Editor’s Note: The following is a statement by the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
When a person holding a stone confronts soldiers who are armed with rifles, ask yourself why they are willing to do that.
On May 8, 80,000 Palestinians came to stand in front of rifles and pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque. They overwhelmed the rifles with their numbers and spirit. We stand with them.
This is not a ‘clash’ between two opinions, this is occupation, apartheid, and settler-colonialism at work.
We deplore Israel’s violation of sacred space during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. We are horrified by the mob violence and the paramilitary police who enable it. This is not a ‘clash’ between two opinions, this is occupation, apartheid, and settler-colonialism at work.
We reject Israel’s campaign to dispossess the Palestinians, including current efforts to expel families from Sheikh Jarrah. The New York Times notes, “A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said Friday that the forced expulsion ‘would violate Israel’s obligations under international law’ prohibiting the forced transfer of residents from occupied territory…. [Aryeh] King, the deputy mayor, said ‘of course’ [the evictions] are part of a wider strategy of installing ‘layers of Jews’ throughout East Jerusalem.”
We say, stop the expulsions, and get the Israeli settlers out of occupied East Jerusalem. This is ethnic cleansing.
Israel’s refusal to vaccinate the Palestinians whose land it occupies in Gaza and the West Bank has been condemned by UN Rapporteurs as “discriminatory and unlawful.” Covid is rampant and we plead with our governments to provide the lifesaving assistance that Israel is withholding.
We call for an end to Israel’s impunity. These are crimes. We must begin to respond to them as crimes.
We hold the Palestinian protestors in our thoughts.
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International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine
We are Jews from diverse countries, part of local, national, international networks and organizations. We are connected by our involvement in the struggle for Palestinian rights, and by our determination to work for justice. We oppose Zionism and all forms of racism.
We came together to share our experiences of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. Although it claims to protect Jews, the IHRA Working Definition is in fact being used to shield Israel from valid political challenge, silence Palestinians, and suppress any mention of Palestinian rights. The IHRA’s weaponization of antisemitism sets a dangerous precedent for limiting speech on many issues.
We take this as our immediate priority, but it is only a starting point for our collective commitment to build a more just world.
“When a person holding a stone confronts soldiers who are armed with rifles, ask yourself why they are willing to do that?”
Nablus hospital 1988. One boy was writhing in pain from a bullet to his rectum. His friend, a handsome 14 year old, was bouncing about on full alert for soldiers coming in to arrest him. I noticed two bullet holes in his shirt beside his stomach, as he explained they made the soldiers afraid with their stones.
Some thirty years later with co-existence in a secular state the plausible solution, is coercion likely to get there?