Focus on Arts and Ecology

Open Call for an Immediate Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Israel

Posted by Focus on Arts and Ecology

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By Global Communities, October 18, 2023

#CeasefireNow: Open Call for an Immediate Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Israel to Prevent a Humanitarian Catastrophe and Further Loss of Innocent Lives

We have witnessed unfathomable death and destruction in the Gaza Strip and Israel. Thousands of people have been killed, injured, displaced, and nearly two hundred remain held hostage, including children and elderly.

In Gaza, the UN has said that water, food, fuel, medical supplies, and even body bags, are running out due to the siege. The UN warned that people – particularly young children – will soon start dying of severe dehydration. Neighbourhoods have been destroyed and turned into complete rubble. Palestinians in search of safety have nowhere to go. Many of those who relocated from northern Gaza to the south after the relocation order by the Israeli army were reportedly bombed as they attempted to flee or once they arrived in southern Gaza.

The events of the last week have led us to the precipice of a humanitarian catastrophe and the world can no longer wait to act. It is our collective responsibility.

On Sunday, October 15th, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator to the Occupied Palestinian Territory appealed to all parties to the conflict, and to Member States with influence, to urgently agree to a humanitarian ceasefire.

Today, we put our voices together and call on all Heads of State, the UN Security Council, and actors on the ground, to prioritize the preservation of human life above all else. During this ceasefire, we call on all parties to unconditionally:

Facilitate the delivery of lifesaving assistance, including food, medical supplies, fuel, and the resumption of electricity and internet to Gaza, in addition to safe passage of humanitarian and medical staff.
Free all civilian hostages, especially children and elderly.
Allow humanitarian convoys to reach UN facilities, schools, hospitals, and health facilities in northern Gaza and commit to protecting them along with the civilians and staff inside them at all times.
Rescind orders by the Government of Israel for civilians to depart northern Gaza.
Allow patients in critical condition to be medically evacuated for urgent care.

The UN Security Council, the UN Secretary General and all world leaders with influence must take immediate action to ensure a ceasefire comes into effect. It remains our only option to avert further loss of civilian life and humanitarian catastrophe. Anything less will forever be a stain on our collective conscience.

Civilians are not bargaining chips. Families need a chance to bury and mourn their dead. The cycle of violence against innocent civilians needs to stop.

Global Communities is one of more than 300 organizations from 50 countries and counting to sign this ceasefire letter, with the most recent list of signatories shared below:

11.11.11

38 Degrees

50:50 NI

ABCD Bethlehem

Abductees Mothers Association

ACAT France

ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

Action Corps

Action For Humanity

ActionAid International

Africans Rising

Afro-Middle East Centre

Agriculture Developmrnt Associations PARC

Al Basma Club for the Disabled

Alliance Internationale -AIDL

Alquds center for Political Studies

Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action)

Americares

Amos Trust

Anera

AOI

Arab foundation for civil society and human rights

Arab NGO Network for Development

Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz

Asociación Otra Escuela

Association of War Affected Women

Avaaz

Baptist Union of Wales

Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine

bina

Bond, the UK network for INGOs

Broederlijk Delen

Bytes For All, Pakistan

Caesar Families Association

CAFOD

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)

Care International

Carolina Peace Center

CCFD-Terre Solidaire

Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights

Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)

Center for Human Rights in Iran

Center for Peace Education, Miriam College

Centre for human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED)

Centre for Peace Research and Advocacy -CPRA

CESVI

cfd – The feminist Peace Organisation

Change Horizons Forum

ChildFund Alliance

Christian Aid

Christian Aid Ireland

Church World Service

Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)

CIDSE

CISP

CISS – COOPERAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE SUD SUD

CIVICUS

CNCD-11.11.11

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Asia Pacific

COPE Cooperazione Paesi Emergenti

COSPE

Council for Arab-British Understanding

Council on American-Islamic Relations

CRIC – Centro Regionale d’Intervento per la Cooperazione ETS

Culturel Center Beethoven Bettounssi

DanChurchAid

Danish Refugee Council

Daraj Media

DC Peace Team

Defense Foundation for Rights and Freedom

Denis Hurley Peace Institute

Diakonia

Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality

EL SPACE

Embrace the Middle East

Entraide & Fraternité

Episcopal Relief & Development

Escola de Cultura de Pau (School for a Culture of Peace)

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

European Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

European Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (ECR2P)

Fédération Internationale pour les droits humains (FIDH)

Feminist Task Force

Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid

Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI)

France Palestine Mental Health Network

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Friends of Nablus and Surrounding areas (FONSA)

Fundación Cultura de Paz

FUNDACIÓN MUNDUBAT

Futuro en Común

Gandhi Development Trust Phoenix Settlement Trust

Gender Action for Peace and Security

Gender Advisory Team

Genera: Red de mujeres feministas por la equidad de género en el desarrollo

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Global Communities

Global Justice Center

Global Justice Now

Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)

Global Rights

GPPAC Pacific-Pacific Women Mediators Network

Haliéus

Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion

Health Poverty Action

HEKS/EPER – Swiss Church Aid

Helen Suzman Foundation

HelpAge Interational

HIAS

Human Rights & Democracy Media Center ‎‏“‏SHAMS‏”‏

Human Rights Sentinel

ICNA

ICNA Council for Social Justice

ICNA Council for Social Justice (ICNA CSJ)

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation

IM Swedish Development Partner

Ina autra senda – Swiss Friends of Combatants for Peace

Institute for Security Studies

International Federation for Human Rights

INTERSOS

Islamic Center of Detroit

Islamic Relief

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions UK- UK

Jewish Network for Palestine

Jewish Voice for Democracy and Justice in Israel/Palestine jvjp, Switzerland

Jews against the Occupation Sydney

Jusoor Center for Studies and Development

Kairos Palestine

Kairos Palestine Sweden

Kenya Human Rights Commission

KURVE Wustrow – Centre for Training and Networking in Nonviolent Action e.V.

La Coordinadora de ONGD -España

Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights

Liberian Energy Network

Ligue Algérienne de Défense des Droits de l’Homme – LADDH

Lutheran World Federation

MADRE

Marib Girls Foundation

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

MDM Network

Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

medico international

medico international schweiz

Mennonite Central Committee U.S.

Mercy-USA for Aid and Development

Middle East and North Africa Partnership for Preventing of Armed Conflict – MENAPPAC

Middle East Children’s Alliance

Migrant Roots Media

Min Haqi Foundation to empower women politically and economically

Misereor

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre (Australian Province)

Mouvement Social

Musaala Organization for Human Rights

Muslim Aid

Muslim Legal Fund of America

Mwatana for Human Rights

Naseef Muallem

National Cancer Control Foundatin – Yemen

Network of the independent Commission for Human rights in North Africa CIDH AFRICA

NGO SPES

NGOs Platform of Saida – Tajamoh

Nobel Women’s Initiative

Nonviolence Network in the Arab Countries

Nonviolent Peaceforce

Nophotozone

North American Imams Fellow

Norwegian Church Aid

Norwegian Refugee Council

Oxfam

Palestinian Human Rights Organisation “PHRO”

PAX

Pax Christi Australia

Pax Christi International

Pax Christi USA

Peace Direct

Peace Organization for Peaceful Coexistence

Peace Watch Switzerland

Peacemaker Trust

Permanent Peace Movement

Piattaforma OSC italiane in Medio Oriente e Mediterraneo

Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine

PREMIERE URGENCE INTERNATIONALE

Première Urgence Internationale

Project on Middle East Democracy

Protection Approaches

PVE for Peace

Rebuilding Alliance

ReThinking Foreign Policy

Revista La Mar de Onuba

Right to Movement Palestine

Romanian Peace Institute – PATRIR

Roshanka

Sabeel

Sabeel Kairos Norway

Sabeel-Kairos UK

SALAM NGO

SAM Organization for Rights and Libertie

Sanad alBasra Organization for Human Rights

Save the Children

SB Overseas Soutien Belge

Search for Common Ground

Secours Islamique France (SIF)

SEEN.TV

Seenaryo

Sheba Youth Foundation

Shining Star educational organization of Afghanistan

Social Development Hodeida Girls Foundation

Solutions for a Small Planet

SOS Children’s Villages Palestine

Study sky academy

SUDS – International association of solidarity and cooperation

Syrian American Medical Society

Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

Syrians for Truth and Justice

Tamkeen for Legal Aid and Human Rights

Tanzania Community Health Information and Support

Terre Des Hommes Foundation Lausanne

Terre des Hommes Italia

The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation

The Episcopal Church

The Foundation for Middle East Peace

The Khalifa Ihler Institute

The Mosque Cares | Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed

The Palestinian Return Centre

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network

UN Association of San Diego

United Against Inhumanity

United Nations Association – UK

University Network for Human Rights

UOSSM International

US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO)

Vento di Terra

Viva Salud

Vrede vzw

War Child Holland

War Child Sweden

War Child UK

War on Want

Welfare Association (UK)

WESPAC Foundation, Inc.

WeWorld – Member of ChildFund Alliance

Womankind Worldwide

Women for Peace

Women for Women International

Women in Black Vienna

Women Political Alliance – Kenya

Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)

Women’s Institute for Leadership Development

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom UK

Women’s International Peace Centre

Womens Refugee Commission

Worldwide Women’s Forum

Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation

Youth Vision Society

Youths Volunteering for Sustainable Development (YOVSUD)

(Sources: Global Communities)

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Top 10 things to know about the Day of the Dead

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Día de los Muertos is celebrated across Mexico with skulls, skeletons, and graveside visits—but what does this beloved holiday really represent?

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Revelers in Mexico City celebrate the Day of the Dead by dressing up as the holiday's most ubiquitous symbol, a skeletal figure known as the calavera Catrina.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TOMAS BRAVO, REUTERS

Here’s one thing we know: Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is not a Mexican version of Halloween.

Though related, the two annual events differ greatly in traditions and tone. Whereas Halloween embraces terror and mischief on the last night of October, Day of the Dead festivities unfold over the first two days of November in an explosion of color and life-affirming joy. Sure, the theme is death, but the point is to demonstrate love and respect for deceased family members. In towns and cities throughout Mexico, revelers don funky makeup and costumes, hold parades and parties, sing and dance, and make offerings to lost loved ones.

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of life and death. While the holiday originated in Mexico, it is celebrated all over Latin America with colorful calaveras (skulls) and calacas (skeletons). Learn how the holiday started and the traditions that make it unique.

The rituals are rife with symbolic meaning. The more you understand about this feast for the senses, the more you will appreciate it. Here are 10 essential things you should know about Mexico’s most colorful annual event. (See more stunning photos from Day of the Dead celebrations.)

1. The holiday dates back thousands of years.

Flowers and candles set the mood during a Day of the Dead vigil at a cemetery in Oaxaca, Mexico.

PHOTOGRAPH BY KENNETH GARRETT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Day of the Dead originated several thousand years ago with the Aztec, Toltec, and other Nahua people, who considered mourning the dead disrespectful. For these pre-Hispanic cultures, death was a natural phase in life’s long continuum. The dead were still members of the community, kept alive in memory and spirit—and during Día de los Muertos, they temporarily returned to Earth.
Today’s Día de los Muertos celebration is a mash-up of pre-Hispanic religious rites and Christian feasts. It takes place on November 1 and 2—All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on the Catholic calendar—around the time of the fall maize harvest.
2. It has been recognized by UNESCO.
Cultural heritage is not just monuments and collections of objects. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that cultural heritage also includes living expressions of culture—traditions—passed down from generation to generation.
In 2008, UNESCO recognized the importance of Día de los Muertos by adding the holiday to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Today Mexicans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds celebrate Día de los Muertos, but at its core, the holiday is a reaffirmation of Indigenous life.
Aerial view of San Andres Mixquic pantheon as part of the 2021 Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City. One of the nation's most popular holidays, Day of the Dead is dedicated to remembering those who have died with offerings, family gatherings, and visits to their graves.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HECTOR VIVAS, GETTY IMAGES
3. Altars are an important tradition...
The centerpiece of the celebration is an altar, or ofrenda, built in private homes and cemeteries. These aren’t altars for worshipping; rather, they’re meant to welcome spirits back to the realm of the living. As such, they’re loaded with offerings—water to quench thirst after the long journey, food, family photos, and a candle for each dead relative. If one of the spirits is a child, you might find small toys on the altar.
Marigolds are the main flowers used to decorate the altar. Scattered from altar to gravesite, marigold petals guide wandering souls back to their place of rest. The smoke from copal incense, made from tree resin, transmits praise and prayers and purifies the area around the altar. (Here's how marigolds became iconic symbols of the Day of the Dead.)
4. ...and so are literary calaveras...
Calavera means “skull.” But during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, calavera was used to describe short, humorous poems, which were often sarcastic tombstone epitaphs published in newspapers that poked fun at the living. These literary calaveras eventually became a popular part of Día de los Muertos celebrations. Today the practice is alive and well. You’ll find these clever, biting poems in print, read aloud, and broadcast on television and radio programs.
Left:
Known as the calavera Catrina, this skeletal figure is a Day of the Dead icon. There are endless variations of the Catrina sold in many forms during the holiday—and throughout the year in Mexico.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TINO SORIANO, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Right:
Marigolds and family photos decorate a Day of the Dead altar in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CORBIS DOCUMENTARY/GETTY IMAGES
5. ...especially the calavera Catrina.
In the early 20th century, Mexican political cartoonist and lithographer José Guadalupe Posada created an etching to accompany a literary calavera. Posada dressed his personification of death in fancy French garb and called it Calavera Garbancera, intending it as social commentary on Mexican society’s emulation of European sophistication. “Todos somos calaveras,” a quote commonly attributed to Posada, means “we are all skeletons.” Underneath all our manmade trappings, we are all the same.
In 1947 artist Diego Rivera featured Posada’s stylized skeleton in his masterpiece mural “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park.” Posada’s skeletal bust was dressed in a large feminine hat, and Rivera made his female and named her Catrina, slang for “the rich.” Today, the calavera Catrina, or elegant skull, is the Day of the Dead’s most ubiquitous symbol. (Learn more about the dark history of the holiday's immortal icon.)
6. Families bring food to the dead.

A Mixtec woman decorates a gravesite at a cemetery during the Day of the Dead celebrations on November 2, 2021, in Xalpatláhuac, Mexico.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAN SOCHOR, GETTY IMAGES
You work up a mighty hunger and thirst traveling from the spirit world back to the realm of the living. At least that’s the traditional belief in Mexico. Some families place their dead loved one’s favorite meal on the altar. Other common offerings:
Pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, is a typical sweet bread (pan dulce), often featuring anise seeds and decorated with bones and skulls made from dough. The bones might be arranged in a circle, as in the circle of life. Tiny dough teardrops symbolize sorrow. (Read more about Pan de muerto.)
Sugar skulls are part of a sugar art tradition brought by 17th-century Italian missionaries. Pressed in molds and decorated with crystalline colors, they come in all sizes and levels of complexity.
Drinks to celebrate the holiday include pulque, a sweet fermented beverage made from the agave sap; atole, a thin warm porridge made from corn flour, with unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla added; and hot chocolate.
7. People dress in costumes.

A young Mexican woman dressed as la Catrina and wearing an embroidered face mask, performs during ay of the Dead celebrations on October 29, 2021, in Taxco de Alarcón, Mexico.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAN SOCHOR, GETTY IMAGES
Day of the Dead is an extremely social holiday that spills into streets and public squares at all hours of the day and night. Dressing up as skeletons is part of the fun. People of all ages have their faces artfully painted to resemble skulls, and, mimicking the calavera Catrina, they don suits and fancy dresses. Many revelers wear shells or other noisemakers to amp up the excitement—and also possibly to rouse the dead and keep them close during the fun.
8. Streets are decorated in papel picado.

Papel picado, or pierced papers, blow in the wind in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. You can find papel picado around Mexico throughout the year, but especially around Day of the Dead.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RAUL TOUZON
You’ve probably seen this beautiful Mexican paper craft plenty of times in Mexican restaurants. The literal translation, pierced paper, perfectly describes how it’s made. Artisans stack colored tissue paper in dozens of layers, then perforate the layers with hammer and chisel points. Papel picado isn’t used exclusively during Day of the Dead, but it plays an important role in the holiday. Draped around altars and in the streets, the art represents the wind and the fragility of life.
9. Mexico City hosts an iconic parade.
Día de los Muertos is more popular than ever—in Mexico and, increasingly, abroad. For more than a dozen years, the New York-based nonprofit cultural organization Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders has staged the city’s largest Day of the Dead celebration.
But the most authentic celebrations take place in Mexico. If you find yourself in Mexico City the weekend before Day of the Dead this year, make sure to stop by the grand parade where you can join in on live music, bike rides and other activities in celebration throughout the city.
Skeleton statues decorate Mexico City for Day of the Dead on November 2, 2018.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAIR CABRERA, NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
10. Other communities celebrate in unique ways.
Countless communities in Mexico celebrate Day of the Dead, but styles and customs differ by region, depending on the region’s predominant pre-Hispanic culture. Here are a few places that stand out for their colorful and moving celebrations:
Pátzcuaro: One of the most moving Day of the Dead celebrations takes place each year in Pátzcuaro, a municipality in the state of Michoacán about 225 miles west of Mexico City. Indigenous people from the countryside converge on the shores of Pátzcuaro Lake, where they pile into canoes, a single candle burning in each bow, and paddle over to a tiny island called Janitzio for an all-night vigil in an indigenous cemetery.
Mixquic: In this Mexico City suburb, bells from the historic Augustinian convent toll and community members bearing candles and flowers process to the local cemetery, where they clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones.
Tuxtepec: This small city in the northeastern part of Oaxaca state is best known for its sawdust rugs. For days, locals painstakingly arrange colored sawdust, flower petals, rice, pine needles, and other organic materials in elaborate, ruglike patterns on city streets. Traditionally made for important processions, Tuxtepec’s sawdust rugs are judged in a contest held during Día de los Muertos.
Aguascalientes: Located roughly 140 miles north of Guadalajara, Aguascalientes—birthplace of engraver José Guadalupe Posada—stretches its Day of the Dead celebrations to nearly a week during its Festival de Calaveras (Festival of Skulls). The festival culminates in a grand parade of skulls along Avenida Madero.
(Sources: National Geographic)