Crimes committed in our names

NEARLY TWO weeks ago, the state of Israel began a campaign of collective punishment for Palestinians, embarking on a reign of terror so severe that it has left many of us stunned and speechless. As we write this statement, over 600 Palestinians have been murdered, thousands injured, and tens of thousands displaced. And the siege of Gaza is not yet over.

As American Jews, we stand against these actions that violate basic humanity, disregard fundamental principles of justice, and suspend the basic Jewish principles of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and pekuach nefesh (the sanctity of life). As the state of Israel continues its campaign of apartheid, occupation, displacement, harassment, imprisonment and murder, it does so while purporting to speak for the global Jewish population.

We Jews of conscience univocally respond: Israel does not speak for us. We do not condone the apartheid regime of Israel, nor do we condone the occupation of Palestine. We condemn the racism and Islamophobia rampant in Israeli society and in its defenders abroad. We stand for the liberation of our Palestinian sisters and brothers, for an immediate end to the siege of Gaza, and for the complete and immediate support for BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaigns around the country and around the world.

We refuse to sit idly by while crimes are committed in our name. Today, July 22, following a call to action from Israel-based Jews Against Genocide (JAG) and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Jews for Justice in Palestine-Chicago (JJP) participated in an act of solidarity with the people of Gaza. As part of a counter-protest, organized by the Chicago-based Coalition for Justice in Palestine, to a Zionist rally staged by the right-wing organization Stand With Us, members of JJP unveiled a pile of (faux) blood-stained dolls to symbolize the over 100 Palestinian children who have been killed in this incursion.

Reports out of Gaza show that over 80 percent of the deaths in the past two weeks have been civilians, mostly women and children. On July 22, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that one child has been killed in Gaza every hour during the past two days. We have enclosed photographs from this action. We encourage Jews all over the world to respond to JAG's call and to replicate their demonstration around the world.

It is important to spread the message that Jewish identity is not synonymous with Zionism. Too often, both in our communities and in the media, the two are conflated. Criticism of Israel is painted as anti-Semitism and support for Israel has become the shibboleth of participation in most Jewish communities. We call for the development of a new approach to Jewish identity, one which mobilizes our histories and our heritage as a source of power in confronting injustice wherever we find it. We stand proudly in the tradition of resistance fighters, ghetto uprisers, partisans, and the long history of Jews who have stood for justice, tolerance and liberation.

In May 1947, the Jewish Anti-Zionist League released a pamphlet in the streets of Cairo. Its words are as important now as they were then:

Jewish men! Jewish women! Zionism wants to throw us into a dangerous and hopeless adventure. Zionism contributes to making Palestine uninhabitable.

Down with Zionism! Long live the brotherhood of Jews and Arabs!

We also write this statement out of a conviction that, as Egyptian Jews wrote over a half-century ago, Israel is engaged in a dangerous adventure that not only risks the lives of innocent Palestinian civilians, but undermines the very safety of Jews across the globe.

Occupation and apartheid are not Jewish values! Solidarity and liberation are!

In solidarity and struggle,
Jews for Justice in Palestine