ABARBANEL, Avigail.
Avigail Abarbanel is a former Israeli soldier and citizen of Israel, who renounced her Israeli citizenship in 2001 in protest against Israel's occupation and human rights abuses of the Palestinian people. She is active in the struggle for Palestinian rights and is currently the director of Deir Yassin Remembered in Canberra (see: http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/ ).
Avigail Abarbanel on bearing witness to Israeli atrocities: “When one day, Israelis stand trial for the occupation and the war crimes against the Palestinian people, I would like to be counted as someone who spoke up. I was brought up on stories of the Holocaust. I was told that perhaps even more despicable than the Nazis themselves were all those who knew what was happening and allowed it to happen. Jews have always felt abandoned by a world full of bystanders. Being a bystander doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means collaborating. And I don’t want to be a collaborator.”
[1]. Avigail Abarbanel, “Welcome - Introduction”, website: http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/ .
ADELFANG, Osie Gabriel.
Osie Gabriel Adelfang is an Israeli-American writer and editor, and part-time marketing director. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University LA and edited “Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation”, Whole World Press, Spring 2010 (see: http://cafeintifada.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/announcing-the-upcoming-book-release-shifting-sands/ , http://www.osieonline.com/Home_Page.html and http://www.osieonline.com/About__Biography_.html )
Osie Gabriel Adelfang (2010): Editor, “Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation”, Whole World Press, Spring 2010. [1].
Osie Gabriel Adelfang on “Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation” (2010): “Welcome to the online home of writer/editor Osie Gabriel Adelfang. Osie is thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of an unprecendented nonfiction anthology. The book is a collection of essays by more than a dozen Jewish women writer/activists who tell heartbreaking stories of peaceful resistance and solidarity against Israel's occupation of Palestine. The book, titled Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation, is slated to be published by emerging green publisher Whole World Press in Spring 2010 … In addition to the moving contributions of authors including Anna Baltzer (Witness in Palestine) and Jen Marlowe (Darfur Diaries), the book includes an introduction by American peace activist Cindy Sheehan and a forward from award-winning Israeli journalist Amira Hass.” [2].
[1]. Osie Gabriel Adelfang, Editor, “Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation”, Whole World Press, Spring 2010.
[2]. Osie Gabriel Adelfang on “Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation”,: http://www.osieonline.com/ .
AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM (ACJ).
he American Council for Judaism (ACJ) was founded in 1942 and was opposed to Zionism. It was the only major organized Jewish American opposition to Zionism in the 1940s. The ACJ position is summarized by the statement of its former chairman Clarence Coleman (1959): “I am an American and a Jew. I am an anti-Zionist… I am against every force or influence at work in the lives of American Jews which tends to separate and segregate them, in areas other than their religious beliefs, from their fellow Americans… I am for every program that will make better understood our meaning of Judaism and will advance the historic process of integration, in the secular and political sense, of American Jews.” (see: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:iobPaLU54msJ:www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx%3Fid%3D95+%22thomas+kolsky%22&cd=18&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au and Professor Thomas Kolsky’s book Jews Against Zionism: The American Council for Judaism 1942-1948: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/717_reg.html ).
Professor Kolsky’s view of the religious significance of the ACJ, "The religious education program . . . was undoubtedly the most successful Council [ACJ] activity . . . By providing religious education devoid of Jewish nationalism, the program attracted new members who were still committed to classical Reform Judaism." (see: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:iobPaLU54msJ:www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx%3Fid%3D95+%22thomas+kolsky%22&cd=18&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au ).
American Council for Judaism (ACJ) statement of beliefs: “Founded in 1942, ACJ has long offered a distinctive vision of identity and commitment for the American Jewish community.
We affirm the uniqueness of the American Jewish experience, and the vital role Jews have played in the development of our nation and its democratic ideals. We cherish our rights and obligations as responsible citizens of the United States.
We view Judaism as a universal religious faith, rather than an ethnic or nationalist identity. We further recognize the silent and often non-participating majority who define their Judaism in the context of their own perspectives. We remain committed to the ethical, intellectual, and prophetic values of Judaism. We cherish the spiritual ties that link us to our fellow Jews around the world, with whom we share our heritage and history.
The State of Israel has significance for the Jewish experience. As a refuge for many Jews who have suffered persecution and oppression in other places, Israel certainly has meaning for us. However, that relationship is a spiritual, historical, and humanitarian one - it is not a political tie. As American Jews, we share the hope for the security and well being of the State of Israel, living in peace and justice with its neighbors.
We celebrate the rich diversity of opinion within today's changing Jewish community. No one group or perspective reflects the broad range of positions among American Jews. We embrace the American tradition of open and respectful dialogue.
Our most fervent hopes are for a strong, creative and spiritually renewed American Jewish community, and for freedom and security for Jews everywhere; so that we might fulfill our historic mission of working together with all people to build a world of justice, freedom, and peace.
The relationship of American Jews to the State of Israel: the American Council of Judaism perspective.
The centuries during the Biblical era in which Jews constituted a sovereign commonwealth in the land we now call Israel gave rise to the shared sense of identity, religious beliefs and values of Judaism. In the centuries that followed, Jews went forth from this land and went to live in other places around the world as Jews. We believe that although Israel is the birthplace of our faith, it is not the place of our national affiliation.
As American Jews, we believe that our nationality is American. We are tied both geographically and emotionally to the United States and to its values of democracy, freedom, liberty and justice. We believe we can be Jews and Americans.
Jews everywhere share common bonds of history, religious beliefs, values and traditions. As American Jews, our ties to the State of Israel are spiritual, emotional and historical, not, however, political. We are grateful that Israel has served as a refuge for many Jews who have suffered persecution and oppression in other places. We have a great desire to support the well-being of our fellow Jews. We pray for peace. Yet, we are American Jews: proud, responsible citizens of the United States.
When, at the end of the Passover Seder, we say “Next year in Jerusalem,” we are articulating a religious metaphor. What we mean is “Next year all Jews should live in freedom,” just as we do in the United States.” [1].
[1]. American Council for Judaism (ACJ) statement of beliefs: http://www.acjna.org/acjna/about_principles.aspx .
ARENDT, Hannah.
Hannah Arendt in “Zionism reconsidered”, 1945: “Thus the social-revolutionary Jewish national movement, which started half a century ago with ideals so lofty that it overlooked the particular realities of the Near East and the general wickedness of the world, has ended – as do most such movements – with the unequivocal support not only of national but of chauvinist claims – claims not against the foes of the Jewish people but against its possible friends and present neighbors … But if the Jewish Commonwealth is proclaimed against the will of the Arabs and without the support of the Mediterranean people, not only financial help but political support will be necessary for a long time to come. And that may turnout to be very troublesome indeed for Jews in this country, who after all have no power to direct political destinies of the Near East. It may eventually be far more of a responsibility than today they imagine or tomorrow can make good.” [1].
Hannah Arendt, in a Letter with Albert Einstein and other scholars decrying Nazi-style Irgun Zionists like Menachaem Begin to the New York Times, 1948: “TO THE EDITORS OF NEW YORK TIMES:
Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.
The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.
Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.
The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
Attack on Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.
The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.
Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.
During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.
The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.
Discrepancies Seen
The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.
The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.
ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ,
HANNAH ARENDT,
ABRAHAM BRICK,
RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO,
ALBERT EINSTEIN,
HERMAN EISEN, M.D.,
HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D.,
H.H. HARRIS,
ZELIG S. HARRIS,
SIDNEY HOOK,
FRED KARUSH,
BRURIA KAUFMAN,
IRMA L. LINDHEIM,
NACHMAN MAISEL,
SEYMOUR MELMAN,
MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D.,
HARRY M. OSLINSKY,
SAMUEL PITLICK,
FRITZ ROHRLICH,
LOUIS P. ROCKER,
RUTH SAGIS,
ITZHAK SANKOWSKY,
I.J. SHOENBERG,
SAMUEL SHUMAN,
M. SINGER,
IRMA WOLFE,
STEFAN WOLFE.
New York, Dec. 2, 1948
[1]. Hannah Arendt, “Zionism reconsidered”, The Menorah Journal, Autumn 1945, volume 33, number 2, reproduced in Michael Selzer, editor, “Zionism Reconsidered”, Macmillan, London, 1970, pp213-249.
[2]. Letter by Albert Einstein and many other signatories to the New York Times, 4 December 1948, “New Palestine Party. Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed”,. a letter to The New York Times, published in the "Books" section (Page 12) of the New York Times, Saturday December 4, 1948: http://www.archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948 .
ASIMOV, Isaac.
Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920– April 6, 1992) came to the US from Russia in 1923. He was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University and thence became one of the world’s greatest science fiction writers. He wrote or edited about 500 books (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov ).
Isaac Asimov on Zionism and nationalist hubris: “As usual, I found myself in the odd position of not being a Zionist and of not particularly valuing my Jewish heritage…. I just think it is more important to be human and to have a human heritage; and I think it is wrong for anyone to feel that there is anything special about any one heritage of whatever kind. It is delightful to have the human heritage exist in a thousand varieties, for it makes for greater interest, but as soon as one variety is thought to be more important than another, the groundwork is laid for destroying them all.” [1].
Isaac Asimov on Zionism and persecuted Jews turning persecutors: “Right now, there is an influx of Soviet Jews into Israel. They are fleeing because they expect religious persecution. Yet at the instant their feet touched Israeli soil, they became extreme Israeli nationalists with no pity for the Palestinians. From persecuted to persecutors in the blinking of an eye.” [2].
[1]. Isaac Asimov, “In Joy Still Felt”, quoted by Edward Corrigan in “Is it anti-Semitism to defend Palestinian human rights? Jewish opposition to Zionism”, Dissident Voice, 1 September 2009: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ .
[2]. Isaac Asimov, chapter titled “Anti-Semitism” in “I. Asimov”, quoted by Edward Corrigan in “Is it anti-Semitism to defend Palestinian human rights? Jewish opposition to Zionism”, Dissident Voice, 1 September 2009: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ .
ATZMON, Gilad.
Gilad Atzmon is an anti-racist, Jewish Israeli jazz musician, composer, novelist, commentator and anti-Zionist activist. The moral power of his straightforward anti-racist position is reflected in the extraordinary hostility towards him from Zionists (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilad_Atzmon ).
Gilad Atzmon on racism: “Following the growing outrage of some Zionists as well as crypto Zionists at my critical writings, I find it important to mention that in none of my political texts or interviews have I ever used any kind of racially orientated arguments. My criticism of Zionism and Jewish identity is merely ideological and philosophical.
For me racism is categorically wrong and it is that very realisation that made me into a devoted opponent of Israel and of Zionism.
Anyhow, in case you in find an idea or a thought in my writings that may contain a trace of racism please contact me immediately. I will then either clarify my position or amend my text.” [1].
[1] Gilad Atzmon, “Politics”: http://www.gilad.co.uk/politics.html .
AVNERY, Uri.
Uri Avnery is a Jewish Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. He was a member of the Irgun terrorist organization and was a member of the Knesset in 1965-74 and 1979-81.Uri Avnery is the author of several books “1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem” (2008); “Israel’s Vicious Circle” (2008); and “My Friend, the Enemy” (1986) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery ). .
Uri Avnery on Israeli war crimes against Arabs: “This is the principle that guided the Israeli army in the Gaza War, and, as far as I know, this is a new doctrine: in order to avoid the loss of one single soldier of ours, it is permissible to kill 10, 100 and even 1000 enemy civilians. War without casualties on our side. The numerical result bears witness: more than 1000 people killed in Gaza, a third or two thirds of them (depending on who you ask) civilians, women and children, as against 6 (six) Israeli soldiers killed by enemy fire. (Four more were killed by “friendly” fire.) … If we strip this [Israeli military] doctrine of all ornaments, what remains is a simple principle: the state must protect the lives of its soldiers at any price, without any limit or law. A war of zero casualties. That leads necessarily to a tactic of killing every person and destroying every building that could represent a danger to the soldiers, creating an empty space in front of the advancing troops. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: from now on, any Israeli decision to start a war in a built-up area is a war crime, and the soldiers who rise up against this crime should be honored. May they be blessed.” [1].
[1]. Uri Avnery, “The Johnny Procedure”, Uri Avnery’s Column, 18 July, 2009: http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html .
Uri Avnery is a Jewish Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. He was a member of the Irgun terrorist organization and was a member of the Knesset in 1965-74 and 1979-81.Uri Avnery is the author of several books “1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem” (2008); “Israel’s Vicious Circle” (2008); and “My Friend, the Enemy” (1986) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery ). .
Uri Avnery on Israel war crimes against Arabs: “This is the principle that guided the Israeli army in the Gaza War, and, as far as I know, this is a new doctrine: in order to avoid the loss of one single soldier of ours, it is permissible to kill 10, 100 and even 1000 enemy civilians. War without casualties on our side. The numerical result bears witness: more than 1000 people killed in Gaza, a third or two thirds of them (depending on who you ask) civilians, women and children, as against 6 (six) Israeli soldiers killed by enemy fire. (Four more were killed by “friendly” fire.) … If we strip this [Israeli military] doctrine of all ornaments, what remains is a simple principle: the state must protect the lives of its soldiers at any price, without any limit or law. A war of zero casualties. That leads necessarily to a tactic of killing every person and destroying every building that could represent a danger to the soldiers, creating an empty space in front of the advancing troops. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: from now on, any Israeli decision to start a war in a built-up area is a war crime, and the soldiers who rise up against this crime should be honored. May they be blessed.” [1].
[1]. Uri Avnery, “The Johnny Procedure”, Uri Avnery’s Column, 18 July, 2009: http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html .
BALTZER, Anna.
Anna Baltzer is a Jewish-American Columbia graduate, former-Fulbright scholar, the granddaughter of Holocaust refugees, and an award-winning lecturer, author, and activist for Palestinian human rights. Anna Baltzer is a volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service in the West Bank and author of the book, “Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories” (see: http://www.annainthemiddleeast.com/aboutanna.html and http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6724.shtm).
Anna Baltzer on Apartheid Israel (2007): “if Israel desires control the territory that it has for more than two-thirds of its history, and to remain the state exclusively of the Jewish people, and to be democratic as well, it must find a way to create a Jewish majority on a strip of land in which the majority of inhabitants are not Jewish. There are only so many possible solutions: there's forced mass transfer (as was tried successfully in 1948, and is currently advocated by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman), there's mass imprisonment (10,000 plus Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails as I write), there's genocide ... or there is apartheid. The more humane alternatives of Israel withdrawing to the 1967 borders or becoming a state of all citizens are not even on the bargaining table.Apartheid and segregation failed in South Africa and the United States and they will fail in Israel and Palestine. Ethnocentric nationalism failed in Nazi Germany and it will fail in Zionist Israel. But until they do, the Ibrahims and baby Khalids of Palestine are counting on you and me to do something, to say something, since they themselves cannot. Silence is complicity. We cannot wait for things to get worse. The ethnic cleansing and apartheid have gone on long enough..” [1].
[1]. Anna Baltzer, “The crime of being born Palestinian”, Electronic Intifada, 25 March 2007: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6724.shtm .
BAT SHALOM.
Bat Shalom is an Israeli national feminist grassroots organization of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli women working together for a genuine peace grounded in a just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, respect for human rights, and an equal voice for Jewish and Arab women within Israeli society (see: http://www.batshalom.org/about.php ).
Bat Shalom, The Jerusalem Link” declaration of principles: “ We, Palestinian and Israeli women, united in a joint effort to bring about a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace between our two peoples, affirm our commitment to working together, within the framework of The Jerusalem Link, for the rapid realization of our common vision of peace. This effort is based on the following principles. Recognition of the right to self-determination of both peoples in the land, through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the June 4, 1967 boundaries. The whole city of Jerusalem constitutes two capitals for two states. The Oslo Declaration of Principles, signed on September 13, 1993, and all subsequent agreements must be implemented immediately and in their entirety. The permanent settlement negotiations must resume without any delays on the basis of the agreed agenda of the Declaration of Principles, the terms of reference being all relevant UN Resolutions, including 242 and 338. It is our conviction that all Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 are illegal, as stipulated by international law, and violate the requirements for peace. Palestinian: Israel accepts its moral, legal, political and economic responsibility for the plight of Palestinian refugees and thus must accept the right of return according to relevant UN resolutions. Israeli: Israel's recognition of its responsibility in the creation of the Palestinian refugees in 1948 is a pre-requisite to finding a just and lasting resolution of the refugee problem in accordance with relevant UN resolutions. Respect for international conventions, charters and laws and the active involvement of the international community in the peace process are crucial to its success. The realization of political peace will pave the way for mutual understanding and trust, genuine security, and constructive cooperation on the basis of equality and respect for the national and human rights of both peoples. Women must be central partners in the peace process. Their active and equal participation in decision making and negotiations is crucial to the fulfillment of a just and viable peace. We women are committed to a peaceful solution of our conflict, also as a means for the promotion of democratic and non-violent norms and the enhancement of civil society. A peaceful solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territory, including Lebanon and Syria, are prerequisites for a just and comprehensive peace. This will pave the way for a Middle East characterized by good neighborly relations and regional cooperation. We call on women and men in the region and elsewhere to join in making our vision of peace a reality.” [1].
[1]. Bat Shalom, The Jerusalem Link” declaration of principles: http://www.batshalom.org/jlink_principles.php .
BIRNBAUM, Nathan.
Nathan Birnbaum, decrying political Zionism, 1919: “And is it at all possible that we, who regard Judaism as our one and only treasure, should ever be able to compete with such expert demagogues and loud self-advertisers as they [the Zionists]? It is surely not necessary that we should. We are, after all, still the mountains and they the grain, and all we need to do is to gather all our forces in a world organization of religious Jews, and it will follow of itself, and without the application of any great political cunning on our part, that we shall have it in our power to prevent what must needs be prevented and to carry out what we have to carry out. But there is no need first to create this world organization of religious Jews. It is already in existence. The world knows its name, it is Agudas Yisroel [The Union of Israel].” [1].
[1]. Nathan Birnbaum, “In bondage to our fellow Jews”, 1919 from Nathan Birnbaum, "Series of Essays on Agudas Yisroel", London, 1944 reproduced in Michael Selzer, editor, “Zionism Reconsidered”, Macmillan, London, 1970.
BRAND, Joel.
Joel Brand (1906 –1964) was a Jewish Hungarian Holocaust hero associated with the Aid and Rescue Committee involved in saving Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe by getting them to the relative safety of Hungary. Joel Brand also played a prominent role in trying to save the Hungarian Jews from deportation to the Nazi German Auschwitz death camp. The Joel Brand scheme to trade 0.7 million Hungarian Jews for 10,000 trucks, 8,000 tons of coffee, 800 tons of tea, 200 tons of cocoa, and 2 million bars of soap was opposed by the Zionists who also evidently persuaded pro-Zionist Churchill to also oppose the scheme (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Brand ; Alex Weissberg, “Advocate for the Dead. The story of Joel Brand”, Andre Deutsch, London, 1958; Gideon Polya, “Biochemical targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds”, Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, London & New York, 2003, pp280, 281, 511: http://www.amazon.com/Biochemical-Targets-Plant-Bioactive-Compounds/dp/0415308291 and http://books.google.com.au/books?id=LJKmjujwoW4C&dq=%22Biochemical+Targets+of+Plant+Bioactive+Compounds%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=l99oSsjPKoTitgPZ4JyXBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4 ). According to eminent Jewish historian Professor Sir Martin Gilbert (Oxford University; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gilbert ) 0.2-0.4 million Hungarian Jews perished out of a population of 0.7 million (see Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London) [0.2 million estimate] and Martin Gilbert “Could Britain have done more to stop the horrors of Auschwitz?”, Times Online, 27 January 2005: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article507013.ece [0.4 million estimate] ).
Joel Brand on wartime Zionist leaders: “Rightly or wrongly, for better or for worse, I have cursed Jewry's official leaders ever since. All these things shall haunt me until my dying day. It is much more than a man can bear.” [1].[1]. Wikipedia, “Joel Brand”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Brand .
BRENNER, Lenni.
Lenni Brenner is an American Trotskyist Marxist writer, civil right activist, peace activist, anti-Zionist and author of the book “Zionism in the Age of Dictators”. He has been very important in exposing pre-war and wartime links between Zionists and the German Nazi regime. With African –American activist Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) he founded the Committee Against Zionism and Racism (for details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenni_Brenner ).
Lenni Brenner on Zionist collaboration with the Nazis: “ Zionist factions competed for the honor of allying to Hitler. By 1940-41, the "Stern Gang," among them Yitzhak Shamir, later Prime Minister of Israel, presented the Nazis with the "Fundamental Features of the Proposal of the National Military Organization in Palestine (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning the Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe and the Participation of the NMO in the War on the Side of Germany."
Avraham Stern and his followers announced that "The NMO, which is well-acquainted with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its authorities towards Zionist activity inside Germany and towards Zionist emigration plans, is of the opinion that: 1. Common interests could exist between the establishment of a new order in Europe in conformity with the German concept, and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as they are embodied by the NMO. 2. Cooperation between the new Germany and a renewed folkish-national Hebraium would be possible and, 3. The establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East. Proceeding from these considerations, the NMO in Palestine, under the condition the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively take part in the war on Germany's side."
They hanged people all over Europe after WW II for notes to the Nazis like these. But these treasons against the Jews were virtually unknown in the run up to the creation of the Zionist state in May 1948. Ninety percent of America's Jews suddenly became emotional pro-Zionists. With Democrats, Republicans and even the Communist-organized Progressive Party competing for Jewish votes in the November Presidential election, Harry Truman's monetary aid bought arms from pro-Soviet Czechoslovakia, and an Israel was born, run by the German Zionists' cothinkers in Jerusalem.
Jews and other Americans still know little of Zionism's sordid past. But today only programed fanatics can come away pro-Zionist after reading plain facts. Indeed, according to the American Jewish Identity Survey (2001), less than 22% of all Jews declare themselves Zionist. Opposition to Zionism also grows among liberal educated gentiles, every time their declared enemy, Pat Robertson, howls in favor of Orthodox Israel.” [1].
[1]. Lenni Brenner, “51 documents: Zionist collaboration with the Nazis”, CounterPunch, 23 December 2002: http://www.counterpunch.org/brenner1223.html .
BUBER, Martin.
Martin Buber (1878 – 1965) was an outstanding Austrian-born Jewish philosopher. A Zionist and immigrant to Palestine he nevertheless, informed by Humanity and his I-Thou religious existentialism, argued for non-racism and a bi-national state (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Buber ).
Martin Buber, “The National Home and The National Riots in Palestine”, speech in Berlin, 1929 after Palestinian riots: “Every responsible relationship between an individual and his fellow begins through the power of genuine imagination, as if we were the residents of Palestine and the others were the immigrants who were coming into the country in increasing numbers, year by year, taking it away from us. How would we react to events? Only if we know this will it be possible to minimize the injustice we must do in order to survive and to live the life which we are not only entitled but obliged to live, since we live for the eternal mission, which has been imbedded within us since our creation.” [1].
Martin Buber, “The Bi-National Approach to Zionism”, 1947: “We describe our program [that of the Ichud Association] as that of a bi-national state—that is, we aim at a social structure based on the reality of two peoples living together. The foundations of this structure cannot be the traditional ones of majority and minority, but must be different. We do not mean just any bi-national state, but this particular one, with its particular conditions, i.e. a bi-national state which embodies in its basic principle a Magna Charta Reservationum, the indispensable postulate of the rescue of the Jewish people. This is what we need and not a “Jewish State”.” [1].
[1]. Martin Buber quoted by Leonard Schwartz, “After the Assault on Gaza”, Common Ground News Service, 26 March 2009: http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=25104&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0&isNew= .
B’TSELEM.
B’Tselem: “The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel … B'Tselem in Hebrew literally means "in the image of," and is also used as a synonym for human dignity. The word is taken from Genesis 1:27 "And God created humans in his image. In the image of God did He create him." It is in this spirit that the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights." [1].
[1]. B’Tselem, “About B’Tselem”: http://www.btselem.org/English/About_BTselem/Index.asp .
CHOMSKY, Noam.
Professor Noam Chomsky is an outstanding Jewish American linguistics scholar at the prestigious, 73-Nobel-Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, Massachusetts, USA (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky ; for links to many of Professor Chomsky’s writings also see his website : http://www.chomsky.info/ ).
Professor Noam Chomsky and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [1].
Professor Noam Chomsky re Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa, 2008 : “There are similarities and differences. Within Israel itself, there is serious discrimination, but it's very far from South African Apartheid. Within the occupied territories, it's a different story. In 1997, I gave the keynote address at Ben-Gurion University in a conference on the anniversary of the 1967 war. I read a paragraph from a standard history of South Africa. No comment was necessary. Looking more closely, the situation in the OT differs in many ways from Apartheid. In some respects, South African Apartheid was more vicious than Israeli practices, and in some respects the opposite is true. To mention one example, White South Africa depended on Black labor. The large majority of the population could not be expelled. At one time Israel relied on cheap and easily exploited Palestinian labor, but they have long ago been replaced by the miserable of the earth from Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. Israelis would mostly breathe a sigh of relief if Palestinians were to disappear. And it is no secret that the policies that have taken shape accord well with the recommendations of Moshe Dayan right after the 1967 war: Palestinians will "continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave."” [2].
Professor Noam Chomsky re Gaza Concentration Camp, “huge prison”, 15 July 2006: “If there's a conflict going on, aside physical war, not in a military conflict going on, abduction -- if soldiers are captured, they are to be treated humanely. But it is not a crime at the level of capture of civilians and bringing them across the border into your own country. That's a serious crime. And that's the one that's not reported. And, in fact, remember that -- I mean, I don't have to tell you that there are constant attacks going on in Gaza, which is basically a prison, huge prison, under constant attack all the time: economic strangulation, military attack, assassinations, and so on. In comparison with that, abduction of a soldier, whatever one thinks about it, doesn't rank high in the scale of atrocities.” [3].
Professor Noam Chomsky to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “I would like to express my strong support for the work of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), specifically their calls for divestment from US corporations that are directly involved in Israel’s criminal activities in the occupied territories. I would also like to commend the important educational and organizational efforts that laid the basis for the call. The SJP statement … is fully defensible in moral and legal terms. The organizers deserve congratulations and support for having once again led Hampshire College to spearhead opposition to major crimes, as it did 30 years ago in its opposition to South African apartheid, opening a path that others could follow.” [4].
[1]. Letter from Noam Chomsky with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[2]. Interviews with Professors Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, OpEd News, 25 September 2008: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Noam-Chomsky-Ilan-Pappe-In-by-Duffer2205-080925-957.html .
[3]. Professor Noam Chomsky interviewed by Amy Goodman, Conn Hallinan, “Israel/Palestine”, ZNet, 15 July 2006: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/3566 .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
COLEMAN, Clarence.
Clarence L. Coleman, Jr., (born on August 31, 1903 in Chicago, died La Quinta, California at the age of 93 on January 11, 1997). long time Chairman of the Board of the American Council for Judaism and a leader from the earliest days of the effort to promote a universal Judaism free of nationalism. He was a 1924 graduate of Princeton University and was the owner of Coleman Floor Coverings for 55 years. For more than 50 years he was a member of the board of directors of the Old Republic Insurance Company. His avocations included poetry and photography. He was on the board of directors of the La Quinta Country Club for more than 25 years and was the official photographer for the City of La Quinta for the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic golf tournament for many years. He was dedicated to classical Reform Judaism which, in many ways, represented the most important commitment of his life. He was a founding member of Lakeside Congregation in Highland Park, Illinois and was an active member of the American Council for Judaism almost from its earliest years. He served as President before becoming Chairman of the Board. (see: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:iobPaLU54msJ:www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx%3Fid%3D95+%22thomas+kolsky%22&cd=18&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au ).
Clarence Coleman on being an American a Jew and an anti-Zionist (1959): “"I am an American and a Jew. I am an anti-Zionist. While some find this a negative term, I personally find strong, positive connotations, having to do with my interpretation of the universal, prophetic Judaism which the Council seeks to articulate. I would recognize no ‘Yalu Rivers’ — no limitations on our activities directed to the removal of Zionism and its influences from the lives and the institutions of American Jews, except, as I am able to determine, the danger which may result for the totality of American Jewry because of any specific act or statement of the Council… I am against every force or influence at work in the lives of American Jews which tends to separate and segregate them, in areas other than their religious beliefs, from their fellow Americans; if this force or influence has its roots in Israel I am willing to pursue the generating power there or elsewhere. To whatever extent it can be clearly established that force or influence seeks to involve Jews in America in the politics of the Middle East, then I conceive it to be the duty of the Council to do with dignity and precision what can be done to rectify this situation, to disengage American Jews from a political involvement not required by their religious faith. I am for every program that will make better understood our meaning of Judaism and will advance the historic process of integration, in the secular and political sense, of American Jews. This is, broadly, the formula which I will attempt to apply to the direction of American Council for Judaism programs in the field of Public Affairs and the other areas of our concern." [1].
[1]. Clarence Coleman (1959) quoted in “The Legacy of Clarence L. Coleman, Jr. 1903–1997”, American Council For Judaism, Issues, Winter 1997: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:iobPaLU54msJ:www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx%3Fid%3D95+%22thomas+kolsky%22&cd=18&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au .
DAVIS, Brandon.
Brandon Davis is a Jewish American sophomore at Princeton University from Westport, Connecticut, USA (see: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/10/06/26459/ ).
Brandon Davis on the “politicization of Judaism”(2010): “I agree that it would be wrong to draw conclusions about Israelis or Jews in general because of some Israeli policies and military actions — just as it would be wrong to judge any community by the actions of its worst representatives. But how do we deal with Judaism when almost all American Jewish organizations unconditionally support Israeli policies?... And just as it is fair to criticize Israeli policies, it is fair to criticize its apologists — groups that claim to represent the entire American Jewish community. American Jews have traditionally been at the forefront of progressive movements. But in recent years, American Jewish institutions have trended toward the ugly side of Zionism, defending — or at least apologizing for — the Israeli hard right in its continuation of the occupation of the West Bank and repression of Palestinian identity. The undeniable injustices of the Israeli government and military warrant criticism; silence in the face of these injustices warrants criticism as well. It is time for American Jews to stand up against oppression, violence and religious fundamentalism. The tribalism that has persuaded the Jewish people to categorically stand up for Israel for so many years is foolish and outdated. The occupation of the West Bank is wrong. The blockade of Gaza is wrong. The displacement of Palestinian villages is wrong. The continued construction of settlements is wrong. And American Jews have enabled all of it. It’s about time a Jew stood up and said so. ” [1].
[1]. Brandon Davis, “The politicization of Judaism”, The Daily Princetonian, 6 October 2010: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/10/06/26459/ .
EINSTEIN, Albert.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), outstanding German Jewish mathematician, winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics (for discovering the photoelectric effect) and most famous for his spcial theory of relativity and general theory of relativity. Initially pro-Zionist, Einstein was increasingly critical of the fascist and racist nature of Zionist extremists such as Menachem Begin (see: Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein )
Albert Einstein on racist Zionism, 1938: “Just one more personal word on the question of partition. I should much rath-er see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical consideration, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain--especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state." [1].
Albert Einstein in a Letter with other scholars decrying Nazi-style Irgun Zionists to the New York Times, 1948: “TO THE EDITORS OF NEW YORK TIMES:
Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.
The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.
Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.
The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
Attack on Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.
The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.
Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.
During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.
The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.
Discrepancies Seen
The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.
The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.
ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ,
HANNAH ARENDT,
ABRAHAM BRICK,
RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO,
ALBERT EINSTEIN,
HERMAN EISEN, M.D.,
HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D.,
H.H. HARRIS,
ZELIG S. HARRIS,
SIDNEY HOOK,
FRED KARUSH,
BRURIA KAUFMAN,
IRMA L. LINDHEIM,
NACHMAN MAISEL,
SEYMOUR MELMAN,
MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D.,
HARRY M. OSLINSKY,
SAMUEL PITLICK,
FRITZ ROHRLICH,
LOUIS P. ROCKER,
RUTH SAGIS,
ITZHAK SANKOWSKY,
I.J. SHOENBERG,
SAMUEL SHUMAN,
M. SINGER,
IRMA WOLFE,
STEFAN WOLFE.
New York, Dec. 2, 1948." [2].
Albert Einstein’s letter about the Deir Yassin Massacre (1948): “ April 10.1948
Mr. Shepard Rifkin
Exec. Director
American Friends of the Fighters
for the Freedom of Israel
149 Second Ave.
New York 3,N.Y.
Dear Sir:
When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be the British and the second responsible for it the Terrorist organizations build up from our own ranks.
I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.
Sincerely yours,
Albert Einstein.” [3].
[1]. Albert Einstein, “Our Debt to Zionism”, 1938, quoted by David E. Rowe and Robert Schulmann (eds), “Einstein on politics: his private thoughts and public stands on nationalism, Zionism, war, peace, and the bomb”, Princeton University Press, 2007: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8359.html .
[2]. Letter by Albert Einstein and many other signatories to the New York Times, 4 December 1948, “New Palestine Party. Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed”,. a letter to The New York Times, published in the "Books" section (Page 12) of the New York Times, Saturday December 4, 1948: http://www.archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948 .
[3]. Albert Einstein’s letter about the Deir Yassin Massacre (1948) : http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/ter-einstein.html .
ELLSBERG, Daniel.
Dr Daniel Ellsberg is an outstanding Jewish American hero in the fight against US state terrorism and nuclear terrorist madness. He became famous with his courageous publication of the secret Pentagon papers (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg ) .
Dr Daniel Ellsberg, statement on Mordechai Vanunu and Israeli nuclear terrorism, 2005: " The fact that Israel has a large and growing nuclear arsenal – larger than Britain's – has been recognized by the rest of the world ever since Mordechai Vanunu revealed it conclusively 19 years ago. For demolishing his country's policy of concealment, denial, and "ambiguity" of its status as a nuclear weapons state, Vanunu served 18 years in prison, including an unprecedented period of 11 and a half years of solitary confinement in a six-by-nine-foot cell… This very month, both Israel and the U.S. are making open threats of armed attacks as early as this summer on Iran's nuclear weapons potential. For Israel to confirm openly Vanunu's revelations at this particular time – dramatically abandoning forty years of obfuscation – would attract unfavorable attention to the fact that such threats or attacks against Iran are aimed not at achieving a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East but at prolonging, indefinitely, Israel's monopoly of nuclear weapons in the region. That is an unstated aim for both the U.S. and Israel, but a less than compelling justification for war. This may be a reason – but not a legitimate one – for returning Mordechai Vanunu to silence in solitary. What the world needs of this prophet of the nuclear era is not his silence but his freedom to speak and travel, to inspire others to follow his example of truth-telling in their own countries, above all here in the United States." [1].
Dr Daniel Ellsberg on US, Israeli and other nuclear terrorism, 2008: “ nuclear weapons were used as a threat against a non-nuclear opponent during the Gulf War.
By the same token, contrary to the belief of most Americans that US nuclear weapons have never been used in the fifty years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, American Presidents have employed nuclear threats over a dozen times, generally in secret from the US public, in crises and limited wars in Indochina, East Asia, Berlin, Cuba and the Middle East. The Soviet Union, Israel, and Pakistan have used nuclear weapons in the same way.
In each of these cases, nuclear weapons were used in the exact sense in which a gun is used when it is pointed at someone’s head in a confrontation, whether or not the trigger is pulled. To get one’s way without having to pull the trigger is a major reason for acquiring the gun and, often, for brandishing it.” [2].
[1]. Daniel Ellsberg, “Free Mordechai Vanunu”, Anti-war.com, 23 March 2005: http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=5306 .
[2]. Daniel Ellsberg, “Ending Nuclear terrorism: by America and others”, Chapter 8 of “At the nuclear precipice: catastrophe or trandofrmation?”, edited by Richard Falk and David Krieger, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008: http://www.amazon.com/At-Nuclear-Precipice-Catastrophe-Transformation/dp/023060904X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249542861&sr=1-1 ; Daniel Ellsberg web-site: http://www.ellsberg.net/archive/ending-nuclear-terrorism-by-america-and-others .
EPSTEIN, Hedy.
Hedy Epstein was born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany. She was 14 when she escaped from Nazi persecution via the Kinderstransport to England. Since her 1948 arrival in the U.S., Epstein has been an advocate for peace and human rights. In 2001 she founded the St. Louis chapter of the Women in Black anti-war group that originated in Israel, and has actively advocated for Palestinian rights since visiting the West Bank in 2003. As the last decade came to a close, Epstein continued her advocacy by travelling with the women's peace advocacy group Code Pink to the Gaza Freedom March. The December 31 March was a planned nonviolent demonstration to protest Israel's blockade of Gaza, with 1,000 advocates from abroad joining Palestinians in a march to the Gaza-Israel border checkpoint (see: http://networkedblogs.com/p23546894 ).
Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor, explains why she became a Palestinian human rights campaigner (2010): “I was born in Germany, I'm Jewish -- after Hitler came to power, my parents realized very quickly that Germany was not a good place to raise a family. They were willing to go anywhere in the world, but one place they were not willing to go to was Palestine -- they were anti-Zionists. As a child I didn't quite understand this, but if my parents were anti-Zionist, I was anti-Zionist. I came to the U.S. in 1948, around the same time Israel became a state, about which I had mixed feelings. On the one hand it was a place for Holocaust survivors to go to, those who could not or did not want to return to their homes, but on the other, I considered my parents' ardent anti-Zionism. While I was new in the U.S., Israel and Palestine remained on the back burner of my interests. In 1982, I heard about the massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon -- I wanted to know who was responsible for this, what had happened between 1948 and 1982. As I learned more, I became increasingly disturbed by the policies of Israel and its military. Fast forward to 2003 -- I was in the West Bank for the first time, and have been there five times since then… I'm an inveterate optimist, so someday there will be peace, but a lot of things have to change before that happens. If the occupation were to stop overnight, it would make all the difference in the world. Israel is the fourth-largest military entity in the world. They have the newest equipment, and it's used on the Palestinians. Also, if the U.S. stopped funding Israel, that would be another way of bringing about peace. We have humongous problems in this country, people are unemployed, losing their homes, we could use that money instead of overseas in a destructive way.” [1].
[1]. Hedy Epstein, interviews by La Times, “Holocaust survivor explains why she became Palestinian rights campaigner”, The Palestinian Telegraph, 8 January 2010: http://networkedblogs.com/p23546894 .
EUROPEAN JEWS FOR A JUST PEACE.
European Jews for a Just Peace, Mission Statement: “Our principles are formulated Amsterdam Declaration of 20 September 2002:
We, representatives of eighteen Jewish peace organisations from nine European countries, gathered together at the conference "Don't say you didn't know" in Amsterdam on the 19 and 20th of September 2002, call upon:
A) the Israeli government to change its current policy and implement the proposals in the following declaration and
B) all other governments, the United Nations and the European Union to put pressure on the Israeli government to implement the proposals in the following declaration:
We believe that the only way out of the current impasse is through an agreement based on the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state and the guarantee of a safe and secure Israel and Palestine. We condemn all violence against civilians in the conflict, no matter by whom it is carried out.
We call for:
1. an immediate end of the occupation of the occupied territories: West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem with recognition of the 4th June 1967 borders;
2. complete withdrawal of all Jewish settlements in all the occupied territories;
3. the recognition of the right of both states to have Jerusalem as their capital;
4. the recognition by Israel of its part in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Israel should recognise in principle the Palestinian right to return as a human right. The practical solution to the problem will come about by agreement between parties based on a just, fair and practical considerations. It will include compensation, the return to the territory of the State of Palestine or of Israel, without endangering Israel's existence. We call upon the international community, especially Europe, for political and financial support.” [1].
[1]. European Jews for a Just Peace, Mission Statement: http://www.ejjp.org/aboutejjp/mission-statement.html .
FALK, Richard.
Professor Richard Falk is an outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books ) speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk ). In 2008 this eminent Jewish international law scholar was arrested, imprisoned and deported by Apartheid Israel when he attempted to fulfil his role as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Professor Richard Falk in “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust”: “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species. Its massiveness, unconcealed genocidal intent, and reliance on the mentality and instruments of modernity give its enactment in the death camps of Europe a special status in our moral imagination … Against this background, it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust’ … Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty … But Gaza is morally far worse[ than Darfur], although mass death has not yet resulted. It is far worse because the international community is watching the ugly spectacle unfold while some of its most influential members actively encourage and assist Israel in its approach to Gaza. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, are complicit, as are such neighbors as Egypt and Jordan … Israel is currently stiffening the boycott on economic relations that has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation. This set of policies, carried on for more than four decades, has imposed a sub-human existence on a people that have been repeatedly and systematically made the target of a variety of severe forms of collective punishment.” [1].
Professor Richard Falk and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
[1]. Richard Falk, “Slouching toward a Palestinian holocaust “, The Translational Foundation for Peace and Future research (TFF), 29 Jiune 2007: http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html .
[2]. Letter from Richard Falk with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
FINKELSTEIN, Norman.
Professor Norman Finkelstein is an outstanding, world-famous Jewish American scholar and the author of numerous books, most notably “The Holocaust Industry”. He was punished for his humane and scholarly criticism of Israel human rights abuses by being terminated at Chicago’s Catholic De Paul University (2007). He was arrested, imprisoned, deported and forbidden to return by Apartheid Israel in 2008 (for biographical details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein ).
Professor Norman Finkelstein, to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel: “I strongly support this statement. Israel’s settlement policy in the Occupied Territories is a war crime. The wall Israel has been building in the Occupied Territories is designed to incorporate these illegal settlements. The final five-point itemization of your statement makes unambiguously clear that anyone who opposes such divestment supports war crimes.” [1].
[1]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
GOLDBERG, David Theo.
South Africa-born David Theo Goldberg is Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), holds faculty appointments as Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), is a Fellow of the UCI Critical Theory Institute and is a leader in Critical Race Theory (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Theo_Goldberg ) .
Professor David Theo Goldberg to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel: “I fully endorse the reasonable and courageous decision of the Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest all investments that support the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.” [1].
[1]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
GOLDSTONE, Richard.
Richard Goldstone (1938-) is an outstanding , anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish South African lawyer who as a judge oversaw interpretation of the constitution of post-Apartheid South Africa. He headed a UN Human Rights Council inquiry into war crimes committed in the bloody 2008-2009 Israeli incursion into Gaza in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Goldstone ).
Richard Goldstone and UN Inquiry Report on Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Concentration Camp: “[Israeli incursion] a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorise a civilian population". [1].
[1]. UN Human Rights Council Report co-authored by Richard Goldstone, “Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, says UN Report”, New Statesman, 16 September 2009: http://www.newstatesman.com/2009/09/war-crimes-israel-gaza-rights .
GORDON, Neve.
Professor Neve Gordon on the 2-state solution for just peace, 2009: “The two-state solution entails three central components:
1. Israel's full withdrawal to the 1967 border with possible one per one land swaps so that ultimately the total amount of land that was occupied will be returned.
2. Jerusalem's division according to the 1967 borders with certain land swaps to guarantee that each side has control over its own religious sites and large neighborhoods. These two components entail the dismantling of Israeli settlements and the return of the Jewish settlers to Israel.
3. The acknowledgment of the right of return of all Palestinians but with the following stipulation: While all Palestinians who so desire will be able to return to the fledgling Palestinian state, only a limited number agreed upon by the two sides will be allowed to return to Israel; those who cannot exercise this right or, alternatively, choose not to, will receive full compensation.
Obama's responsibility arises from the fact that the only way to advance US regional interests and to provide real security for the two peoples is by having Israelis and Palestinians sign a comprehensive agreement of this kind. Taking into account the results of the current Israeli elections, Obama will have to neutralize the rejectionists in order to resolve this bloody conflict once and for all.” [1].
Professor Neve Gordon, on the need to boycott an Apartheid Israel, 2009: “It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself.
I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads, and times of crisis call for dramatic measures. I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel, who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years and who is deeply anxious about the country's future.
The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.
The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.” [2].
[1]. Dr Neve Gordon, “Few peacemakers in Israel’s Knesset”, The Nation, 10 February2009: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/gordon .
[2]. Dr Neve Gordon, “Boycott Israel. An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country”, LA Times, 20 August 2009: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gordon20-2009aug20,0,1126906.story?track=rss .
GUSH SHALOM.
Gush Shalom (“The Peace Bloc”) is an Israeli peace group founded by eminent Jewish Israeli Uri Avnery and dedicated to achieving peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people (see Gush Shalom: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html and Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gush_Shalom ) .
Gush Shalom on the “Aims of Gush Shalom”: "The Aims of Gush Shalom. The primary aim of Gush Shalom is is to influence Israeli public opinion and lead it towards peace and conciliation with the Palestinian people, based on the following principles:
Putting an end to the occupation,
Accepting the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent and sovereign State of Palestine in all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967,
Reinstating the pre-1967 "Green Line" as the border between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine (with possible minor exchanges of territories agreed between the parties); the border will be open for the free movement of people and goods, subject to mutual agreement.
Establishing Jerusalem as the capital of the two states, with East Jerusalem (including the Haram al-Sharif) serving as the capital of Palestine and West Jerusalem (including the Western Wall) serving as the capital of Israel. The city is to be united on the physical and municipal level, based on mutual agreement.
Recognizing in principle the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugees, allowing each refugee to choose freely between compensation and repatriation to Palestine and Israel, and fixing by mutual agreement the number of refugees who will be able to return to Israel in annual quotas, without undermining the foundations of Israel.
Safeguarding the security of both Israel and Palestine by mutual agreement and guarantees.
Striving for overall peace between Israel and all Arab countries and the creation of a regional union.” [1].
[1]. Gush Shalom, ‘The aims of Gush Shalom” : http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/about/aims/ .
HALPER, Jeff.
Jeff Halper is a Jewish American Israeli. A professor of anthropology, lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Halper ) .
Jeff Halper re his arrests for anti-racist, humanitarian activism: “[I tell the judge] I am serving the community but they just don't get it! . . . The Israeli government simply does not want to take responsibility and the USA government ignores the situation. Look, Christ was all about justice and love. Jesus was no magician and his message has been lost by Christian Zionists who want Armageddon. They have taken Jesus' teachings and turned them into a travesty by justifying the occupation. Do you know why Israel does not want to become America's 51st state? Because then they would only have two senators!" [1].
Jeff Halper re racist Zionist perversion and attempts to silence him in Australia: “A funny thing happened to me on my way to synagogue in Sydney; my scheduled talk was cancelled… The uproar caused by the prospect of my speaking to the Jewish community in Australia is truly startling to an Israeli. After all, opinions similar to mine are readily available in the mainstream Israeli media. Indeed, I write frequently for the Israeli press and appear regularly on Israeli TV and radio. Why, then, the hysteria? …Well, almost 30 per cent of Israeli citizens are not Jews, we may have permanently incorporated another 4 million Palestinians - the residents of the Occupied Territories - into our country and, to top it off, it's clear by now that the vast majority of the world's Jews are not going to emigrate to Israel. Those facts, plus the urgent need of Israel to make peace with its neighbours, mean something. They mean that Israel must change in ways David Ben-Gurion and Leon Uris never envisioned, even if that is hard for Diaspora Jews to accept.” [2].
[1]. Eileen Fleming, “American Israeli Jeff Halper arrested for 8th time in Jerusalem”, Online Opinion, 8 April 2008: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3149.shtml .
[2]. Jeff Halper, “Diaspora Jewry needs to let go of idealised Israel”, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April 2009: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/diaspora-jewry-needs-to-let-go-of-idealised-israel-20090409-a1y6.html?page=-1 .
HIRSCH, Samson Raphael.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) was the most outstanding German and European rabbi of the 19th century (for biographical details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Raphael_Hirsch ) .
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: “"We mourn over the sin which brought about that downfall (the Temple destruction -- author), we take to heart the harshness which we have encountered in our years of wandering as the chastisement of a father, imposed on us for our improvement, and we mourn the lack of observance of the Torah which that ruin has brought about. Not in order to shine as a nation among nations do we raise our prayers and hopes for a reunion in our land, but in order to find a soil for the better fulfillment of our spiritual vocation in that reunion and in that land which was promised, and given, and again promised for our observance of the Torah. But this very vocation obliges us, until G-d shall call us back to the Holy Land, to live and to work as patriots wherever He has placed us, to collect all the physical, material and spiritual forces and all that is noble in Israel to further the weal of the nations which have given us shelter. It obliges us, further, to allow our longing for the far-off land to express itself only in mourning, in wishing and hoping; and only through the honest fulfillment of all Jewish duties to await the realization of this hope. But it forbids us to strive for the reunion or possession of the land by any but spiritual means. Our Sages say G-d imposed three vows when he sent Israel into the wilderness: (1) that the children of Israel shall never seek to reestablish their nation by themselves; (2) that they never be disloyal to the nations which have given them shelter; (3) that these nations shall not oppress them excessively (Kesubos 111a). The purpose of our exile, in addition to that of punishment, is to test us. Nachmanides (1194-1278) writes that the ultimate redemption depends on the Jewish people remaining faithful and preserving their identity in all the lands of their exile. This is a difficult task. The forces of persecution and the enticements of assimilation have often proved all too powerful. Yet, despite all, a remnant of Jewry has always remained faithful and continues so, praise be to G-d, until this very day. Thus, Jews are enjoined to perform a most precarious balancing act. On the one hand there is the obligation to act in an honest, empathetic, loyal and patriotic manner towards the nation in which they dwell. This obligation extends to Jewish relations with all peoples living within the nation. On the other hand, there is a need for spiritual and to some extent social isolation in order to practice the Torah and preserve Jewish survival. Inclining too far to either side of this dichotomy can result in much evil and confusion. In the proper balance, though, lies the fulfillment of Jewish destiny. And, combined with the yearning for the Messiah, it is the only recipe for the world's salvation”. [1].
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (in a prayer book commentary): “During the reign of Hadrian when the uprising led by Bar Kochba proved a disastrous error, it became essential that the Jewish people be reminded for all times of an important, essential fact, namely that (the people of) Israel must never again attempt to restore its national independence by its own power; it was to entrust its future as a nation solely to Divine Providence." [1].
[1]. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, quoted by True Torah Jews Against Zionism: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/rabbi_quotes/hirsch.cfm .
INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIAN JEWISH VOICES (IAJV).
Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) is a group containing some of Australia's most eminent Jewish scholars and professionals who urge peace with justice, human rights and equality in Palestine.
Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV), “Statement of Principles: A Call for an Alternative View”, 2007 :
“We are Jews with diverse opinions on the Middle East who share a deep concern about the current crisis in the region.
We are committed to ensuring a just peace that recognizes the legitimate national aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians with a solution that protects the human rights of all.
We condemn violence by all parties, whether state sanctioned or not. We believe that Israel’s right to exist must be recognized and that Palestinians’ right to a homeland must also be acknowledged.
As Australians we are privileged to live in a democratic state that embodies the principles of tolerance and free speech. We feel there is an urgent need to hear alternative voices that should not be silenced by being labelled disloyal or “self-hating.”
Uncritical allegiance to Israeli government policy does not necessarily serve Israel’s best interests. Our concern for justice and peace in the Middle East is a legitimate opinion and should be met by reasoned argument rather than vilification and intimidation. In particular, we are concerned that the Jewish establishment does not represent the full range of Jewish opinion. Contrary to widespread concerns, anti-Semitism is not fuelled by Jews who publicly disagree with actions of the Jewish State.
Jews understand what it is to suffer racism and victimization and therefore we are not only concerned about anti-Semitism but also the demonisation of all other minorities.
We call upon fellow Jews to join us in supporting free debate to further the prospects of peace, security and human rights in the Middle East.
[1]. Independent Australian Jewish Voices, “Statement of Principles: A Call for an Alternative View”, 2007 : http://www.iajv.org/the-declaration/ .
INDEPENDENT JEWISH VOICES, UK (IJV, UK).
Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) is a UK organization of pro-Peace British Jews launched in 2007 by 150 eminent British Jews including Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter (see IJV website: http://jewishvoices.squarespace.com/ and Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Jewish_Voices ).
Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Declaration: “We are a group of Jews in Britain from diverse backgrounds, occupations and affiliations who have in common a strong commitment to social justice and universal human rights. We come together in the belief that the broad spectrum of opinion among the Jewish population of this country is not reflected by those institutions which claim authority to represent the Jewish community as a whole. We further believe that individuals and groups within all communities should feel free to express their views on any issue of public concern without incurring accusations of disloyalty.
We have therefore resolved to promote the expression of alternative Jewish voices, particularly in respect of the grave situation in the Middle East, which threatens the future of both Israelis and Palestinians as well as the stability of the whole region. We are guided by the following principles:
1. Human rights are universal and indivisible and should be upheld without exception. This is as applicable in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories as it is elsewhere.
2. Palestinians and Israelis alike have the right to peaceful and secure lives.
3. Peace and stability require the willingness of all parties to the conflict to comply with international law.
4. There is no justification for any form of racism, including anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism or Islamophobia, in any circumstance.
5. The battle against anti-Semitism is vital and is undermined whenever opposition to Israeli government policies is automatically branded as anti-Semitic.
These principles are contradicted when those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people. The Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza Strip face appalling living conditions with desperately little hope for the future. We declare our support for a properly negotiated peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people and oppose any attempt by the Israeli government to impose its own solutions on the Palestinians.
It is imperative and urgent that independent Jewish voices find a coherent and consistent way of asserting themselves on these and other issues of concern. We hereby reclaim the tradition of Jewish support for universal freedoms, human rights and social justice. The lessons we have learned from our own history compel us to speak out. We therefore commit ourselves to make public our views on a continuing basis and invite other concerned Jews to join and support us.” [1].
[1]. A time to speak out: Independent Jewish Voices (UK): http://jewishvoices.squarespace.com/declaration-2/ .
INDEPENDENT JEWISH VOICES (Canada).
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) is the first Jewish organization in the World to join Boycott, Disinvestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign in support of Palestinians (see: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/453 ; IJV (Canada) website: http://www.independentjewishvoices.ca/ ).
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to the Boycott, Disinvestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign at its 2009 AGM with the support of 95% of voting delegates, and also called on the Canadian government to "1) cease its one-sided and uncritical support for Israel and 2) insist that Israel abide by international law”.
Diana Ralph, Co-Chair of IJV: "Independent Jewish Voices has voted to join the international boycott campaign because we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination. We are calling on the Canadian government and all Members of Parliament to push for immediate sanctions on Israel."
Fabienne Presentey, Steering Committee member of IJV: "The time has come for people around the world to rise to the challenge in Israel/Palestine, as we did for South Africa. All voices that can be raised against this injustice must be". [1]
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada), February 19, 2009 Press Release, about Stephen Harper Conservative government’s position on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and Minister Jason Kenney’s cutting off funding for English Second Language training programs run by the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF): :
We believe that Mr. Kenny [sic] and his Conservative government is threatening CAF’s funding because CAF stands for justice for Palestinian people and because it expresses principled criticism of oppressive Israeli policies.
As Jews, we affirm that criticizing Israeli policies is NOT anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism refers to hostility and/or prejudice against Jews. Like any other government, Israel has obligations under international law.
To responsibly raise critical concerns about the discriminatory, illegal, and brutal policies of another government is an ethical imperative, which our government should support.
However, the Conservative government has gone further than any previous Canadian administration in endorsing illegal and brutal Israeli assaults on Palestinian and Lebanese people.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged complete allegiance with Israel and labels as “anti-Semitic” any criticism of Israeli actions (including the Gaza massacre, house demolitions, use of illegal phosphorous and DIME weapons against civilians, etc.).
As Jews, we believe this is a dishonest smoke-screen, a ploy to discredit principled calls for humanity, justice, and compliance with international law.” [2].
[1]. “Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) joins Campaign of Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions against Israel”, Global BDS Movement, 17 June, 2009: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/453 .
[2]. Independent Jewish Voices (Canada), February 19, 2009 Press Release, quoted by Edward Corrigan in “Is it anti-Semitism to defend Palestinian human rights? Jewish opposition to Zionism”, Dissident Voice, 1 September 2009: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ .
INTERNATIONAL JEWISH ANTI-ZIONIST NETWORK (IJAN).
The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is opposed to racism, colonialism and imperialism and to racist Zionism in particular (see: http://www.ijsn.net/home/ ).
The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is opposed to racism, colonialism and imperialism and to racist Zionism in particular (see: http://www.ijsn.net/home/ ).
The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) to the Tayyar International Conference, 2009: “The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is a growing network of Jews whose identities are not based on Zionism but on long histories of Jewish participation in liberation struggles from Eastern Europe and Iraq to Brooklyn. IJAN's solidarity with this conference reflects our commitment to these legacies and to our participation in current struggles against racism, colonization, and imperialism. Central to this commitment is solidarity with Arab liberation struggles against US imperialism and Zionism.” [1].
The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) re the pro-Zionist US Alliance and Israeli attempts to derail the anti-racism Durban Conferecne , April 2009: “We are appalled by the concerted effort, led by Israeli officials, Zionist organizations and apologists, to derail the Durban Review Conference. We condemn the use of the memory of the Nazi genocide, as Jewish organizations did during the Durban Review week, in the defense of Israel's systematic domination and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians … It is beyond obvious to us that a conference about racism, and especially a conference that seeks to address the legacy of colonial oppression, must discuss Israel, since Israel is a settler-colonial state that systematically oppresses and denies basic human rights to millions of Palestinians. Israel's attempt to derail this important conference in order to avoid being examined and called to account is an affront against all the victims of racism all over the world, including the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi genocide. “ [1].
[1]. The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) home page: http://www.ijsn.net/home/ .
ISAACS, Isaac.
Sir Isaac Isaacs was concerned for the rights of Indigenous Palestinians and supported the British White Paper of 1939 restricting Jewish immigration to the Palestine Mandate and was accordingly vilified by local Australian Zionists, notwithstanding his great eminence.
The Balfour Declaration is reproduced here for the context (my emphasis added; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917 ).
Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely
Arthur James Balfour
Sir Isaac Isaacs, 1946: “The honour of Jews throughout the world demands the renunciation of political Zionism." [1].
[1]. Sir Isaac Isaacs, quoted by Wikipedia,”Isaac Isaacs”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs .
ISRAELI COMMITTEE AGAINST HOUSE DEMOLITIONS (ICAHD).
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), co-founded by Jewish American Israeli Professor Jeff Halper in 1997, is an Israeli organization that uses non-violent, direct-action means to oppose and resist illegal and war criminal Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Committee_Against_House_Demolitions and ICHAD website: http://www.icahd.org/eng/ ).
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), statement of aims: “ICAHD is a non-violent, direct-action group originally established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories. As our activists gained direct knowledge of the brutalities of the Occupation, we expanded our resistance activities to other areas - land expropriation, settlement expansion, by-pass road construction, policies of "closure" and “separation” , the wholesale uprooting of fruit and olive trees and more. The fierce repression of Palestinian efforts to "shake off" the Occupation following the latest Intifada has only added urgency to our efforts.
As a direct-action group, ICAHD is comprised of members of many Israeli peace and human rights organizations. All of our work in the Occupied Territories is closely coordinated with local Palestinian organizations.
Since its founding, ICAHD's activities have extended to three interrelated spheres: resistance and protest actions in the Occupied Territories; efforts to bring the reality of the Occupation to Israeli society; and mobilizing the international community for a just peace.” [1].
ICAHD statistics on war criminal Israel house demolitions: “ICAHD estimates that 24,145 houses have been demolished in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967… 4,247 houses, according to the United Nations, were demolished during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.” [2].
[1]. ICAHD, “What is ICAHD?”, ICAHD website: http://www.icahd.org/eng/about.asp?menu=2&submenu=1 .
[2]. ICAHD, “Stats: demolition statistics since 1967”, ICAHD website, 2009: http://www.icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=2&article=517 .
JEWISH PEACE FELLOWSHIP (JPH).
Jewish Peace Fellowship (JPF) is committed to non-violence and the Jewish tradition of Peace and Justice. JPF supports Jewish resistance - individual and communal - to the arms race in the United States and Israel and throughout the world and actively opposes capital punishment, conscription, the Israeli occupation, and U.S. armed interventions (see: http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org/ ).
Jewish Peace Fellowship “About the Jewish Peace Fellowship“: “JPF continues to support Jewish resistance--individual and communal-- to the arms race in the United States and Israel and throughout the world. We actively oppose capital punishment, conscription, the Israeli occupation, and U.S. armed interventions including the former Yugoslavia (1999). We support individuals who serve prison time for civil disobedience against Selective Service registration or in antinuclear actions … JPF is committed to renounce participation in war and other forms of violence. We recognize that there can be no peace without justice, and no justice without reconciliation, so we also support and work with groups in social justice activities as well as peace, reconciliation, and non-violence. “ [1].
[1]. Jewish Peace Fellowship “About the Jewish Peace Fellowship“: http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org/index.php?p=about .
JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE (JVP).
Jewish Voice for Peace demands peace and equality for Israelis and Palestinians (see: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/ ).
Jewish Voice for Peace, “Mission Statement”: “Jewish Voice for Peace is a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights. We support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination. We seek: A U.S. foreign policy based on promoting peace, democracy, human rights, and respect for international law. An end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. A resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem consistent with international law and equity. An end to all violence against civilians. Peace among the peoples of the Middle East. We are among the many American Jews who say to the U.S. and Israeli governments: "Not in our names!" JVP supports peace activists in Palestine and Israel, and works in broad coalition with other Jewish, Arab-American, faith-based, peace and social justice organizations.” [1].
[1]. Jewish Voice for Peace, “Mission Statement”: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/mission.shtml .JEWS AGAINST THE OCCUPATION (JATO).
Jews Against the Occupation is an organization of progressive, secular and religious Jews of all ages throughout the New York City area advocating peace through justice for Palestine and Israel (see: http://www.jatonyc.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_Against_the_Occupation ).
Jews Against the Occupation Mission Statement: “Jews Against the Occupation is an organization of progressive, secular and religious Jews of all ages throughout the New York City area advocating peace through justice for Palestine and Israel. Our points of unity are as follows:
NO OCCUPATION IN OUR NAME. We as American Jews reject the Israeli government assertion that it is "necessary" to subjugate Palestinians for the sake of keeping Jews safe. We assert that security can only come from mutual respect, and that the occupation of Palestine is only worsening the position of Jews in the Middle East and around the world.
RESTORE HUMAN & CIVIL RIGHTS. The Israeli military fires bone-crushing rubber bullets and live ammunition at unarmed Palestinian civilians engaged in peaceful protest, failing to distinguish between peaceful and violent resistance. The Israeli government has been demolishing Palestinian houses and crops in the Occupied Territories, while allowing Jewish settlers -- many of them American -- to illegally occupy the same land.
END U.S. AID TO ISRAEL. The U.S. government provides more aid to Israel than to any other country—the vast majority of this is for military purposes. Billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have propped up the occupation and fueled the Israeli government’s war machine (as well as disguising the occupation’s true cost). This aid must end.
STOP ECONOMIC ATTACKS ON PALESTINE. The Israeli government has attacked the Palestinian economy by: closing Palestinian banks; imposing extreme taxes on business; withdrawing operating licenses; destroying industrial equipment; bulldozing farmland and banning fishing; restricting workers' movement; controlling the export of Palestinian goods; closing the borders of the Occupied Territories; and refusing to fund infrastructure like water and electricity -- even in Arab villages within Israel.
LET PALESTINIANS RETURN HOME. Thousands of Palestinians were driven out of their houses and off of their farms during and after the creation of Israel. They must be allowed to return to their homeland.
ANTI-SEMITISM VS. CRITIQUES OF ISRAEL. Jews Against the Occupation stands firmly against anti-Semitism and racism in all its forms. We see our historical struggle against anti- Semitism--a cornerstone of European white supremacist ideology--as inherently linked to all struggles against oppression. We therefore stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom.
Judaism is a cultural and religious identity, which must not be equated with Zionism, a political movement. Criticism of the state of Israel, its policies, or the idea of a Jewish state does not by itself constitute anti-Semitism. Dismissing critics of Israel or of Zionism as "anti-Semitic" is a means of stifling debate and masking the impact of the occupation.” [1].
JATO on olive trees: “"When you lay siege to a city and wage war against it a long time to capture it, you must not destroy its trees." Deuteronomy 20:19. Jewish Tradition teaches us that even in a time of conflict we must not engage in collective punishment of innocent civilians.Over 30,000 Palestinian olive trees have been uprooted during the current intifada by Israeli security forces and settlers. These actions are in direct violation of Israeli law, international law, and Jewish tradition. These trees, some of them hundreds of years old, were the economic and ecological basis of Palestinian towns, having produced oil and olives for the villagers. Each one of them paid the cost of year after year of schooling for a child, or the cost of a room built for a growing child. The Struggle for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine needs strong voices here in the U.S. Help break the silence around Jewish opposition to the Israeli government's attacks on Palestinians - home demolitions, assassinations, detentions, curfews, collective punishment, and the occupation itself.”
[2].[1]. Jews Against the Occupation: http://www.jatonyc.org/ .
[2]. JATO, “Words and Actions”: http://www.jatonyc.org/ .
JEWS AGAINST THE OCCUPATION – SYDNEY (JAO-Sydney).
Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney (JAO-Sydney) are e a diverse group of Jews in Sydney, Australia, who want peace and oppose the continuing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories (see: http://jao.org.au/?page_id=14 ).
Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney (JAO-Sydney): “ What we stand for. We are a diverse group of Jews in Sydney, Australia, who oppose the continuing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. We support a non-violent negotiated settlement to the conflict. Current and earlier peace frameworks have failed to deliver justice or security for either Palestinians or Israelis. A peaceful, just resolution cannot occur until the Israeli government withdraws all forces and settlements in line with the 1967 borders. Our activities include: providing an alternative and radical Jewish voice; opening dialogues with Palestinians, Jews and others in Australia working towards a just settlement of the conflict; disseminating information and challenging myths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; broadening public debate on issues of Israel and Palestine; building links with other Jewish groups in Australia and worldwide seeking to end the occupation We are committed to: Withdrawal of the Israeli army from territories occupied in 1967. The immediate establishment of an international peacekeeping force to end the cycle of violence. An immediate resumption of negotiations aimed at the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel based on the pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states. The end of both state-sanctioned violence, including torture and targeted assassinations, and terrorist attacks against civilians. An immediate dismantling of the Separation Wall. The removal of all Israeli settlements from the occupied territories. A just resolution to the situation of Palestinian refugees with the right of return and/or compensation, details subject to agreement between the 2 parties. Social justice for Palestinian Israelis and an end to discrimination against them.” [1].
Vivienne Porzsolt, a spokesperson for Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney re rescinding of an invitation for Professor Jeff Halper (Coordinator of the Israeli Committee against Housing Demolitions , ICAHD).to speak at the Emanuel Synagogue, Woollahra, Sydney: “It is regrettable that yet once again the power brokers of the Jewish community are seeking to block open discussion about Israel. This is self-defeating as the realities of Israel’s brutal occupation and ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians are to be seen every day in our media. These acts of censorship bring no credit on our community and can only provoke the antisemitism they are supposed to avoid.” [2].
[1]. Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney (JAO-Sydney): http://jao.org.au/?page_id=14 .
[2]. Vivienne Porzsolt, quoted by JAO-Sydney Statement, “Noxious culture of silence in the Jewish community” “, JAO-Sydney, a spokesperson for Jews Against the Occupation, JAO-Sydney, 13 march 2009: http://jao.org.au/?p=90 .
JEWS FOR BOYCOTTING ISRAELI GOODS.
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) is an organization of group of British and Israeli Jews resident in the UK who have come together to support the Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) campaign (see: http://www.bigcampaign.org/index.php?page=jbig ).
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG): “We are a group of British and Israeli Jews resident in the UK who have come together in this 40th year of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land to support the Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) campaign.
In 1967, the Israeli army took military control of the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Since that time the government of Israel has built settlements, roads and other infrastructure for its Jewish citizens, using land and resources stolen from the Palestinian people. This situation continues, unchallenged by Western governments, despite Israel’s being in violation of international humanitarian law and over 60 UN resolutions.
Israel daily destroys Palestinian lives, livelihoods and homes; it continues to build its illegal colonies and separation wall on stolen land; it continues to control Gaza while slicing the West Bank into Bantustans, separating Palestinian families from their schools, places of work and agricultural land; it denies Palestinian refugees their right to return and operates a form of racism in many respects worse than the South African apartheid system. Its policies of intimidation and humiliation aim to destroy Palestinian hopes of statehood. Israeli businesses export freely from Palestinian land while the Palestinian economy is on its knees as a result of the occupation.
We believe that this constitutes a betrayal of the best trends in Jewish ethical tradition. It inflames hatreds in our unstable world and renders impossible the achievement of a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We therefore support the existing campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions to enforce Israeli compliance with international law.
We call on those of our fellow Jews who are inclined to support the State of Israel unconditionally to think critically about what Israel does in our names. We call on every ethical consumer, of any faith or none, to refuse to support the Israeli economy for as long as the illegal occupation and exploitation of Palestine persists.” [1].
Letter by J-BIG members to UK media, 2007: “:We welcome the courageous decision of the National Union of Journalists to boycott Israeli goods (Letters, April 23). Given Israel's contempt for international law, with the complicity of the US and UK governments, pressure has to be increased by civil society if justice is to be achieved. A boycott of Israeli goods is a legitimate form of grassroots action and is particularly appropriate as Israel is destroying the Palestinian economy. Such a boycott has been called for by Israeli peace organisations.
As a result of its illegal occupation, Israel is able to flood the Palestinian market with its products, while preventing Palestinian farmers from growing and trading their own. We believe Israel's actions betray Jewish ethical traditions - the cutting down of olive and fruit trees is prohibited by Jewish law. The continuing occupation and exploitation of Palestinian land is a major obstacle to peace for Israelis and Arabs alike which has global implications for world peace.
Deborah Fink, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Mike Cushman, Sylvia Finzi, Tony Greenstein, Ruth Tenne, Deborah Maccoby, Prof Moshe Machover, Mike Marqusee,
Jews for Boycotting Israel Goods.” [2].
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi (London-based Jewish campaigner for Palestinian rights who helped form Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG)): "Groups like mine - Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods - support the call made by nearly 200 Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005 for a broad campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, including an institutional academic and cultural boycott, until Israel respects Palestinian human rights and abides by international law." [3].
[1]. Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), Statement, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS): http://www.bigcampaign.org/index.php?page=jbig .
[2]. Letter by J-BIG members to UK media, 2007, specifically in the Jewish Chronicle, 27 April 2007 and in the UK Guardian, “Apartheid and boycotts in the Middle East”, 25 April 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/25/israel.comment .
[3]. Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, “Boycott – the sane response to Israeli Apartheid”, The Palestinian Telegraph, 24 August 2009: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/1984-boycott-the-sane-response-to-israeli-apartheid .
JEWS FOR JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS.
Jews for Justice for Palestinians: “Jews for Justice for Palestinians is a network of Jews who are British or live in Britain, practising and secular, Zionist and not. We oppose Israeli policies that undermine the livelihoods, human, civil and political rights of the Palestinian people.
We support the right of Israelis to live in freedom and security within Israel’s 1967 borders.
As well as organising to ensure that Jewish opinions critical of Israeli policy are heard in Britain, we extend support to Palestinians trapped in the spiral of violence and repression. We believe that such actions are important in countering antisemitism and the claim that opposition to Israel’s destructive policies is itself antisemitic.
We cooperate with other organisations on specific issues without necessarily endorsing everything they do.
We work to build world-wide Jewish opposition to the Israeli Occupation, with like-minded groups around the world and are a founding member of European Jews for a Just Peace, a federation of Jewish groups in ten European countries a federation of Jewish groups in ten European countries whose principles include: condemnation of all violence against civilians in the conflict, no matter by whom it is carried out; recognition of Israel’s 1967 ‘green line’ borders; commitment to the Palestinians’ right to a state in the territories currently occupied by Israel in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza; calling on Israel to acknowledge its part in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem and its obligation to negotiate a just, fair and practical resolution of the issue.” [1].
[1]. Jews for Justice for Palestinians. “Who are we?”: http://jfjfp.com/?page_id=2 .
JEWS NOT ZIONISTS.
Jews Not Zionist attempts to inform people of the fundamental conflict between Zionism and Judaism and for restoration of the Jewish-Muslim brotherhood that existed prior to the arrival of the Zionist scheme on the global scene. (see: http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/ ).
Jews Not Zionists: “There are in fact many Jewish movements, groups and organizations whose ideology regarding Zionism and the so-called "State of Israel" is that of the unadulterated Torah position that any form of Zionism is heresy and that the existence of the so-called "State of Israel" is illegitimate. No one has had to create any antagonism between our Torah and Zionism because such antagonism exists by virtue of the essence of Judaism itself, which can never tolerate the heresy of Zionism. Zionism is wrong from the Torah viewpoint, not because many of its adherents are lax in practice or even anti-religious, but because its fundamental principle conflicts with the Torah. Unfortunately, due to many undesirable factors, the view of Torah-true Jewry has been concealed from the general public.“ [1].
[1]. Jews Not Zionists: http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/ .
KAHN, Julius.
Julius Kahn (February 28, 1861 - December 18, 1924) immigrated from Germany to the United States with his parents in 1866. He was a Republican US Congressman 1899-1903 and 1904-1924. Julius Kahn presented an anti-Zionist petition signed by 31 prominent American Jews to President Woodrow Wilson as he was departing for the Paris Peace Conference (March 1919) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Kahn and http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ ).
Julius Kahn presented an anti-Zionist petition signed by 31 prominent American Jews to President Woodrow Wilson as he was departing for the Paris Peace Conference (March 1919). The petition was signed by 31 prominent American Jews. The signatories included Henry Morgenthau, Sr., ex-ambassador to Turkey; Simon W. Rosendale, ex-attorney general of New York; Mayor L. H. Kampner of Galveston, Texas; E. M. Baker, from Cleveland and president of the Stock Exchange; R. H. Macy’s Jesse I. Straus; New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs; and Judge M. C. Sloss of San Francisco. Part of the petition read: “…we protest against the political segregation of the Jews and the re-establishment in Palestine of a distinctively Jewish State as utterly opposed to the principles of democracy which it is the avowed purpose of the World’s Peace Conference to establish. Whether the Jews be regarded as a “race” or as a “religion,” it is contrary to the democratic principles for which the world war was waged to found a nation on either or both of these bases.” [1].
[1]. Julius Kahn petition, quoted by Edward Corrigan in “Is it anti-Semitism to defend Palestinian human rights? Jewish opposition to Zionism”, Dissident Voice, 1 September 2009: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/is-it-anti-semitic-to-defend-palestinian-human-rights/ .
KASRILS, Ronnie.
Ronald (Ronnie) Kasrils was a South African Jewish hero in the fight against Apartheid. He was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) (1987- 2007), member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) (1986-2007) and Minister for Intelligence (2004-2008) (for more details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Kasrils ) .
Ronnie Kasrils on Apartheid Israel, 2007: “Travelling into Palestine's West Bank and Gaza Strip, which I visited recently, is like a surreal trip back into an apartheid state of emergency. It is chilling to pass through the myriad checkpoints -- more than 500 in the West Bank. They are controlled by heavily armed soldiers, youthful but grim, tensely watching every movement, fingers on the trigger… The West Bank, once 22% of historic Palestine, has shrunk to perhaps 10% to 12% of living space for its inhabitants, and is split into several fragments, including the fertile Jordan Valley, which is a security preserve for Jewish settlers and the Israeli Defence Force. Like the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is effectively a hermetically sealed prison. It is shocking to discover that certain roads are barred to Palestinians and reserved for Jewish settlers. I try in vain to recall anything quite as obscene in apartheid South Africa.” [1].Ronnie Kasrils on Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa, 2009: “At the onset of international “Israel Apartheid Week” in solidarity with the embattled Palestinian people, I want to start by quoting a South African who emphatically stated as far back as 1963 that “Israel is an apartheid state.” Those were not the words of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu or Joe Slovo, but were uttered by none other than the architect of apartheid itself, racist Prime Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd. He was irked by the criticism of apartheid policy and Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech , in contrast to the West’s unconditional support for Zionist Israel…To conclude: we must spare no effort in building a world-wide solidarity movement to emulate the success of the Anti-Apartheid Movement which played such a crucial role in toppling the apartheid regime in South Africa. Nelson Mandela stated after South Africa attained democratic rule that “ we South Africans cannot feel free until the Palestinians are free.” A slogan of South Africa’s liberation struggle and our trade union movement is “An injury to one is an injury to all!“ That goes for the whole of humanity. Every act of solidarity demonstrates to the Palestinians and those courageous Jews who stand by them in Israel - that they are not alone.” [2].
Ronnie Kasrils re pro-Zionist Canadian university and government blocking of anti-Apartheid Israel activism, 2009: “I’ve been quite taken a back by what is happening here. These university presidents, and your government, are locked in a time warp. They don’t get it. Being anti-Israel, or anti-Zionism does not in any way equal anti-Semitism. But this fact is lost with the presidents of various universities. It’s lost on the Jason Kenney’s. They still hold on to that notion if you “cry wolf,” and say this is anti-Israel and therefore anti-Semitic, that this will still carry any weight. And what I say in dialogue with Zionists, is that around the world this claim is really something that is now over. It is finished. Finito.” [3].
Ronnie Kasrils to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “As a South African freedom fighter and recently retired minister in our democratic government I salute your stand against apartheid Israel!” [4].
Ronnie Kasrils on Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa: “ The occupation reminds me of the darkest days of apartheid, but we never saw tanks and planes firing at a civilian population. It's a monstrousness I'd never seen before. The wall you built, the checkpoints and the roads for Jews only - it turns the stomach, even for someone who grew up under apartheid. It's a hundred times worse.” [5].
Former South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils from a speech at Israel Apartheid Week (2009)."Israel came to resemble more and more apartheid South Africa at its zenith -- even surpassing its brutality, house demolitions, removal of communities, targeted assassinations, massacres, imprisonment and torture of its opponents, collective punishment and the aggression against neighbouring states." [6].
[1]. Ronnie Kasrils, “Israel 2007: worse than Apartheid”, Mail & Guardian On-line, 21 May 2007: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-05-21-israel-2007-worse-than-apartheid .
[2]. Ronnie Kasrils, “Who said nearly 50 years ago that Israel was an Apartheid State?”, Speech at Israel Apartheid Week, 2009, Global BDS Movement. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions for Palestine, 20 March 2009: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/347 .[3] Ronnie Kasrils, quoted by Johan Boyden,”Israel Apartheid week in Canada welcomes Ronnie Kasrils and fights censorship and interference”, The Comment Factory, 9 March 2009: http://www.thecommentfactory.com/israel-apartheid-week-in-canada-welcomes-ronnie-kasrils-and-fights-censorship-and-interference-2046 .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
[5]. Gideon Levy, “Twilight zone/Cry the Beloved Country”, Haaretz, 26 January 2009: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/862911.html .
[6]. Edward. C. Corrigan, “Israel and apartheid: a fair comparison?”, rabble.ca, 2 March 2010: http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/israel-and-apartheid-fair-comparison .
KING, Oona.
Oona King was the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 until 2005 when she was defeated by former Labour MPand RESPECT candidate George Galloway. Oona Kingwas born in 1967 to a Jewish mother mother committed to justice issues, Murreil Hazels Stern, and an Africna-American father, political theorist Preston King. She is the niece of the medical doctor Dr Miriam Stoppard (her mother's sister) and her playwright husband Tom Stoppard and is a member of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King ).
Ms Oona King MP on comparing the Israeli Gaza Concentration Camp with the Nazi Warsaw Ghetto (2003): " The same in nature … No government should be behaving like that - least of all a Jewish government…I recognise the terror many Israelis live with as a matter of their daily lives. I was more surprised perhaps by the everyday terror that Palestinians live, the detail and nature of which I had not understood. We must support the moderate voices as opposed to strengthening extremists…. It is the same in nature but not extent [as the Warsaw Ghetto] …[although a ] very, very big difference... Palestinians are not being rounded up and put in gas chambers. What makes it similar is what happened to the Jewish people in that time which was the seizing of land, being forced from property, torture and bureaucracy - control used in a demeaning way over the smallest task. On top of that building a wall around them - and that is precisely what the Israeli government is doing. In doing so it is building a political ghetto. I don't think it can escape that conclusion…As a Jewish person, I hoped I would never live to see the day I was ashamed of the actions of the Jewish state." [1].
[1]. Oona King MP, quoted in “MPs compare Gaza to Warsaw Ghetto”, Guardian, 19 June 2003: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/jun/19/foreignpolicy.israel .
KLEIN, Naomi.
Naomi Klein is a famous Jewish Canadian journalist, author and activist who is very well known for her books and critiques of corporate globalization (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein; see also Naomi Klein website: http://www.naomiklein.org/main ).
Naomi Klein on “never again to anyone”: “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say, 'Never again to anyone.”” [1].
.Naomi Klein and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [2].
Naomi Klein to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel: “Congratulations to the students of Hampshire College for your principled and thoughtful divestment decision. Economic sanctions are among the most potent tools in the arsenal of non-violent tactics. Divestment and boycotts are controversial precisely because they work. So stay strong in the face of the attacks and misinformation, they are a measure of the effectiveness of the tactic you have chosen. And know that that there are many who stand with you, and will soon be inspired to join you” [3].
[1]. Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haartetz, 2 July 2007: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html .
[2]. Letter from Naomi Klein with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, and Gore Vidal re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, California, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[3]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
LANG-LEVITSKY, Daniel.
Daniel Lang-Levitsky is a theatre worker and organizer based in New York City, and a co-founder of Jews Against the Occupation (see: http://www.monthlyreview.org/090622lang.php and http://www.jatonyc.org/ ).
Daniel Lang-Levitsky on solidarity with Palestinians after the latest Israel Gaza Massacre: "One of the main accomplishments of the Israeli government’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip last winter was to inspire new vitality within leftist and peace groups in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice and liberation. This wave of activity has continued after the supposed ceasefire, with demonstrations and direct actions from New York to Los Angeles, Paris, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv. Most noteworthy has been a coming out of sorts of an increasingly large and vocal segment of the Jewish world that is not only opposed to the Israeli government’s wars and military occupations, but critical of Zionism itself." [1].
LENDMAN, Stephen.
Stephen Lendman is an outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish American analyst, writer and a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (see Stephen Lendman blog:: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/ ) .
Stephen Lendman reviewing Ilan Pappe’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: “Since the 1940s, they [the Palestinians] were ethnically cleansed and slaughtered without mercy so their homeland would become one for Jews alone. The shameful result is that Palestinians then and today have almost no rights including being able to live in peace and security on their own land in their own state that no longer exists. Survivors then and their offspring either live in Israel as unwanted Arab citizens with few rights or in the Occupied Palestinians Territories (OPT) where their lives are suspended in limbo in an occupied country in which they're subjected to daily institutionalized and codified racism and persecution. They have no power over their daily lives and live in a constant state of fear with good reason. They face economic strangulation; collective punishment for any reason; loss of free movement; enclosures by separation walls, electric fences and border closings; regular curfews, roadblocks, checkpoints, loss of their homes by bulldozings and crops and orchards by wanton destruction and seizure; arrest without cause, and routine subjection to torture while in custody. They're targeted for extra-judicial assassination and indiscriminate killing; taxed punitively and denied basic services essential to life and well-being including health care, education, employment and even enough food and water at the whim of Israeli authorities in a deliberate effort to destroy their will to resist and eliminate those who won't by expulsion or extermination.”. [1].
Stephen Lendman on Israel/Palestine today: “B'Tselem is the Jerusalem-based independent Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (OPT) with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy and integrity. It was founded in 1989 to "document and educate the Israeli public, policymakers (and concerned people everywhere) about human rights violations in the OPT, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public (and elsewhere, especially among Jews), and create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law. It conducts wide-ranging, carefully researched, and thoroughly cross-checked reports, most recently its June one titled, "Foul Play: Neglect of wastewater treatment in the West Bank." This article discusses its findings as further evidence of how Israel violates international humanitarian law as an occupying power. Because no global authority holds it accountable, over 2.8 million West Bank Palestinians suffer along with another 1.5 million under siege in Gaza for over two years and counting …Of the West Bank's 2.8 million Palestinians, wastewater for over two million of them goes untreated, the result of Israel's wilful neglect in violation of international humanitarian law and its obligation as an occupier.” [2].
[1]. Stephen Lendman, “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ian Pappe”, Global Research, 7 February 2007: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4715 .
[2]. Stephen Lendman” “Dangerous Untreated Wastewater in the West Bank”, Stephen Lendman Blog, 17 July 2009: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/ .
LOEWENSTEIN, Antony.
Antony Loewenstein is a Jewish Australian political activist, journalist, author and commentator. He is the author of “My Israel Question”(Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2006) and co-founder of the anti-racist, humanitarian and pro-peace Independent Australian Jewish Voices (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Loewenstein ).
Antony Loewenstein on his book “My Israel Question”: “Over two years of writing, researching and spending time in the Middle East and the US--as well as being slammed by simply defending the rights of Palestinian human rights campaigner Hanan Ashrawi after she won the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize--I soon realised that I wasn't being silenced but the issues of Israeli occupation and the Zionist lobby were routinely avoided by the mainstream media. I wanted my book to readdress that imbalance. Honest debate about Israel and Palestine is sadly lacking in Australia and much of the Western world. It's invariably overly emotive, factually challenged, partisan and counter-productive …Discussing Israel and Palestine is therefore vital in an age of rising fundamentalisms. Labelling critics of Israel as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel merely attempts to silence individuals who passionately believe the current political path of the Jewish state is destined to lead to its disappearance. I share this fear. The simple truth is that Israel's long-term security lies with the Arab world, not a superpower thousands of miles away. A superpower, it should be noted, that has suffered an inglorious and welcome defeat in Iraq and whose reputation in the Arab and Muslim world has never been worse.” [1].
[1]. Antony Loewenstein “My Israel Question”, Counterpunch, 13 September 2006: http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein09132006.html .
LOEWENSTEIN, Jennifer.
Dr Jennifer Loewenstein is the Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, Wisconsin, USA and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre (for biographical details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Loewenstein ).
Dr Jennifer Loewenstein on Zionist Israeli racism: “The destruction of Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas. Israel will accept no authority in the Palestinian territories that it does not ultimately control. Any individual, leader, faction or movement that fails to accede to Israel’s demands or that seeks genuine sovereignty and the equality of all nations in the region; any government or popular movement that demands the applicability of international humanitarian law and of the universal declaration of human rights for its own people will be unacceptable for the Jewish State. Those dreaming of one state must be forced to ask themselves what Israel would do to a population of 4 million Palestinians within its borders when it commits on a daily, if not hourly basis, crimes against their collective humanity while they live alongside its borders? What will suddenly make the raison d’etre, the self-proclaimed purpose of Israel’s reason for being change if the Palestinian territories are annexed to it outright?” [1].Dr Jennifer Loewenstein as a signatory to a latter entitled “The reality of the Geneva Accord”, 2003: “The Geneva accord was signed Monday 1 December 2003 amid great media and political fanfare. The 50-page document lays out a plan for a presumed "peace agreement" between Israel and the Palestinian people. We, the undersigned, consider this initiative as inconsistent with the prerequisites of a just and durable peace for the following reasons:
1. It attempts to nullify the Palestinian right of return, both as a collective national right and as an individual right. By doing so, it strengthens existing attempts to relocate and scatter Palestinian refugees throughout the world and gives credence to plans to abrogate international law pertaining to the inalienable nature of the right of return. The net result would be to extract the very anchor of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination: the indivisible oneness of the Palestinian people and their right to their homes, properties and homeland.
2. It provides a Palestinian-Arab cover for the exclusive nature of the Israeli polity as a "Jewish State", thus abrogating the national character of the Palestinian people within 1948 borders. It therefore fails to recognize the right of the 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel to live in a democratic state for all its citizens: Jews and Palestinians, and it sets the stage for mass transfer and ethnic cleansing in the future to maintain demographic Jewish dominance.
3. It accepts the reconfiguration of Jerusalem based on Israeli annexation plans, and grants Palestinian-Arab legitimacy to the colonial process that altered the Arab character of Jerusalem, making it impossible for the Palestinians to exercise control over "East Jerusalem", not to say anything about "West Jerusalem", which was conquered and ethnically cleansed in 1948.
4. It permanently accepts the presence of the vast majority of Israeli settlement colonies, particularly those that surround Jerusalem from the east, south, north and northwest, where most post-1967 settlers live, and alters the geography of Palestine to accommodate such colonial seizures.
5. It codifies a process that would limit the upper ceiling of a potential Palestinian polity to a truncated and demilitarized entity void of sovereignty, and sets in motion a process of expanding Israeli political oversight and control over any potential Palestinian entity.
6. It paves for an economic-political relationship that subordinates the Palestinian people to an exclusive and dominant Israeli polity, thus strategically de-linking the Palestinians from the Arab people and subjugating the national interests of all Arabs to the singular power of an Israeli-US alliance.
7. It allows for Israeli military and economic penetration and permanent outposts into the presumed Palestinian entity.
8. It leaves open all Israeli claims to the region's water resources, natural wealth and airspace. The text makes several references to annexes, but these issues have, in effect, been deferred, and may become the "final status" issues of the Geneva understanding.
9. It dilutes the international consensus on the conflict and attempts to transform the basis of the Palestinian struggle from one of national self-determination and return to that of modified civil rights within a prescribed political framework.
10. Most importantly, it weakens the national unity and resolve of the Palestinian people, leading to the potential defeat of the current Intifada in the same manner that Madrid and Oslo [accords] destroyed the first a decade ago.
11. It diminishes European commitment to Palestinian sovereignty and, most importantly, it expands the margin of Palestinian concessions, which have been bottoming out during the past two decades, making it very difficult for future Palestinian negotiators to back away from these concessions, including the renunciation of the right of return.
12. It assumes the Palestinian victims of Israel are the criminals, and the new judges allegedly more liberal than previous ones in the sentencing.
The Geneva accord is a natural extension and an inevitable result of the "Road Map" and all associated models. The outcome of all, if allowed to succeed, would be to terminate the Palestinian march to freedom, to nullify indefinitely and delegitimize the Palestinian right to return, and to subordinate the Arab nation to a heavily militarized outpost with normalized relationships with its surrounding.” [2].
[1]. Dr Jennifer Loewenstein, “If Hamas did not exist”, The Palestine Chronicle, 31 December 2008: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14575 .
[2]. Dr Jennifer Lowenstein as a signatory with many other scholars to a letter entitled “The reality of the Geneva Accord”, 1993, Spotlight, 6 December 2003: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:TtwoKvKTA1IJ:www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/petition3.htm+%22Jennifer+Loewenstein+PhD%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au .MAGNES, Judah.
Judah Magnes (1877-1948) was an outstanding Reform rabbi in both the US and Palestine. The first chancellor of the Hebrew University and later president (1935-1948), he argued for non-racism and a bi-national state in Palestine (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Leon_Magnes ).
Judah Magnes re Peel Commission and Partition, 1937 (New York Times, 18 July, 1937): “With the permission of the Arabs we will be able to receive hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jews in Arab lands … Without the permission of the Arabs even the four hundred thousand [Jews] that now are in Palestine will remain in danger, in spite of the temporary protection of British bayonets. With partition a new Balkan is made.” [1].
Judah Magnes on Zionism: "If we cannot find ways of peace and understanding, if the only way of establishing the Jewish National Home is upon the bayonets of some Empire, our whole enterprise is not worthwhile, and it is better that the Eternal People that has outlived many a mighty empire should possess its soul in patience... It is one of the great civilizing tasks before the Jewish people to enter the promised land, not in the Joshua way, but bringing peace and culture, hard work and sacrifice and love, and a determination to do nothing that cannot be justified before the conscience of the world." [1].
Judah Magnes (in resigning leadership of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee over the issue of their refusal to aid Palestinian refugees), 1948: "How can I continue to be officially associated with an aid organization which apparently so easily can ignore such a huge and acute refugee problem?" [1].
[1]. Judah Magnes, quoted in Wikpedia, “ Judah Leon Magnes”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Leon_Magnes .
MENUHIN, Moshe.
Moshe Menuhin (1893-1983) was born in Russia but lived in Palestine, Israel and the US. A prominent anti-Zionist, he was the author of "The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time", "Jewish Critics of Zionism", and of the family history "The Menuhin Saga". He was the father of famous violinist and universalist Yehudi Menuhin (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Menuhin ).
Moshe Menuhin re Israeli oppression of Palestinians: “Jews should be Jews - not Nazis.” [1].
Moshe Menuhin re justice for the Arabs: “The education of prophetic Judaism that I got from my grandfather did not allow me to become an Arab hater. The Jews and Arabs can and should become good neighbors and collaborate jointly in every sense. And as the Arabs gain their political state and freedom (in Palestine), and as the world concentrates more and more on peace, justice and mutual aid, the border lines will stop having any significance.” [1].
Moshe Menuhin re an exclusively Zionist Jerusalem: “World Jewry never needed Jerusalem for their spiritual lives… [for 2,000 years] it was the diaspora that gave spiritual assets to those few Jews who lived peacefully with the Arabs in Arab Palestine. With the coming of the new world order of a civilized nature, such claims of influence, spiritual centers, are archaic and out of date. The best of all nations and races belongs to all humanity, and the negative phases evolution will discard as ‘spiritual’ garbage.” [1].
[1]. Moshe Menuhin quoted by Grace Halsell in “Like father, like son: a tribute to Moshe and Yehudi Menuhin”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA), July 1996: http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0796/9607018.htm .
MENUHIN, Yehudi.
Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) was an outstanding violinist and universalist (US-born he became a Swiss citizen in 1970 and a UK citizen in 1985; Nehru Peace Prize and goodwill ambassador for UNESCO) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehudi_Menuhin ).
Yehudi Menuhin addressing the Israeli Knesset in 1991: “You must love if you yearn to be loved; you must trust to be trusted, serve in return to be served …[between Palestinians and Israelis] there must be absolute reciprocity, absolute equality.” [1].
Yehudi Menuhin re Jerusalem, 1996: “The idea of Jerusalem as an exclusive Jewish city is unthinkable because too many different groups owe it their allegiance, religiously and politically, and everyone who has tried to make Jerusalem into their own has been ruined.” [1].
Yehudi Menuhin re disproportionate Israeli violence, 1996: “[saddened] because Israel needs friends and the reaction to the present unleashing of indiscriminate killing is not going to win Israel any friends.” [1].
[1]. Yehudi Menuhin quoted by Grace Halsell in “Like father, like son: a tribute to Moshe and Yehudi Menuhin”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA), July 1996: http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0796/9607018.htm .
NETUREI KARTA.
The Neturei Karta (Aramaic for "Guardians of the City” ) opposed the establishment of and retain all opposition to the existence of the so-called "State of Israel".The group was founded in Jerusalem, Palestine in 1938, splitting off from Agudas Yisroel (which was established in 1912 for the purpose of fighting Zionism but eventually surrendered to Zionism) (see: http://www.nkusa.org/aboutus/index.cfm ).
Neturei Karta on the blasphemy of the Zionist State: "The founding of the Zionist State is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Torah, which forbids the establishment of a Jewish State and commands Jews to remain in exile until released from that exile by G-d Himself without any human intervention. At which time all Nations of the world will live together in peace. Two thousand years ago, at the time of the destruction of the holy Temple, the Jewish people were commanded by the Creator (kesubos 111a) not to go up en masse to the land of Israel; not to rebel against the nations; and not to in any way attempt to end the exile. Torah faithful Jews are to behave in a civil, honest and grateful manner towards their host nations throughout the world. The Zionist intervention against G-d’s will by establishing the ‘State of Israel’, represents a direct rebellion against G-d and the Torah, a rebellion which has generated untold pain and suffering, to Jew and non-Jew alike.” [1].
[1]. Neturei Karta, “Israeli Independence Day”: http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/20090429IID.cfm .
NOT IN MY NAME.
Not in My Name is a largely Jewish organization committed to peace and justice for all in the Holy Land and demanding an end to the Israeli Occupation (see: http://www.nimn.org/index.php ).
Not in My Name, “Where we stand. Common ground”: “Not In My Name, as a predominantly Jewish organization, is deeply committed to a peaceful and just resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a resolution that will provide safety, security and freedom for Jews, Palestinians, and all others living in this region. We believe that such a peace can only be achieved when Israel withdraws from its settlements in the Palestinian territories and addresses the legitimate national and human rights of the Palestinian people. We do not accept that Jewish survival depends on unconditional support for the Israeli government and its policies. Rather we believe that the future safety and survival of our people rests on our ability to live in peace with our neighbors and to work to ensure justice and security for all people.” [1].
[1]. Not in My Name, “Where we stand. Common ground”: http://www.nimn.org/About/menu/000010.php?section=Where%20We%20Stand .
OLLMAN, Bertell.
Outstanding, anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish American scholar Professor Bertell Ollman is a professor of politics at New York University where he teaches both dialectical methodology and socialist theory. He is the author or co-author of numerous scholarly books (for a detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertell_Ollman ).
Professor Bertell Ollman on required actions against racist Zionism: “Politically, this means avoiding any association with this "rogue state" whatsoever (as we did with South Africa earlier), boycotting it economically and otherwise (keeping it out of the Olympics, for example), bringing pressure on our politicians to stop all U.S. aid (private as well as public) to Israel, supporting various sanctions (including trade sanctions) against it, calling for the strongest possible resolutions at the U.N. and in all other available forums denouncing Zionist human rights abuses, and, of course, confronting head-on the Zionist lobby that would oppose all this. Similar steps should be taken in Europe and elsewhere, but, given America's power in the world in general and in Israel in particular, it is in our country that the fate of the Palestinian people—and ultimately that of Judaism and what's left of the Jewish people—will be decided.” [1].
Professor Bertell Ollman on the fight against anti-Semitism: “An all out struggle against Zionism by Jews, therefore, is also the most effective way to fight against real anti-Semitism. Furthermore, if Zionism is indeed a particularly virulent form of nationalism and, increasingly, of racism and if Israel is acting toward its captive minority in ways that resemble more and more how the Nazis treated their Jews, then we must also say so. For obvious reasons, the Zionists are very sensitive about being compared to the Nazis (not so sensitive that it has restrained them in their actions but enough to bellow "unfair" and to charge "anti-Semitism" when it happens). Yet, the facts on the ground, when not obscured by one or another Zionist rationalization, show that the Zionists are the worst anti-Semites in the world today, oppressing a Semitic people as no nation has done since the Nazis.” [1].
[1]. Bertell Ollman, “Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People”, Dialectical Marxism, 2004: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/resignation.php .
PAPPÉ, Ilan.
Outstanding Jewish Israeli historian Ilan Pappé is Professor of history at the University of Exeter (UK) and co-Director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer in political science at Haifa University (1984-2007), and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). He is the author of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (2006) and many other scholarly books (for details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Papp%C3%A9 ).
Professor Ilan Pappé in his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”: "When it created its nation-state, the Zionist movement did not wage a war that `tragically but inevitably' led to the expulsion of `parts of' the indigenous population, but the other way round: the main goal was the ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, which the movement coveted for its new state. A few weeks after the ethnic cleansing operations began, the neighbouring Arab states sent a small army - small in comparison to their overall military might - to try, in vain, to prevent the ethnic cleansing. The war with the regular Arab armies did not bring the ethnic cleansing operations to a halt until their successful completion in the autumn of 1948 … [after expelling 800,000 people, destroying 531 villages and empty eleven urban neighbourhoods] a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity." [1].
Professor Ilan Pappé in reviewing Alan Hart’s “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009): ““In this extraordinary book, Alan Hart has succeeded in elucidating for us the immediate and long term dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians. The author provides us with a chilling exposure of how this embrace developed and continues to endanger the Jewish existence and fuels the anti-Semitism that refuses to disappear. Motivated by a genuine concern for peace in Israel and Palestine and beyond in the world at large, Alan Hart has written not only a strong indictment of Zionism, based on both research and personal experience, but also provided us with a charter for a better future” [2].
Professor Ilan Pappé re Apartheid Israel and Apartheid South Africa, 2008: “There are similarities and dissimilarities. The colonialist history has many chapters in common and some of the features of the Apartheid system can be found in the Israeli policies towards its own Palestinian minority and towards those in the occupied territories. Some aspects of the occupation, however, are worse than the apartheid reality of South Africa and some aspects in the lives of Palestinian citizens in Israel are not as bad as they were in the hey days of Apartheid. The main point of comparison to my mind is political inspiration. The anti-Apartheid movement, the ANC, the solidarity networks developed throughout the years in the West, should inspire a more focused and effect pro-Palestinian campaign”. [3].
Professor Ilan Pappé to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “I was thrilled to learn about the courageous step the college has taken. I am confident that history would judge it to be in hindsight one of the definitive moments in the non violent struggle to tend the occupation and the oppression in Palestine and Israel.” [4].
[1]. Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (Oneworld publications, 2006); Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851684670 .
[2]. Ilan Pappe, review of Alan Hart’s book “Zionism, the real enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press, 2009), Clarity Press: http://www.claritypress.com/files/Hart-I.html .
[3]. Interviews with Professors Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, OpEd News, 25 September 2008: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Noam-Chomsky-Ilan-Pappe-In-by-Duffer2205-080925-957.html .
[4]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
PINTER, Harold.
Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was an outstanding Jewish British playwright and winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature (for biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter ). For his 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech slamming US atrocities in Latin America and Asia and calling for arraignment and Bush and Blair before the International Criminal Court see “Art, Truth and Politics”: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm .
Harold Pinter and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [1].
[1]. Letter from Harold Pinter,with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, and Howard Zinn re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, Califoirnai, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
REINHART, Tanya.
The late Professor Tanya Reinhart (1943-2007 ) was Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Media Studies at Tel-Aviv University and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands. She was an outspoken critic of Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. She wrote for Israel's biggest daily, Yediot Aharonot, and is also the author of Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948 and the follow-up TheRoad Map to Nowhere - Israel/Palestine since 2003. In 2007 she became Global Distinguished Professor at New York University (for biographical details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Reinhart ).
Professor Tanya Reinhart, interviewed about her book “Israel/Palestine: How To End the War of 1948"
(Seven Stories Press/ Open Media Series 2002): “In the present political atmosphere in the US and Europe, anybody who dares express criticism of Israel is immediately silenced as an anti-Semite. Part of the reason why the Israeli and Jewish lobby has been so successful in forcing this accusation is the massive lack of knowledge about what is really happening. Without the facts, the dominant narrative remains that Israel is struggling to defend its mere existence. Attention focuses only on the horrible and despicable Palestinian terror, so that if you criticize Israel, you are accused of justifying terror. My hope, then, is to give the readers the weapons to face such accusations a detailed knowledge of the facts.
My second hope is to restore hope. As I said, a sane and rational solution is still possible. People have managed in the past to move from a history of bloodshed into peaceful coexistence, Europe is being the most well known example. After two years of horror, a majority in both the Israeli and Palestinian people is still willing to open a new page. I show this in detail in the book, and I end the book with the story of the many Palestinian and Israeli activists who are struggling together for the only future worth living a future based on basic human values. What is needed to give hope a chance is for the people of the world to intervene and stop the Israeli military Junta, which does not even represent the Israeli majority.
Finally, and perhaps most important, I try to give some picture of the Palestinian tragedy the best I can from my privileged position as a member of the oppressing society. With the U.S. backing, and the silence of the Western world, there is a serious danger that what we have seen so far is only the beginning, and that under the umbrella of a war in Iraq, the Palestinian people may be destined to a choice between annihilation or a second exile. Arundhati Roy's description of the situation in Afghanistan at the time seems so painfully applicable to what the Palestinians are enduring: "Witness the infinite justice of the new century. Civilians starving to death while they are waiting to be killed." [1].
In a lecture titled "Open Air Prisons: The Israeli occupation of Palestine", Professor Reinhart explored the effects of Israel's policies on Palestine: “[Israeli policies] threaten not just the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours, but also the Israelis themselves. In the long run, this war over land is suicidal." [2].
[1]. ZNet interview with Tany Reinhart, 8 November 2002: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/11426 .
[2]. "Controversial author and academic Tanya Reinhart to speak at Sydney Ideas", The University of Sydney, 26 September 2006: http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=1333 .
ROBINSON, William.
Professor William Robinson is an eminent professor of professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USCB) where he researches political economy, globalization, Latin America and historical materialism. He is a member of the International Parliamentary and Civil Society Mission to Investigate the Political Transition in Iraq. Following 2 students’ complaints about teaching material entitled “Parallel images of Nazis and Israelis” (comparing the Israeli siege of Gaza with the Nazi siege of the Warsaw Ghetto) he was charged by the University of California , Santa Barbara – charges were dismissed in May 2009. The Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at USCB (see below) has defended Professor Robinson's defense calling the allegations “flagrant and baseless affronts to academic freedom … [which] have been brought in order to silence any criticism of Israeli policies and practices." (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I._Robinson ).
The Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB (CDAF-SB): “The Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB (CDAF-SB) strongly opposes the flagrant and baseless affronts to academic freedom on this campus and to Professor Robinson in particular. We believe these allegations have been brought in order to silence any criticism of Israeli policies and practices. Furthermore, we consider the umbrage against Professor Robinson to have been fomented by non-university forces that have infiltrated the academic setting to wage a war of political repression. We find this non-academic infiltration to be an unacceptable attack on the scholarly exchange of ideas that is the most compelling interest of the university.
Accordingly, we demand the immediate dismissal of all of the charges against Professor Robinson as frivolous, unfounded, and malicious. Any further consideration of these baseless attacks is unacceptable. As a coordinated group of undergraduate and graduate students, we will not accept any resolution of this matter that is unfavorable to Professor Robinson and academic freedom.
CDAF-UCSB also insists that the attack on Professor Robinson’s academic freedom, one that ominously recalls similar campaigns against other critical academics across the nation, be publicly condemned. This condemnation is essential to preserve full and fair discussion within the most important of the U.S.’s civic institutions. Any genuine consideration of these absurd attacks will have a severe chilling effect on the production and dissemination of scholarly research in all disciplines. Further, the attacks must be condemned to protect faculty and students from wasting valuable time and energy defending themselves against frivolous allegations and political repression.
In fact, a critique of the Israeli state, its policies, and the leaders responsible is not and should not be considered an affront to Jewish people as a collective, the Jewish religion, or Jewish heritage. Conflating the state of Israel with the Jewish people essentializes the assorted political opinions of a diverse religious group by reducing them to the set of policies espoused by the prevailing regime. The charge of anti-Semitism is made in bad faith; its real purpose is to automatically vilify and stifle any honest critiques of the state of Israel’s policies and practices.
In sum, these attacks must be firmly repelled in order to preserve the fundamental, free speech right to dissent, to protect academic freedom that enables scholars to produce new knowledge, and to promote the free exchange of ideas in fulfillment of the university’s purpose to educate.” (see: http://sb4af.wordpress.com/robinson-case/charges-responses/cdaf-ucsb-response/ ; for other opinions see Israeli YNet “Jewish prof. equates Israel with Nazis”: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3708479,00.html ).
Professor William Robinson (in response to Official Charges by the Charges Officer of the University of California , Santa Barbara), 2009: “I asked you on 3 April to produce a charges sheet for the basis of your decision to constitute an ad hoc committee investigation and you responded with a “summary of the allegations.” I find your charges sheet ludicrous, at best, if not a dereliction of your responsibilities as Charges Officer, including your responsibility to uphold academic freedom … Remarkably, your charges sheet says absolutely nothing about anti-Semitism. Yet this is the crux of the students’ complaints – that the course material I introduced was anti-Semitic. In my correspondence with you and in correspondence of several of my colleagues with you on this matter you have been asked what, if anything, you found anti-Semitic about the course material in question. You have chosen not to reply. Why? If anti-Semitism is the core of the students’ complaint is it not incumbent on you to inspect the course material and indicate in the charges sheet what you found may constitute anti-Semitism? Moreover, as I have pointed out in previous correspondence with you, the students’ letters are explicit in charging me with anti-Semitism for no other reason than because the course material in question is critical of the policies of the Israeli state ...” [1].
[1]. William Robinson, “Professor Robinson’s Response of April 6 to Charges Officer’s Articulated Charges”, Committee to defend Academic Freedom at UCSB: http://sb4af.wordpress.com/robinson-case/charges-responses/third-robinson-response/ .
ROSE, Steven.
Outstanding Jewish British academic Professor Steven Rose is a Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and the University of London.(for biographical data see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Rose ).
Professor Steven Rose in calling for a boycott of Israeli Universities: “The University and College Union annual congress last week voted by a two-thirds majority to organise a campus tour for Palestinian academic trade unionists to explain why they had called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, and to encourage UCU members to consider the moral implications of links with Israeli universities. Not surprisingly, this overwhelming vote met with a roar of hostility from what we have learned to call the Israel lobby … Academic freedom, it appears, applies to Israelis but not Palestinians, whose universities have been arbitrarily closed, Bir Zeit for a full four years. Students and teachers have been killed or imprisoned. Attendance at university is made hazardous or impossible by the everyday imposition of checkpoints. Research is blocked by Israeli refusal to allow books or equipment to be imported. Even within Israel itself, some universities sit on illegally expropriated land, Arab student unions are not recognised and there are increasing covert restrictions on Arab-Israelis (20 per cent of the population) entering university at all.” [1].
[1]. Steven Rose,”Why pick on Israel? Because its actions are wrong. Academic freedom, it appears, applies to Israelis but not to Palestinians”, The Independent, 4 June 2007: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steven-rose-why-pick-on-israel-because-its-actions-are-wrong-451648.html .
SAND, Shlomo.
Outstanding anti-racist Jewish Israeli Professor Shlomo Sand is a professor of history at Tel Aviv University and author of “When and how was the Jewish people invented?” (for biographical details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_Sand ), a book that argues for a non-racist state in Palestine and the following Jewish origins for North African Jews (Berber and other converts to Judaism in the 6th century AD), Jews of Yemen (remnants of the Himyar Kingdom in the Arab Peninsula remnants, converts to Judaism in the 4th century) and the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe (refugees from the Kingdom of the Khazars, converts to Judaism in the 8th century).
Professor Shlomo Sand on a future non-racist state in Palestine: “"We must begin to work hard to transform our place into an Israeli republic where ethnic origin, as well as faith, will not be relevant in the eyes of the law. Anyone who is acquainted with the young elites of the Israeli Arab community can see that they will not agree to live in a country that declares it is not theirs. If I were a Palestinian I would rebel against a state like that, but even as an Israeli [Jewish Israeli] I am rebelling against it." [1].
Professor Shlomo Sand in “Israel deliberately forgets its history”, Le Monde Diplomatique, 2008: “During the 5th century, in modern Yemen, a vigorous Jewish kingdom emerged in Himyar, whose descendants preserved their faith through the Islamic conquest and down to the present day. Arab chronicles tell of the existence, during the 7th century, of Judaised Berber tribes; and at the end of the century the legendary Jewish queen Dihya contested the Arab advance into northwest Africa. Jewish Berbers participated in the conquest of the Iberian peninsula and helped establish the unique symbiosis between Jews and Muslims that characterised Hispano-Arabic culture. The most significant mass conversion occurred in the 8th century, in the massive Khazar kingdom between the Black and Caspian seas. The expansion of Judaism from the Caucasus into modern Ukraine created a multiplicity of communities, many of which retreated from the 13th century Mongol invasions into eastern Europe. There, with Jews from the Slavic lands to the south and from what is now modern Germany, they formed the basis of Yiddish culture… By validating an essentialist, ethnocentric definition of Judaism it [Zionism] encourages a segregation that separates Jews from non-Jews – whether Arabs, Russian immigrants or foreign workers. Sixty years after its foundation, Israel refuses to accept that it should exist for the sake of its citizens. For almost a quarter of the population, who are not regarded as Jews, this is not their state legally. At the same time, Israel presents itself as the homeland of Jews throughout the world, even if these are no longer persecuted refugees, but the full and equal citizens of other countries. A global ethnocracy invokes the myth of the eternal nation, reconstituted on the land of its ancestors, to justify internal discrimination against its own citizens.” [2].
[1]. Shlomo Sand quoted in Ofri Ilani, “Shattering a “national mythology”, Haaretz, 21 March 2008: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966952.html .
[2]. Shlomo Sand, “Israel deliberately forgets its history”, Le Monde Diplomatique, September 2008: http://mondediplo.com/2008/09/07israel .SEARCH.
Search on its Mission and Perspective: “SEARCH seeks to improve American media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict by disseminating information about the issue and by urging journalists to cover the conflict accurately and to support a just peace in their editorials. SEARCH believes that justice for Palestinians and security for Israeli Jews are not mutually exclusive, but interdependent. The attainment of Palestinian rights is therefore a desirable goal in itself, as well as a means of securing Israel’s future. That future cannot be assured while Palestinian rights are denied. SEARCH seeks a US policy committed to the rights of both peoples. Unfortunately, US policy, which includes aid to Israel of over three billion dollars a year, enables Israel to disregard international law, human rights, and democratic values. No peace is possible without a change in US policy. A prerequisite for such change is a US public both better informed and insistent on a just resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. [1].
[1]. Search, “About Search“: http://www.searchforjustice.org/about.html .
SHAHAK, Israel.
Israel Shahak (1933–2001), née Himmelstaub, was a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, Israeli Professor of Chemistry, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, former president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, historian, author and an outstanding anti-racist critic of Israeli policies (for biographical details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Shahak ).
Israel Shahak on the racism of Zionism and the State of Israel (1975): “It is my considered opinion that the State of Israel is a racist state in the full meaning of this term: In this state people are discriminated against, in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their origin. This racist discrimination began in Zionism and is carried out today mainly in cooperation with the institutions of the Zionist movement. I will prove this view by quoting facts, laws and regulations which have force in Israel (and which are known really to anybody) and are enforced by the government. I will therefore ignore the racism of the individuals in this article and also the declared or undeclared explanations by which this racism is sometimes "justified"). In the State of Israel, one who is not a Jew is discriminated against, only because he is not a Jew, in these areas of life: … In almost every area of life in the State of Israel there exists a similar racist separation between "Jews" and "non-Jews," a separation that necessarily causes discrimination. I am quite prepared to bring further examples if other opportunities will be given me. Here I want to finish with two chief conclusions:
A) I do not wish to debate any justifications for that racist policy. The most important fact is that it exists. Therefore the first step consists in admitting the truth: The State of Israel is a racist state, and its racism is a necessary consequence of the racism of the Zionist movement. Facts are facts. After this we can debate, if we wish to do so, why such a racism is "forbidden" against the Jews and becomes a good deed when it is carried out by the Jews.
B) I do know the fact that the State of Israel is not the only racist state, and similarly the Zionist organization is not the only racist organization. I know for example that the paragraph six of the 1968 Palestinian Covenant can be considered also as a racist declaration and I have said so many times to Palestinian-Arab audiences in neutral countries. Usually I encounter a great deal of sympathetic understanding. But justice begins at home. The primary duty of all citizens of Israel, and also of all those Jews in the Diaspora who define themselves as the "supporters of Israel" is to struggle against the racism and the discrimination which Zionism has established in the State of Israel, and which is directed against all the non-Jews who live in it." [1].[1]. Israel Shahak, “ The racist nature of Zionism and of the Zionist State of Israel”, first published in Hebrew in Pi-Ha'aton, (weekly paper of the students in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem), 1975: http://www.geocities.com/alabasters_archive/racist_israel.html .
SHLAIM, Avi.
Jewish Israeli Professor Avi Shlaim, is Professor of International Relations at prestigious Oxford University, UK ,and the author of “The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World” and of “Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace” (for biographical details of this eminent Jewish scholar see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Shlaim ).
In a recent article entitled “How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe” published in the UK Guardian (7 January 2009) , Professor Avi Shlaim reviewed Israeli conduct over 6 decades: “The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians … This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so. “. [1].
SIEGMAN, Henry.
Henry Siegman, director of the U.S./Middle East Project in New York, is a visiting research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America (see: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100125/siegman and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Siegman ).
Professor Henry Siegman on race-based Apartheid Israel and the need for outside intervention for peace (2010): “Israel's relentless drive to establish "facts on the ground" in the occupied West Bank, a drive that continues in violation of even the limited settlement freeze to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed himself, seems finally to have succeeded in locking in the irreversibility of its colonial project. As a result of that "achievement," one that successive Israeli governments have long sought in order to preclude the possibility of a two-state solution, Israel has crossed the threshold from "the only democracy in the Middle East" to the only apartheid regime in the Western world. The inevitability of such a transformation has been held out not by "Israel bashers" but by the country's own leaders. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon referred to that danger, as did Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who warned that Israel could not escape turning into an apartheid state if it did not relinquish "almost all the territories, if not all," including the Arab parts of East Jerusalem… In short, Middle East peacemaking efforts will continue to fail, and the possibility of a two-state solution will disappear, if US policy continues to ignore developments on the ground in the occupied territories and within Israel, which now can be reversed only through outside intervention. President Obama is uniquely positioned to help Israel reclaim Jewish and democratic ideals on which the state was founded--if he does not continue "politics as usual." But was it not his promise to reject just such a politics that swept Obama into the presidency and captured the amazement and respect of the entire world? ”.[1].
[1]. Henry Siegman, “Imposing Middle East Peace”, The Nation, January 7, 2010: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100125/siegman .
STEINBERG, Isaac Nachman.
Dr Isaac Nachman Steinberg (1882-1957) was a Latvian-born Russian lawyer, People’s Commissar (Narkom) for Justice in V.I. Lenin’s Bolshevik Government, and thence in the UK a leading member of the Freeland League that opposed Zionist colonisation of Palestine but advocated settlement of Jewish refugees in Australia (the Kimberley region of NW Australia), Suriname (Saramacca region) and the UK (all of these humane propositions being opposed by the Zionists). The Freeland League became a major advocate for retention of Yiddish language and culture. (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Nachman_Steinberg ; “An Unpromised Land” by Leon Gettler, Freemantle Arts Centre Press, 1993; Gideon Polya ““An Unpromised Land” by Leon Gettler, How Australia escaped becoming Apartheid Israel”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/31744/26/ ;
"The Age" newspaper, Melbourne, “Colonization of Jews”, 16 January 1946: “WASHINGTON. Jan. 15 (A.A.P.) Dr. Isaac Steinberg, secretary of the Free-land League, testifying before the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine, mentioned Australia as a possible area for Jewish colonisation” (see: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19460116&id=8QQTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q5cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=849,842636 ).
Dr Isaac Steinberg, on Zionism, 1948: “Yet believing in a state means also believing in all, its – be they even democratic instruments – army, police, diplomacy, censorship and loud patriotism. A people which for many years lived outside these state attributes, which has not absorbed into its system the ”sweet poison” of those state instruments of power and conquest, has, suddenly, in a day, become bewitched by state instincts. Instead of following that historical, political sense which kept them always at a distance from the state machine, Jews suddenly felt a lust for their own state responsibility in a world which is gorged and oversatiated with statehoods”. [1].
[1]. Dr Isaac Steinberg, “This is not the way (The Failure of Jewish Diplomacy)”, Australian Jewish Forum, April-May 1948, pp. 6-8; quoted in Cahpeter 8, p. 134, Leon Gettler, “An Unpromised Land”, Freemantle Arts Centre Press, 1993.
STONE, I.F.
Isador Feinstein Stone (1907-1989) was born in Philadelphia on 24th December, 1907 to a Russian Jewish family. He studied philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to The New York Post in 1933, shortly after beginning his career as a journalist. His first book, “The Court Disposes” (1937), was a defense of Franklin Roosevelt's attempt to expand the Supreme Court. In 1939, Stone became associate editor of The Nation. “Business as Unusual (1941)”attacked the US failure to prepare for war. “Underground to Palestine” (1946) dealt with the migration of Eastern European Jews at the end of WW2. In 1953 he began his own journal, “I. F. Stone's Weekly”, which in 1967 became “I. F. Stone's Bi-Weekly”. He famously published “The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950-1951”. He led the attack on McCarthyism and racial discrimination in the United States and, in 1964, he was the only American journalist to challenge President Johnson's account of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and throughout the 1960s he exposed the evil of the Vietnam War (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._F._Stone and http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/holy_war_stone.html .
I. F. Stone on race-based Israel (1967): “There is a good deal of simplistic sophistry in the Zionist case. The whole earth would have to be reshuffled if claims 2,000 years old to irredenta were suddenly to be allowed. Zionism from its beginning tried to gain its aims by offering to serve as outpost in the Arab world for one of the great empires. Herzl sought to win first the Sultan and then the Kaiser by such arguments. Considerations of imperial strategy finally won the Balfour Declaration from Britain. The fact that the Jewish community in Palestine afterward fought the British is no more evidence of its not being a colonial implantation than similar wars of British colonists against the mother country, from the American Revolution to Rhodesia. In the case of Palestine, as of other such struggles, the Mother Country was assailed because it showed more concern for the native majority than was palatable to the colonist minority. The argument that the refugees ran away "voluntarily" or because their leaders urged them to do so until after the fighting was over not only rests on a myth but is irrelevant. Have refugees no right to return? Have German Jews no right to recover their properties because they too fled? The myth that the Arab refugees fled because the Arab radios urged them to do so was analyzed by Erskine B. Childers in the London Spectator May 12, 1961. An examination of British and US radio monitoring records turned up no such appeals; on the contrary there were appeals and "even orders to the civilians of Palestine, to stay put." The most balanced and humane discussion of the question may be found in Christopher Sykes's book Crossroads to Israel: 1917-48 (at pages 350-57). "It can be said with a high degree of certainty," Mr. Sykes wrote, "that most of the time in the first half of 1948 the mass exodus was the natural, thoughtless, pitiful movement of ignorant people who had been badly led and who in the day of trial found themselves forsaken by their leaders…. But if the exodus was by and large an accident of war in the first stage, in the later stages it was consciously and mercilessly helped on by Jewish threats and aggression toward Arab populations…It is to be noted, however, that where the Arabs had leaders who refused to be stampeded into panic flight, the people came to no harm." Jewish terrorism, not only by the Irgun, in such savage massacres as Deir Yassin, but in milder form by the Haganah, itself "encouraged" Arabs to leave areas the Jews wished to take over for strategic or demographic reasons. They tried to make as much of Israel as free of Arabs as possible. The effort to equate the expulsion of the Arabs from Palestine with the new Jewish immigration out of the Arab countries is not so simple nor so equitable as it is made to appear in Zionist propaganda. The Palestinian Arabs feel about this "swap" as German Jews would if denied restitution on the grounds that they had been "swapped" for German refugees from the Sudetenland. In a sanely conceived settlement, some allowance should equitably be made for Jewish properties left behind in Arab countries. What is objectionable in the simplified version of this question is the idea that Palestinian Arabs whom Israel didn't want should have no objection to being "exchanged" for Arabic Jews it did want. One uprooting cannot morally be equated with the other.” [1].
[1]. I.F. Stone, “Holy War”, Les Tempes Modernes, Paris, June 1967: http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/holy_war_stone.html .
STONE, Judith.
Judith Stone is a Jewish American writer (see: http://www.ummah.com/waragainstislam/quest.htm ).
Judith Stone on race-based Israeli colonization of Palestine: “I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine. It was the right thing to do... We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labor and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned? The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves...The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country..." Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. It's cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of G-d. We must recognize that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realized through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.In Hertzl's "The Jewish State," the father of Zionism said, "...We must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak (3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd hurtle a boulder. Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not G-d's restitution of the holy land to it's rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people.We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return of the Palestinian people.” [1].
[1]. Judith Stone, “Quest for Justice” Kansas City Jewish Chronicle: http://qumsiyeh.org/judithstone/ and http://www.ummah.com/waragainstislam/quest.htm [the article was sent to Debbie Ducro, the American-Jewish editorof the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle and who the published it, and was fired the next day].
SURASKY, Cecilie.
Cecilie Surasky is communications director for Jewish Voice for Peace and a New Voices fellow with the Academy of Educational Development (see: http://qumsiyeh.org/ceciliesurasky/ ).Cecilie Surasky on the obligation of decent Jews to stand up for human rights of the Palestinians (2005): Every time a Gazan father faints as he watches his family home demolished; every time a Jew, Muslim or Christian is violently attacked by armed Israelis because they are non-violently protesting the separation wall; every time a rain of Israeli army bullets flies into the body of a young child on her way to school; every time a young Palestinian man is made to play violin by Israeli soldiers, or a pregnant woman dies at a checkpoint, Jews like us must speak out.
Remaining silent is no longer an option. We can no longer let our trauma, our deep fear of anti-Jewish hatred implanted in us through generations of persecution, make us remain quiet at the expense of truth.
Our continued silence perpetuates the fiction that all Jews are of one mind when it comes to Israel - that we think it can do no wrong; that we believe the Israeli government is innocent of war crimes; that we believe US military support for Israel's illegal occupation is a sign of our special relationship, and not a cynical use of Jewish suffering to provide moral cover for strategic interests in an oil-rich region.
Our silence puts us in more danger, not less. Through it, we give our consent not only to the obliteration of the Palestinian people, but to the end of our own people. If not our bodies, then certainly our spirit…
From fear of being socially shunned, and the systematic pressure campaigns launched a few years ago against most major newspapers for being "anti-Israel", to the Jewish community council that trained others how to neutralise Jewish peace groups by meeting behind closed doors and using pro-peace buzzwords to co-opt their views, there are all too many examples of the mainstream Jewish community silencing dissent and principled Jews staying in the closet.
This phenomenon is all the more puzzling because many would say that questioning and dissent is encoded in Jewish DNA. From Emma Goldman and Saul Alinsky to Betty Freidan, Larry Kramer and refuseniks like Yoni Ben-Artzi, we find a long list of remarkable outspoken Jews whose willingness to stand up for what is right and to question the status quo made history, but also made them enemies. They stand as our heroes not only because of what they achieved, but because of what they faced in order to make all of us better as human beings and citizens of the world.
The atmosphere of intimidation in the American Jewish world has had a corrosive effect not just on our families and communities, but on the very tradition which binds us together. We are famous for speaking our minds when we perceive that an injustice is taking place. That is not true when the perpetrator is Israel. Suddenly, we allow our fears of being ostracised from our communities and families to silence us. And as a result, history will show that much of the mainstream Jewish leadership has failed us, and failed us profoundly. Perhaps we will have failed ourselves.
But courage does not mean being fearless, it means acting in the face of fear. And Jews like me have to ask: If we no longer stand up for moral courage and call injustice when we see it, regardless of who commits it, then what do we stand for?” [1].
[1]. Cecilie Surasky, “Speaking out about Israel to save the Jewish soul”, Jordan Times, 1 February 2005: http://qumsiyeh.org/ceciliesurasky/ .
TRUE TORAH JEWS AGAINST ZIONISM.
True Torah Jews Against Zionism educate people about Zionist wrongs including Zionist contradiction of traditional Judaism which holds that return to Zion (Jerusalem) can only happen when the Moschiach (Messiah) reveals the glory of the Lord ) (Adonai) to the whole World (see: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/ ). Judaism is a beautiful Kingdom of the Mind whereas Zionism is ugly, violent and bloody racism.
True Torah Jews Against Zionism: “Traditional Jews are not Zionists. Although there are those who refuse to accept the teachings of out Rabbis and will continue to support the Zionist state, and will continue to support the state, there are also many who are totally unaware of the history of Zionism and its contradiction to the beliefs of Torah-True Jews.” [1].
True Torah Jews Against Zionism on Zionist promotion of anti-Semitism: “Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of modern Zionism, recognized that anti-Semitism would further his cause, the creation of a separate state for Jews. To solve the Jewish Question, he maintained “we must, above all, make it an international political issue.” Herzl wrote that Zionism offered the world a welcome “final solution of the Jewish question.” In his “Diaries”, page 19, Herzl stated “Anti-Semites will become our surest friends, anti-Semitic countries our allies.”” [2].
[1]. True Torah Jews Against Zionism, “Traditional Jews are not Zionists”: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/ .
[2]. True Torah Jews Against Zionism, “Zionist promotes anti-Semitism”: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/antisemitism/zionismpromotes.cfm .
VANUNU, Mordechai.
Mordechai Vanunu, the son of a rabbi, is an heroic Moroccan-born Jewish Israeli peace activist who blew the whistle on Israeli nuclear terrorism and was abusively imprisoned without public trial on and off essentially ever since his kidnapping in Rome in 1986 (18 years in prison, 11 years in highly abusive solitary confinement). He subsequently became a Christian (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu ).
Mordechai Vanunu on racist Zionist Israeli bigotry and his conversion to Christianity: “I want to tell those who say I am a traitor, I suffered here 18 years because I am a Christian.” [1].
Mordechai Vanunu on highly abusive 11-year solitary confinement by Apartheid Israel: “You didn't succeed to break me, you didn't succeed to make me crazy.”[1].
Mordechai Vanunu on Israeli nuclear terrorism and Palestine: “"I am neither a traitor nor a spy, I only wanted the world to know what was happening…"Despite everything that was published, nothing changed - no one came to Israel and made [nuclear disarmament] demands … We don't need a Jewish state. There needs to be a Palestinian state. Jews can, and have lived anywhere, so a Jewish State is not necessary.” [1, 2].
[1]. Wikipedia, “Mordechai Vanunu”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu .
[2]. BBC, “Vanunu defiant ahead of release”, 19 April 2004: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3640989.stm .
WEINIGER, Patrick.
Patrick Weiniger is a Melbourne socialist activist living in Melbourne and a regular contributor to the Socialist Alternative magazine.
Patrick Weiniger, “Why Jews should oppose Israel”, 2009: “Jews internationally have been involved in various struggles against racism. Many Jews in South Africa played a prominent and courageous role in the struggle against apartheid. Activists like Joe Slovo and Ruth First not only criticised apartheid: they sided with the oppressed black population and joined the ANC. Today anti-racist Jews must struggle against the violent apartheid system which defines the state of Israel. To describe Israel in these terms is not hyperbole. The apartheid wall in the West Bank is so named because it imprisons the Palestinians in small, disconnected parcels of land that can never be the basis of a viable state. In South Africa, these "homelands" were called Bantustans. Gaza is another such Bantustan… Zionism - that is, support for a specifically Jewish state in historical Palestine - is a political doctrine. It has never been a necessary or automatic component of Jewish identity. It does not make you a traitor to Jews to oppose the idea of a Jewish state that discriminates against other races and religions. There is nothing anti-Semitic in calling for a secular, democratic state in all of historical Palestine, with equal rights for Jews and non-Jews. Undoubtedly many anti-racist Jews are uneasy about what Israel does. Yet too few of us actually take a stand against Israel.” [1].[1]. Patrick Weiniger , “Why Jews should oppose Israel”, Socialist Alternative, Issue 137, February 2009: http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1883&Itemid=106 .
WIMBORNE-IDRISSI, Naomi.
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi is a London-based Jewish campaigner for Palestinian rights. She is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions committee. In 2006 she helped form Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) to support the work of PSC's BIG campaign. She is also an active member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, the largest Jewish organisation in the UK concerned with Palestinian rights (see: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/1984-boycott-the-sane-response-to-israeli-apartheid and http://www.bigcampaign.org/index.php?page=jbig ).
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi and other members of J-BIG to UK media, 2007: “:We welcome the courageous decision of the National Union of Journalists to boycott Israeli goods (Letters, April 23). Given Israel's contempt for international law, with the complicity of the US and UK governments, pressure has to be increased by civil society if justice is to be achieved. A boycott of Israeli goods is a legitimate form of grassroots action and is particularly appropriate as Israel is destroying the Palestinian economy. Such a boycott has been called for by Israeli peace organisations.
As a result of its illegal occupation, Israel is able to flood the Palestinian market with its products, while preventing Palestinian farmers from growing and trading their own. We believe Israel's actions betray Jewish ethical traditions - the cutting down of olive and fruit trees is prohibited by Jewish law. The continuing occupation and exploitation of Palestinian land is a major obstacle to peace for Israelis and Arabs alike which has global implications for world peace.
Deborah Fink, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Mike Cushman, Sylvia Finzi, Tony Greenstein, Ruth Tenne, Deborah Maccoby, Prof Moshe Machover, Mike Marqusee,
Jews for Boycotting Israel Goods.” [1].
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi on boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel, 2009: “The movement to boycott Israel is becoming respectable. In Europe and America as well as in the Middle East and many parts of the developing world, people of conscience - including many Jews - are rejecting anti-Arab prejudice and Zionist mythology and seeing Israel for what it is - an ethnocentric state which deserves to be ostracised just as South Africa was ostracised during the apartheid era. Groups like mine - Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods - support the call made by nearly 200 Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005 for a broad campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, including an institutional academic and cultural boycott, until Israel respects Palestinian human rights and abides by international law.” [2].
[1]. Letter by J-BIG members to UK media, 2007, specifically in the Jewish Chronicle, 27 April 2007 and in the UK Guardian, “Apartheid and boycotts in the Middle East”, 25 April 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/25/israel.comment .
[2]. Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, “Boycott – the sane response to Israeli Apartheid”, The Palestinian Telegraph, 24 August 2009: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/1984-boycott-the-sane-response-to-israeli-apartheid .
YOUNG JEWISH DECLARATION.
The Young Jewish Declaration (see Jewish Voice for Peace: http://www.youngjewishproud.org/about/ ).
A vision of collective identity, purpose and values written by and for young Jews committed to justice in Israel and Palestine. It is an invitation and call to action for both our peers and our elders, launched as a counter-protest at the 2010 Jewish Federation General Assembly in New Orleans.
I. we exist.
We exist. We are everywhere. We speak and love and dream in every language. We pray three times a day or only during the high holidays or when we feel like we really need to or not at all. We are punks and students and parents and janitors and Rabbis and freedom fighters. We are your children, your nieces and nephews, your grandchildren. We embrace diaspora, even when it causes us a great deal of pain. We are the rubble of tangled fear, the deliverance of values. We are human. We are born perfect. We assimilate, or we do not. We are not apathetic. We know and name persecution when we see it. Occupation has constricted our throats and fattened our tongues. We are feeding each other new words. We have family, we build family, we are family. We re-negotiate. We atone. We re-draw the map every single day. We travel between worlds. This is not our birthright, it is our necessity.
II. we remember.
We remember slavery in Egypt, and we remember hiding our celebrations and ritual. We remember brave, desperate resistance. We honor a legacy of radical intellectuals and refugees. We remember the labor movement. We remember the camps. We remember when we aged too quickly. We remember that we are still young, and powerful. We remember being branded as counterrevolutionaries in one state and hunted during the red scare of another. We remember our ancestors’ suffering and our own. Our stories are older than any brutal war. We remember those who cannot afford to take time to heal. We remember how to build our homes, and our holiness, out of time and thin air, and so do not need other people’s land to do so. We remember solidarity as a means of survival and an act of affirmation, and we are proud.
III. we refuse.
We refuse to have our histories distorted or erased, or appropriated by a corporate war machine. We will not call this liberation. We refuse to knowingly oppress others, and we refuse to oppress each other. We refuse to be whitewashed. We will not carry the legacy of terror. We refuse to allow our identities to be cut, cleaned, packaged nicely, and sold back to us. We won’t be won over by free vacations and scholarship money. We won’t buy the logic that slaughter means safety. We will not quietly witness the violation of human rights in Palestine. We refuse to become the mother who did not scream when wise King Solomon resolved to split her baby in two. We are better than this. We have ancestors to honor. We have allies to honor. We have ourselves to honor.
IV. we commit.
We commit ourselves to peace. We will stand up with honest bodies, to offer honest bread. We will stand up with our words, our pens, our songs, our paintbrushes, our open hands. We commit to re-envisioning “homeland,” to make room for justice. We will stand in the way of colonization and displacement. We will take this to the courts and to the streets. We will learn. We will teach this in the schools and in our homes. We will stand with you, if you choose to stand with our allies. We will grieve the lies we’ve swallowed. We commit to equality, solidarity, and integrity. We will soothe the deepest tangles of our roots and stretch our strong arms to the sky. We demand daylight for our stories, for all stories. We seek breathing room and dignity for all people. We are committed to the struggle. We are the struggle. We will become mentors, elders, and radical listeners for the next generation. It is our sacred obligation. We will not stop. We exist. We are young Jews, and we get to decide what that means.
ZINN, Howard.
Professor Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an outstanding Jewish American activist, civil libertarian, anti-war activist, historian, playwright, political activist, social critic, and socialist. The author of some 20 books, Zinn was Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University, Boston Massachusetts, USA and the author of the best-seller “A People’s History of the United States” (for detailed biography see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn ).
Professor Howard Zinn and other outstanding writers: “The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.
(Signed) Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy. Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn.” [1].
Professor Howard Zinn to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting divestment in Israel: “I want to express my admiration and support for the actions of Hampshire College students in their successful campaign for divestment from financial ties with Israel. It is extremely important for Israel to know that its violence against Gaza and its long occupation of Palestinian lands is not acceptable to the people in the United States. I hope your campaign will set an example for students all over the country, and lead to justice in the Middle East, as the divestment campaign helped end Apartheid in South Africa.” [2].
[1]. Letter from Howard Zinn with Tariq Ali, Russell Banks, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk Eduardo Galeano, Charles Glass, Naomi Klein, W.J.T. Mitchell, Arundhati Roy, Harold Pinter, Jose Saramago, Giiuliana Sgrena, and Gore Vidal re Palestine, Peninsular Peace and Justice Centre, Palo Alto, California, USA, 19 July 2006: http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=20060726115326120&query=zinn .
[2]. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a New Hampshire student group promoting disinvestment in Israel, “Endorsements“, 2009: http://www.hsjp.org/endorsements/ .
