FMA Minutes Joining with Apartheid-Free Communities.

Monday, October 23, 2023
During our September 4, 2023 Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business Friends approved the following: 2023.09.03. Friends Meeting of Austin minutes our support for joining with Apartheid-Free Communities. Joining with “Apartheid-Free Communities:” Friends Meeting of Austin (FMA) joins American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Live Oak Friends Meeting (Houston), South Central Yearly Meeting (SCYM) and others in the “Apartheid-Free Communities” campaign. FMA responds to AFSC’s call to join in and declare ourselves “Apartheid-Free”. As such:
  • We affirm our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people;
  • We oppose all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and declare ourselves an apartheid-free congregation and to that end:
  • We pledge to join others in working to end support for Israel’s apartheid policies, settler colonialism, and military occupation.


We reaffirm our support for the principle minuted by FMA on October 3, 2021 that: As members of the Religious Society of Friends who believe that all women and men are our sisters and brothers, we are led to take effective actions like the above responding to the suffering of the Palestinian people until the military occupation has ended and the basic human rights of those living under the intolerable conditions of this occupation are secured.

Source documents: Apartheid-free communities (SCYM 2023.04 Minute): https://www.scym.org/qnut/documents/763
FMA Minute on Palestine-Israel (October 2021): https://austinquakers.org/news/newsfeed/fma-minute-palestine-israel
Additional reading: FCNL Page on Palestine/Israel: https://www.fcnl.org/issues/middle-east-iran/israelpalestine

Friendly Action to consider (pushing for funding to be released for UNRWA): https://www.unrwausa.org/contact-congress