SHELBURNE FALLS — Village business owners have banded together to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

“We as humans have to stand up and say we all deserve to live,” said Bridge Street Bazaar co-owner Mohammad Yaseen. “The war machine must be ended.”

More than 100 days after Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack, Israel continues to wage a destructive and deadly military campaign, with the goal of dismantling the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and returning scores of captives. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.

More than 24,600 Palestinians have been killed, some 85% of the coastal territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and the United Nations says one-quarter of the population is starving.

The call for a cease-fire from Shelburne Falls business owners is being spearheaded by the husband and wife owners of Bridge Street Bazaar, Yaseen and Crystal Stinson. Yaseen’s father became a refugee in 1948 after the State of Israel was established. He walked to Jordan where he lived in a refugee camp, eventually raising a family.

Yaseen explained this war is personal to him because he has family living in Gaza. He said his relatives were displaced from their homes and are staying in United Nations-run schools. Other relatives had been living in a large apartment building that was bombed.

Also speaking up is Floodwater Brewing Co. owner Zack Livingston.

“The entire situation is unbearably tragic. I sympathize with all the innocent people whose lives have been uprooted, with losses I cannot begin to fathom,” Livingston wrote in a statement. “It’s easy to feel helpless or even disconnected when these events are happening thousands of miles away, but the repercussions are global. Human rights should be universal. Decades of fighting and exclusionary laws have proven ineffective at solving the root of the problems that have been plaguing the region for generations.”

On Dec. 11, after the United States vetoed a cease-fire resolution made by the United Nations, Palestinian activists called for a global strike in protest. Bridge Street Bazaar joined the strike, with the owners closing their store and standing on Bridge Street for the day of action.

“What’s going on is not only affecting people in the Middle East but it is also affecting our community,” Yaseen said.

The couple also raised money to send supplies to people in Gaza, but have hit roadblocks when it comes to relaying the money due to the lack of communication with people in the territory.

“Christmas was hard for us. Everyone wants to do gifts and be in the holiday spirit,” Stinson recounted. “It is difficult to talk about enjoying the holiday when it is unfair that people are going through this.”

Stinson explained her grandfather came to America as a political refugee after World War II, and she would be able to claim a home in Israel if she wanted. She thinks it is ironic that her daughter would not be able to do the same because her paternal grandfather is Palestinian. The couple identifies as a multi-cultural family, with relatives in all three of the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Another business owner who spoke up about the war is Michaelangelo Wescott, owner of Gypsy Apple Bistro and Le Peacock.

“I am a person who does not approve of war or genocide,” Wescott said simply.

Molly Cantor, owner of The Handle Factory community clay studio, put up a sign in her window. Her sign, subtler than the flags hanging outside Bridge Street Bazaar, reads “May all beings know peace.” Cantor said this sign is Buddist-inspired and is in direct reference to the war.

“If you can agree that all beings should live in safety and peace, then you can’t agree with what is happening now in Gaza,” she said.

“As business owners, we are drowning in taxes. … I don’t mind if it goes to schools or social services,” Stinson noted. “I just don’t want that money to be paying for bombs.”

Stinson said she is frustrated that the United States devotes billions of dollars toward military aid and far less to fighting climate change.

“We are willing to spend more money on bombs than on the climate,” she said. “We are not at risk of being attacked, but we are at risk of our shorelines being destroyed.”

Yaseen said one small-town lesson that can be learned in Shelburne Falls is “what is good for you is good for your neighbor.” He said this philosophy should be applied on a global scale.

“We need to stop the madness,” he said, “and work together to start a new chapter.”

Reach Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.