Statement in Support of Palestine
In March 2026, the EBMC Teacher Sangha came together to write the following statement in support of Palestine:
At the East Bay Meditation Center, we strive to practice the Dharma in its social context and cultivate Buddhism as a liberation theology rooted in ending the suffering wrought by all oppressive systems.
The teachings of the Buddha, as is true of all wisdom teachings, call us to protect all life. The Metta Sutta reminds us of “a mother who protects with her life, her child, her only child.” We stand in alliance with life and are called to work to end the harms of the world.
We oppose all forms of racism, including Zionism—the ideology that claims the land of Palestine belongs exclusively to the Jewish people and that the settler-colonial state of Israel is their inherent birthright. This ideology has been used to deny the humanity and rights of Palestinian people and to justify violence, including massacres, the destruction of homes, schools, and hospitals, and the forced displacement and subjugation of Indigenous Palestinians through land dispossession, apartheid, and military occupation. Zionist strategists manipulate past traumas the Jewish people have endured to argue that a supremacist nation-state is the only path to Jewish safety. Resistance to Zionism, an oppressive, violent, colonial and genocidal project, is therefore anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-oppressive. The East Bay Meditation Center itself stands on stolen Indigenous land in California, and many in its community come from families who have experienced displacement caused by war, colonialism, chattel slavery, and other forms of oppression.
Our vow to protect all life is a sacred commitment to act to end violence, including Israeli genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
Because Israel is the largest single recipient of military aid from our government, we, in the United States are especially implicated in this genocide and abuse. We call for a future where everyone living in Palestine can live their lives freely in vibrant, safe, equitable communities, with basic human needs fulfilled.
We wish for the safety of all beings in the region, and an immediate end to all forms of colonial oppression.
