I attended the ceasefire rally at the United Nations on November 8, 2023. It is worth noting how I ended up at that rally. I was in conversation with Sarah, going over the daily agenda and correspondences. I received a message from my daughter, The Reverend Leah Daughtry, National Presiding Prelate of the House of the Lord Churches. She asked me if I was going to the ceasefire rally. It was now about 3:15pm and the rally was scheduled to start at 4pm. I asked her to explain more about the rally. I heard vaguely that there would be a demonstration at the U.N. She explained some of our friends who were going to be there and what the rally was about. When I hung up, I immediately started getting ready and I decided that even if I got there late, it would be better than not to attend at all. I was in New Jersey when I got the call.
I wanted to be more involved in the war in Gaza (See attached link I’ve made my position known: https://www.hdgministries.org/post/the-end-of-hamas). It is good to see that President Biden has come around to the two-state solution. I would simply add hostage negotiations which makes the ceasefire point proposal.
It was 4:30 p.m. when I arrived at the U.N. A huge crowd had already assembled. The program was already in progress. Immediately I saw Dr. Cornel West, who is now running for the presidency; Dr. Iva Carruthers, Executive Director of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor, Rev. Michael McBride, noted clergy organizer; Tamika Mallory, longtime activist and Rev. Dr. Mark Thompson, TV personality and longtime organizer. He was the M.C. of the program. I was overwhelmed with the acceptance I received. I was asked by Rev. McBride if I wanted to stand with them on the stage. I responded affirmatively. When the time came, Rev. McBride, Dr. Carruthers and I took our positions on the speaker platform. Rev. McBride read a paragraph from the full-page ad that over 900 ministers had taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times demanding a ceasefire. After he spoke Dr. Iva Carruthers followed, she too laid heavy emphasis on ceasefire, humanitarian aid, release of hostages and a permanent solution. Then I followed, I too reinforced the same issues. I opened my statement with a call for ceasefire and a boisterous response from the crowd.
I pointed out that I had been at the United Nations on April 15, 1967 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke to the 100,000 that had gathered to demand an end to the war in Vietnam. A few weeks earlier I had been at the Riverside Church when Dr. King announced to a packed church his opposition to the war in Vietnam.
Significantly, I had gathered some of the young men to accompany me. I underscored mothers, children and innocent people who were killed in the war, almost over 10,000 I am told. A large part of that number were children. The once thriving cities now were bombed to rubbish with homeless people moving through the streets slowly. And since then, the question that had been asked, was that if Dr. King was here, where would he stand? I answered, “he would be standing with the innocent people, both Israelis and Palestinians and surely, he would be calling for the same and agreeing with us on our five points.” I also emphasized where I stood with the Israelis who were killed in the Hamas attack. I wanted to point out but my time was limited, the solution is not to continue death of innocent people, the destruction of their homes with the stated purpose of completely destroying Hamas. And even if they did destroy Hamas, they will not solve the problem. There will be others perhaps called by a different name.
But the children, mothers, fathers, homeless, wounded will not forget. We are looking at the next generation of Hamas or whatever name they choose to call themselves.