Editor’s Note: The following is an English translation of an open letter to the international community from Israeli Jews. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
We, Jewish Israelis, oppose the actions of the Israeli government and hereby declare our commitment to act against them. We refuse to accept the Jewish-supremacist regime and call upon the international community to immediately intervene in defense of the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Galilee, the Negev, al-Lydd, Yaffa, Ramleh, Haifa, and throughout historic Palestine.
Jewish supremacy is the cornerstone of the Israeli regime, and its consistent objective is to transfer and obliterate the Palestinian people, their history, and their national identity.
Jewish supremacy is the cornerstone of the Israeli regime, and its consistent objective is to transfer and obliterate the Palestinian people, their history, and their national identity. This objective manifests in continued acts of ethnic cleansing by means of evictions and home demolitions, brutal military occupation, denial of civil and human rights, and legislation of a series of racist laws culminating in the Nation-State Law, defining the state as “the Nation-State of the Jewish People,” and them only.
All the above effectively form an apartheid regime creating Bantustan-like and ghetto-like areas for Palestinian native communities. We believe that Zionism is an unethical principle of governance that inherently leads to a racist Apartheid regime that has been committing war crimes and denying basic human rights from Palestinians for over seven decades. Such crimes and violations include: the destruction of hundreds of towns and villages and depopulating them from 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, alongside the active prevention of the return of refugees; the systematic expropriation of Palestinians’ lands and transferring them to Jewish ownership under the auspices of the state; the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights and the application of a colonizing military regime, ruling over millions of Palestinians; the gradual annexation of the territories occupied in 1967 by violently engineering demographics; the ongoing siege on the Gaza Strip and persistent massacres of the Gazan population by the Israeli Air Force; political persecution of Palestinians throughout Palestine and the ongoing incitement against the political leadership and society at large; All of these atrocities take place due to the impunity Israel receives from the international community and especially the United States.
In recent weeks, the Israeli government has scaled up its attempts to seize Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem (especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood) and house Jewish settlers in them with the aim of completing the Judaization of the city that began in 1967. During the month of Ramadan, Israeli forces intensified their violent onslaught on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound while giving settlers the green light to vandalize and physically harm Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and throughout the ’48 territories. Mobs of settlers are acting under the auspices, and in coordination with the Israeli police. Israeli media is taking part in the unhinged incitement against Arab citizens of Israel. As a result, the Jewish mobs receive impunity for their violence, while hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel are arrested for protecting their homes and communities, or simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
As we write this statement, Israel is committing yet another massacre in the Gaza ghetto. Israel has declined several third-party offers to negotiate a cease-fire agreement with Hamas officials and has continued to bomb neighborhoods in Gaza. The inhumane siege on approximately two million people continues.
As individuals who belong to the side of the oppressor, and that have tried for years to shift public opinion in Israel in order to change the foundations of the current regime, we have long come to the conclusion that it is impossible to change the Jewish supremacist regime without external intervention.
We call upon the international community to intervene immediately in order to stop Israel’s current aggressions, to adopt the demands of the Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement; to work towards the actualization of the Palestinian Right of Return and to bring about historic justice; to reach a just and democratic solution for all, based on the decolonization of the region and found a state of all its citizens.
List of signatures (as of May 19, 2021)
- Melissa Danz
- Tal Dor
- Aya Kaniuk
- Shiri Eisner
- Shaul Tcherikover
- Rana Saba
- Amnon Lutenberg
- Esther Rapoport
- Yossef Mekyton
- Revital Sella
- Haley Firkser
- Michal Raz
- Avi Liberman
- Amitai Ben-Abba
- Shlomo Owen
- Shmuel Merzel
- Maayan Geva
- Hillel Garmi
- Zohar Atai
- Dina Hecht
- Naama Farjoun
- Ehud Shem Tov
- Daniel Roe
- Neta Golan
- Guy Avni
- Daniella Cramer
- Yonatan Shapira
- Einat Weizman
- Tali Shapiro
- Tom Pessah
- Keren Assaf
- Ofer Neiman
- Tami Dynes
- Guy Hirschfeld
- Tsipi Erann
- Layle-Stav Kashi
- Aryeh Miller
- Vardit Shalfy
- Or Ben David
- Haim Schwarczenberg
- Oren Feld
- Shira Havkin
- Oneg Ben Dror
- Rosana Berghoff
- Lirona Rosenthal
- Dror Shohet
- Guy Gillor
- Adi Shosberger
- Imri Hen
- Nuni Tal
- Dalit Baum
- Yoko Ram Chupak
- Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta
- Dalit Baum
- Yael Shomroni
- Bilha Golan Sündermann
- Noa Shaindlinger
- Noa Friehmann
- Yom Shamash
- Abigail Szor
- Ronnen Ben-Arie
- Anat Matar
- ayA Zamir
- Connie Hackbarth
- Adi Moreno
- Yasmine Halevi
- Kobi Snitz
- Alexander Eyal
- Ronen Wolf
- Anat Elzam
- Robert Nathan Suberi
- Oshra Bar
- Liat Rosenberg
- Shaindy Ort
- Ari Libero
- Shai Ilan
- Yasmin Eran- Vardi
- Miri Barak
- Tamar Selby
- Elian Weizman
- Aliza Dror
- Ruti Lavi
- Prof. Emmanuel Farjoun
- Michal Sapir
- Ayala Levinger
- Daphna Baram
- Yudit Ilany
- Odeliya Matter
- Yaniv Shachar
- Ofra Yeshua-Lyth
- Moshe Eliraz
- Elfrea Lockley
- Iris Hefets
- Oriana Weich
- Reut Ben-Yaakov
- Yoram Blumenkranz
- Tia Levi
- Bosmat Gal
- Rachel Beitarie
- Udi Raz
- Yael Friedman
- Alon Marcus
- Jasmin Wagner
- Orna Akad
- Avi Berg
- Inna Michaeli
- Galit Naaman
- Sharona Weiss
- Aya Breuer
- Tal Janner-Klausner
- Eran Torbiner
- Vered Bitan
- Pnina Werbner
- Irit Rotmensch
- Eliana Ben-David
- Mike Arad
- Karen Zack
- Adi Liraz
- Nadav Franckovich
- Rela Mazali
- Irit Segoli
- Maya Reggev
- Yam Nir-Bejerano
- Abey Mizrahi
- Hadas Leonov
- Tair Borchardt
- Yehudith Harel
- Yael Politi
- Itamar Shapira
- Regev Nathansohn
- Liad Kantorowicz
- David Benarroch
- Uri Gordon
- Zohar Efron
- Reuben Klein
- Yisrael Puterman
- Erica Melzer
- Yaara Benger Alaluf
- Anat Guthman
- Erella Grassiani
- Daniel Palanker Chas
- Einat Podjarny
- Yael Lerer
- Ya’ara Peretz
- Shirli Nadav
- Lihi Joffe
- Danielle Parsay
- Adi Winter
- Daphna Westerman
- Tslil Ushpiz
- Ella Janatovsky
- Nily Gorin
- Ora Slonim
- Rachel Hagigi
- Nahed Ghanayem
- Maayan Ashash
- Ruth Rosenthal
- Debby Farber
- Nicole Schwartz
- Sahar Vardi
- Hilla Dayan
- Galit Saporta
- Fanny-Michaela Reisin
- Adi Golan Bikhnafo
- Sharon Avraham
- Noa Roei
- Elliot Beck
- Jair Straschnow
- Haim Bresheeth-Zabner
- Amir Vudka
- Alma Ganihar
- Atalia Israeli Nevo
- Itamar Liebergall
- Jonathan Pollak
- Livnat Konopny Decleve
- Yanai Himelfarb
- Sigal Ronen
- Merav Devere
- Shiri Wilk Nader
- Dror K Levi
- Moshé Machover
- Yael Perlman
- Laurent Schuman
- Ferial Himel
- Ester Nili Fisher
- Abo Kouder Gaber
- Ur Shlonsky
- Rachel Giora
- Judit Druks
- Miri Michaeli
- Tal(y) Wozner
- Meir Amor
- Souraya Abeid
- Alon Benach
- Roni Gechtman
- Rahel Wachs
- Anat Rosenblum
- Yoav Beirach
- Dorit Naaman
- Noa Vidman
- Dror Dayan
- Ruthie Pliskin
- Yaara Shaham
- Inbar Tamari
- Herzl Schubert
- Assif Am-David
- Nadia Cohen
- Rachel Yagil
- Rani Nader Wilk
- Gony Halevi
- Tamar Katz
- Chagit Lyssy
- Sam Shtein
- Michal Baror
- Doron Ben David
- Miki Fischer
- Zhava Grinfeld
- Aviya Atai
- Nimrod Ronen
- Judith Tamir
- Yotam Ben-David
- Alex Cohn
- Avital Barak
- Maayan Vaknin
- Tamar Yaron
- Orit Ben David
- Maya Bendersky
- Oran Nissim
- Roni Tzoreff
- Udi Adiv
- Lilach Ben David
- Ayelet Yonah Adelman
- Tal Berglas
- Ronit Milano
- Terry Greenblat
- Mie Shamir
- Oren Lamm
- Ayelet Politi
- Udi Aloni
- Hava Ortman
- Liat Hasenfratz
- Marie Berry
- Revital Elkayam
- Asaf Calderon
- Nitza Aminov
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The Palestinian Right of Return Could Go to the ICC – Opinio Juris
OpinioJuris, in association with the international Commission of Jurists, May 17/21
“The Palestinian Right of Return Could Go to the ICC” by John Quigley
John Quigley is Professor Emeritus at the Moritz College of Law of The Ohio State University.
EXCERPT:
“The recent violence in Israel/Palestine highlights the need to resolve the underlying issues that have kept generated turmoil for a century. The unresolved issue of Arabs displaced in 1948 is at the top of the list of such issues. The urgency of a resolution of this issue has just been eloquently explained in a timely piece in the New York Times. Peter Beinart, Palestinian refugees deserve to return home. Jews should understand. (New York Times, 12 May 2021).
“The issue has also risen to the top of Human Rights Watch’s agenda for Israel/Palestine. In a report it issued in April 2021, Human Rights Watch characterized Israel’s refusal to repatriate Arabs displaced in 1948 as a crime against humanity by way of persecution and apartheid, under Rome Statute Article 7. Human Rights Watch called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation as a crime against humanity. Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (April 2021), at pages 204, 207.
“Requiring a racial group to reside in separate locations within a state qualifies as apartheid. Under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment on the Crime of Apartheid, one act that constitutes apartheid is the taking of measures ‘designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group.’ If forcing a group into a designated area within a country constitutes apartheid, forcing the group out entirely would seem to be hyper-apartheid.
“Human Rights Watch in its report did not fully explain a basis for jurisdiction in the International Criminal Court. However, the Rome Statute principles, particularly as explicated in recent jurisprudence in the International Criminal Court, suggest that jurisdiction does indeed exist. The requisites are present for subject-matter jurisdiction, for temporal jurisdiction, and for territorial jurisdiction.” (cont’d)
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“Subject-matter jurisdiction exists under Rome Statute Article 7, for persecution, for apartheid, and for deportation or forcible transfer of population. As indicated in Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into the Situation in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh/Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the International Criminal Court is presently dealing with a situation of population displacement – that of the Rohingya population of Myanmar –as a crime against humanity.
“In that situation, Pre-trial Chamber III, in its 14 November 2019 ruling to authorize an investigation, found a basis for subject-matter jurisdiction under Rome Statute Article 7 for persecution (paragraph 100) and for “deportation or forcible transfer of population” (paragraph 97). For persecution, the Chamber referred to the Court’s Elements of Offenses to say that persecution is present when a racial group is subject to severe deprivation of fundamental human rights. Such deprivation would seem to be present even absent expulsion, for a refusal to repatriate persons who were displaced. A right to return to one’s country is guaranteed both by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations (Article 13) and by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – OHCHR (Article 12). Israel did not grant its nationality to the displaced Arabs, but under these instruments that circumstance does not negate a right to return.”
Why not call for extraterrestrial as well as international intervention? I’m not sure which is the better bet.