BUFFALO, N.Y. — One year after the attack that spurred the ongoing war in the Middle East and claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians, religious community activists are revising their calls to action.

What You Need To Know

  • Marion Werner and Husam Ghanim call for an end to the supply of weapons to Israel.

  • Last year, the pair issued a joint call for cease-fire.

  • More than 40,000 people have been killed in the last year.

  • Werner said the Jewish community is deeply divided by the conflict. Ghanim said he cannot eat or enjoy life knowing what is happening in the Middle East.

Last December, Husam Ghanim of the Islamic Society and Marion Werner of Jewish Voice for Peace sat down with Spectrum News 1 to issue a joint call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Today, with decreased hopes of peace, they now call for an end to the supply of arms to Israel.

“In [the last] year we've seen 41,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza [and] about an estimated 16,000 children,” said Werner. “Those are the names we know and those are confirmed. I think there's for sure thousands more that we don't know about because they're under the rubble.”

Werner said families and the Jewish community are “deeply divided” by the politics and motives behind the war.

“We're just living with that division,” Werner said. “Many people feel like they can no longer really associate with the Jewish community because the mainstream Jewish community is demanding support for Israel under any circumstances. And so many Jews of conscience just feel deeply, as I do, that that is against everything we were ever taught that it was meant to be Jewish."

Ghanim said he has trouble sleeping at night seeing the carnage innocent people are facing.

"These scenes cannot make me enjoy life,” Ghanim said. “Regardless, what is the rationale and the reason and the background of that as a human? These scenes cannot be tolerated. I don't think anybody, regardless what's their background and religion, if you just show them these images and those pictures without the context, they'll say, 'stop this immediately.'”

Ghanim and Werner admonished the U.S. government for supplying billions of dollars in weapons of war to Israel, funded by American taxpayers.

“Those are billions of dollars being shipped to aid in a genocidal war, in an unfair war, to kill innocent people," said Ghanim. "They have been telling us for months that they are calling for a cease-fire. They have supported a cease-fire resolution. But they continuously send more arms.”

Jewish Voice for Peace created a petition for people to sign who agree with the call to end the supply of arms to Israel.

“Not because we're going to end the political conflict,” Ghanim said. “That doesn't end the political conflict, but [it] at least stops the bleeding.”