Here in New Mexico, the land of 19 Indigenous sovereign pueblos, children are the seeds of the future. Like the seeds of native plants, maize and beans, children are protected, loved and initiated into the ways of their ancestors. Due to the genocidal settling of this country, every child born is, in a particular way, a cause of great rejoicing — another seed planted for the sovereignty of the people on their land. 

As we watch the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza — also an Indigenous people, facing annihilation on their own land with their right to exist on their soil — the killing of children is the destruction of these seeds for the future of a people. 

The kidnapping and brutal murder of the dwellers of Kibbutz Be’eri was horrific terrorism. It must be condemned. What is happening in Gaza is a systematic extermination and state terrorism. It must also be condemned. 

We Mennonites, whose people fled religious persecution and death in Europe, stand with our Jewish friends who understand the horrors of the Holocaust. We are united with those who have known the seeds of their children stamped out. 

We will not remain silent as over $10 billion of U.S. weapons arm the state of Israel, fueling the war that is killing Gazans indiscriminately. If the Christian church does not stand up and speak, we will lose our very souls. We shout from the rooftops: Stop arming this madness. 

Anita Amstutz, Ranchos De Taos, N.M.