Jews for Justice for Palestinians

By Dilip -
Leon Rosselson, letter to the Guardian, 28 July 2014 

“Before the current round of violence, the West Bank had been relatively quiet for years,” writes Jonathan Freedland (Israel’s fears are real, but this war is utterly self-defeating, 26 July). According to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights centre, 90 West Bank Palestinians were killed, 16 of them children, by the IDF or by settlers between January 2009 and May 2014. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there have been 2,100 settler attacks since 2006, involving beatings, shootings, vandalising schools, homes, mosques, churches and destroying olive groves. According to Amnesty International, between January 2011 and December 2013, Israeli violence resulted in injuries to 1,500 Palestinian children. “Relatively quiet” for whom? 

 “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary.”

RABBI HILLEL

WE BELIEVE THAT
  • Peace in the Middle East will only come about with mutual recognition and respect and must be seen as just by both sides.
  • Peace requires the end of illegal occupation and settlement.
  • Violence against civilians is unacceptable.
  • Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza are breeding hatred and resentment.
  • It is crucial that Jews speak out for Palestinians’ human rights.
  • The humanitarian values of Judaism have been corrupted by the Israeli state’s human-rights abuses.
  • A lasting peace must be seen as just by both sides.
  • Britain, the EU, the USA, Russia and the UN must be persuaded to implement UN resolutions on Palestine.
IF YOU AGREE then link up with over one thousand six hundred other Jews in Britain who make up Jews for Justice for Palestinians
The Torah teaches: ‘Justice, justice, you shall pursue’ (Deuteronomy 16:20).
To secure a lasting settlement to the conflict between Palestinians andIsraelis so they can live in peace and security, thrive side by side, and co-operate together, Jews today are obligated to pursue justice on behalf of both peoples.”
RABBI ELIZABETH TIKVAH SARAH

WHO WE ARE

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 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 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.
“Israel must withdraw from all the settlements and dismantle the wall within Palestinian territory.Then, perhaps, we may at last see some justice for Palestinians.”
MIRIAM KARLIN OBE
At the end of 2010, our over 1,600 signatories included six rabbis; 110 professors (including five Fellows of the Royal Society and two fellows of the British Academy); 150 medical and academic doctors; several OBEs, CBEs and MBEs, six knights, one Member of Parliament and one member of the House of Lords.
The list includes Helen Bamber OBE, Prof Zygmunt Bauman, Sir Geoffrey Bindman, Rex Bloomstein, Sir Anthony Caro, Prof Stan Cohen, Jenny Diski, Moris Farhi MBE, Bella Freud, Stephen Fry, Prof Eric Hobsbawm, Dr Julian Huppert MP, Prof Mary Kaldor, Nicolas Kent, Beeban Kidron, Baroness Oona King, Prof Francesca Klug OBE, Mike Leigh, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Mike Marqusee, Dr Jonathan Miller, Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, Sophie Okonedo OBE, Prof Susie Orbach, Prof Jacqueline Rose FBA, Mike Rosen, Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah, Alexei Sayle, Prof Lynne Segal, Will Self, Sir Antony Sher, Prof Avi Shlaim FBA, Gillian Slovo, Sir Tom Stoppard, Dame Janet Suzman and Zoë Wanamaker CBE
“Jews for Justice for Palestinians gives expression to the many alternative views within the community.”
MICHAEL ROSEN
All our signatories can be found here.

What we do

“Jews for Justice for Palestinians is concerned for justice for them—and us!
Without justice for Palestinians, there is no hope for Israel.”
RABBI JEFFREY NEWMAN
We support many Israeli peace and human-rights organisations morally and financially including:
ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel), Adalah, Breaking the Silence, Coalition of Women for Peace, Gisha, Gush Shalom, ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch, New Profile, PHR-I (Physicians for Human Rights), PCATI (Public Committee Against Torture in Israel), Rabbis for Human Rights, Ta’ayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership), Yesh Gvul (There is a Limit) and Zochrot (Remembrance).
We organise meetings across the UK and produce information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—both printed and web-based at www.jfjfp.org
We lobby on issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often in association with Palestinians.
We publish adverts occasionally about important current issues in the national and Jewish press
We promote boycott, divestment and sanctions initiatives against Israeli and foreign companies profiting from the illegal occupation.
We support a wide range of Palestinian peace and humanitarian organisations.
We channel humanitarian aid through the British Shalom Salaam Trust, an independent grant-giving charity.
We provide practical support to the Palestinian economy: planting olive trees, supporting Zaytoun, a fair-trade organisation marketing Palestinian olive oil, and encouraging fact-finding trips to the area.
“The work that Jews for Justice for Palestinians has done is of profound importance for the human rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for reaffirming the long association between Jewish people and the struggle for human rights everywhere.”
FRANCESCA KLUG OBE 
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
http://jfjfp.com/?page_id=2

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