Engaged Buddhism and Mindfulness in 2025
Ethical Position in Response to the Genocide in Gaza
– October 16, 2025 –
At 30NOW We connect our practice of Buddhism and mindfulness with social engagement. Based on compassion, nonviolence, and truthfulness, we have therefore developed an Ethical Position in response to the genocide in Gaza.
Over the past two years, we have been confronted with a harsh reality: while Palestinian families are being destroyed and displaced en masse, an unequivocal moral response often fails to materialize. Not only in politics and the media, but also in spiritual circles, silence or a so-called neutrality too often prevails. This silence is not neutral: it increases the suffering, reinforces power structures, and contributes to the normalization of oppression.
Therefore, with the Ethical Position below, we take a clear ethical stance. Not out of political conviction, but based on our practice of compassion, nonviolence, and truthfulness. We acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinian people and speak out against apartheid, occupation, and genocide by the Israeli government. Support from other countries, including the Netherlands, also perpetuates this violence.
This is the line of 30NOWIt is the foundation on which we, as a community, want to stand: inner development and social involvement are inextricably linked.
Dirk & Joost
Founders 30NOW
Even now that a new ceasefire is in effect in Gaza, the following principle remains as relevant and guiding for us as ever.
Prefer it as a PDF? Download here
Preface
Over the past two years, we – as a society and as a Buddhist community – have once again been confronted with a fundamental question:
What does it mean to truly stand for compassion, nonviolence, and truthfulness?
While the violence and oppression against the Palestinian people are becoming increasingly horrific and visible, a clear moral position is often lacking. This is true not only within politics and the media, but also in spiritual circles, including Buddhist and mindfulness networks.
There seems to be a double standard: while the suffering of some groups is rightly acknowledged and met with solidarity, the suffering of Palestinians is often ignored, trivialized, or silenced. This contradicts the core of the Dharma, which is not neutral, but offers a living response to suffering—regardless of who is experiencing it.
That is why we, Dirk and Joost, as founders of 30NOW, the need to recalibrate ourselves to the ethical foundations of Buddhism. In a world of ongoing oppression, silence is not neutrality, but a choice that has consequences.
This Ethical Position calls for a collective choice. An expression of the values we as a community want to promote – and an invitation to you as a supervisor within 30NOW to connect with it.
A shared basic attitude
The practice of the Dharma begins with compassion—not as an abstract ideal, but as a living principle that excludes no one. True compassion acknowledges the suffering of all beings, regardless of origin, religion, gender, class, or beliefs. It extends to the margins of society, precisely where people are structurally excluded or oppressed.
Within the Buddhist doctrine of interdependence (paṭiccasamuppāda), liberation is never an individual matter. Structural injustice affects us all, even if we don't experience it personally. Therefore, spiritual growth cannot be separated from social engagement; insight and compassion require a connection with social justice.
When violence is unequally distributed and oppression reigns, silence becomes not a choice for peace, but a tool of the oppressor. When we refuse to name the perpetrator, we distort reality. In the case of Palestine, speaking of a “conflict” or “both sides” leads to a false neutrality that contributes to the normalization of occupation, apartheid, and mass violence. This contradicts the core values of the Dharma: bag (truth), karuṇā (compassion) and sammā vāca (to speak correctly).
We therefore acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinian people and designate the violence perpetrated by the State of Israel and its military as apartheid, occupation, mass murder—and, in line with legal, historical, and ethical analyses by human rights organizations and survivors: as genocide. We reject the notion that this is a "complex conflict" without clear power structures.
Speaking about this reality takes courage. But speaking rightly means speaking when it matters—from wisdom and compassion, to embody clarity, humanity, and truth. The Dharma is not a static system, but a living response to suffering. When we choose silence out of fear, laziness or privilege, we deviate from the path of practice.
Thich Nhat Hanh put it this way:
“I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world—in my thinking and in my way of life.”
We cannot support any act of killing; no act of killing is justifiable. But not killing is not enough. We must also learn ways to prevent others from killing.
We can't say, "I'm not responsible. They did it. My hands are clean."
If you lived in Germany during the Nazi era, you couldn't say, "They did it. Not me."
If you did nothing or said nothing to try to stop the killing during the Gulf War, you were not practicing these precepts.
Even if what you said or did couldn't stop the war, it's important that you tried – with your insight and your compassion.
— For a Future to Be Possible: Commentaries on the Five Wonderful Precepts (1993)
These words remind us that responsibility is not an abstract concept, but an active practice. We will make mistakes, and that is part of the path. What matters is our willingness to reflect, to dialogue, and to heal. Living ethically doesn't mean being flawless, but remaining open, continuing to learn, and summoning the courage to reconnect with truth and compassion.
Dirk & Joost
Founders 30NOW
At 30NOW We believe that meditation does not stop when we open our eyes, but invites us to be awakely present to suffering and injustice in the world and to respond to it with compassion and responsibility, both on the cushion and beyond.
