a peace church which condemns all war, but eagerly helps people in need, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or nationality. While at the UN, I visited Mennonite supported development projects in Gaza, where I learned to know two of the Palestinian staff of Al-Najd Developmental Forum. We have kept in touch via Facebook. My first friend, Mustafa. was killed in the early weeks of the war when his home and Al-Najd headquarters were bombed. The second, Amgad, who has a wife and two sons under-5, has kept in touch. He has moved with his family to three different homes of relatives and four different schools, all of which he was forced to flee due to shells and bombs, dropped by the Israel Defense Forces, but provided by U.S. tax dollars.

In the last school, the classroom where his extended family of 50 had sought shelter took a direct hit from an Israeli tank shell, killing Amgad’s father, sister, brother and an aunt. The traumatized family is now living in a nylon tent in Rafa on the Egyptian border. They need food, water, but most of all safety. On Wednesday, the Easthampton City Council will vote on a resolution to support a cease-fire in Gaza. Please ask your councilor to support the resolution, and bring security to Amgad and his family.

Doug Hostetter

Easthampton