Dear Bay Area World Without Walls Community,
On this November 9, we write to you in solidarity with the global movement for a world without walls of expulsion, exclusion, and exploitation. COVID’s unveiling has revealed all the more clearly the devastation of walls of separation and oppression, as well as our need to band together to create the world we long to live in: a world of love and liberation, justice and mercy, hope and healing. Today we decry all visible and invisible walls of separation, walls that divide us geographically, economically and socially.
On this day, 31 years ago, the Berlin wall came down, ushering in a time of dismantling divisions, overcoming prejudices and reuniting peoples. This day is a reminder that all walls will ultimately come down, as long as we continue working together for a world that unites, humanizes and recognizes our collective existence. Tragically, over the past 31 years an era of wall constructing and wall profiteering has expanded. But as walls continue to be erected, all who are challenging these walls of injustice and inhumanity continue to unite and work together to create fissures, widen cracks and chip away at injustice. Our work is more important than ever, and the very future of our planet depends upon our success.
2022 marks the 20th anniversary since the beginning of construction of Israel’s wall that surrounds the West Bank and separates Palestinians from one another, their land, resources and the larger world. In solidarity with Palestinians, the global World Without Walls community is joining together to decry walls as false solutions to urgent concerns that plague our world. They will spend the next year circulating a series of Urgent Letters from the global community decrying the walls of injustice and inhumanity that surround us. Their first letter, “Our Time to Become Seeds of Justice,” challenges walls created by the climate crisis, and is written in response to the UN Climate Change Conference COP26. It calls on us to plant trees of resistance and nurture seeds of justice, while honoring martyrs like Berta Cáceres who led the way in this work.
Throughout the upcoming year we will share these Urgent Letters to the global community as we commit anew to dream together, scheme together and work together to create a world without walls. Our humanity demands nothing less.
Thank you for joining us in this essential work.
In solidarity,
The Bay Area World Without Walls Coalition
About World Without Walls
In 2018, the Bay Area World Without Walls Coalition was formed to take part in the International Global Day of Interaction for a World Without Walls, commemorating the November 9, 1989 tearing down of the Berlin Wall. This international date is a call to dismantle all walls, which since World War II have risen from 7 to 77 across the globe. As a Bay Area Coalition, our focus has been on the 700-mile wall built by the US to stop migrants across the US-Mexico border, on the wall built by Israel to separate Israel from the West Bank and Palestinian villages from each other, and on the walls of incarceration that separate loved ones from the human family.
Bay Area World Without Walls Coalition members include: Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Friends of Sabeel North America, Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, Jewish Voice for Peace, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Middle East Children’s Alliance, and East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy / Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy. Pastor Allison Tanner, of Lakeshore Ave Baptist Church, is the coordinator of the Bay Area World Without Walls Coalition and author of this letter.
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