RACIST JEWISH OPINIONS ON ZIONISM H
HALPER, JEFF. Jewish Israeli Professor Jeff Halper slams Israel's extreme right-wing and militaristic policies
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
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HALPER, JEFF. Jewish Israeli Professor Jeff Halper slams Israel's extreme right-wing and militaristic policies

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].

Jeff Halper (an anti-racist Jewish American Israeli, professor of anthropology,lecturer, political activist, author of several books and co-founder (1997) and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD)) on Israeli Apartheid (2015): “Israel is an apartheid state implementing a Matrix of Control which transforms the Occupied Palestinian Territory into probably the most monitored, controlled and militarised place on earth. It epitomises the dream of every general, security expert and police officer to be able to exercise total biopolitical control. In a situation where the local population enjoys no effective legal protections or privacy, they and their lands become a laboratory where the latest technologies of surveillance, control and suppression are perfected and showcased, giving Israel an edge in the highly competitive global market” [3].

[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 .

[3]. Jeff Halper, “War against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification”, Pluto Press, 2015, p.143; quoted in Gareth W.R. Smith, “Apartheid Israel doesn’t need defending, Palestine does”, Echonetdaily, 20 January 2017: https://www.echo.net.au/2017/01/apartheid-israel-doesnt-need-defending-palestine/ ).

HARVARD PROFESSORS.Statement by [72] Harvard Faculty in Support of Palestinian Liberation.

Statement by Harvard Faculty in Support of Palestinian Liberation (22 May 2021):“As US-based scholars who oppose racism and colonial violence in all its forms, we write to express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination. Israeli state violence has devastated Palestinian life through a combination of warfare, territorial theft, and violent displacement. Unwavering US financial, military, and political support has fueled an apartheid system that institutionalizes the domination and repression of Palestinians. The recent reports by Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem are only the latest to document this reality. The current effort to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood; the violence in Israeli cities like Lydda and Haifa, in which Israeli police stand by and facilitate right-wing extremist attacks on Palestinians; and the military attack on the Gaza Strip are only the most recent events in a decades-long process of dispossession.

Palestinians are not only denied freedom and self-determination, they are even denied the right to resist. Palestinian resistance in all its forms is criminalized by Israel and the US. Every measure of self-defense by a people without a state or an army against a nuclear power backed by the US is subject to immediate censure while Israel continues its violent aggressions with impunity.

Suppression of support for Palestinian liberation extends into the US academy where even scholarly criticism of Israeli human rights violations is increasingly equated with antisemitism and forbidden by law. The situation in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is far worse. Academic freedom and basic educational rights are unavailable for students and faculty at Palestinian universities, and the rights of Palestinians at Israeli universities are severely curtailed. The Israeli government and academic institutions routinely punish scholars – both Jews and Palestinians – who criticize the state’s policies.

In this moment when Israeli ethnonationalist violence is at an all-time high, US military support remains steadfast, and solidarity with Palestine is criminalized, US-based scholars cannot be silent. We demand an end to US support for Israel’s apartheid regime, condemn Israeli state aggression, and affirm our support for the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Signatories

Ajantha Subramanian, Anthropology and South Asian Studies

Steven Caton, Anthropology

Vijay Iyer, Music and African and African American Studies

Walter Johnson, History and African and African American Studies

Kirsten Weld, History

Rosie Bsheer, History

Diane L. Moore, Religion and Public Life

Evelynn M. Hammonds, History of Science and African an African American Studies

Robert F. Pharr, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and African and African American Studies

Arunabh Ghosh, History

Ju Yon Kim, English

Sidney Chalhoub, History and African and African American Studies

Teju Cole, English

Cemal Kafadar, History

Soha Bayoumi, History of Science

Caroline Light, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Bram Wispelwey, Medicine

Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Anthropology and Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Susanna Siegel, Philosophy

Michael Herzfeld, Anthropology

Ned Hall, Philosophy

Glenda Carpio, English and African and African American Studies

Ernst Karel, Anthropology and Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Joyce E. Chaplin, History

Adaner Usmani, Sociology and Social Studies

Tara K Menon, English

Bernhard Nickel, Philosophy

Ali Asani, Study of Religion and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Michael Bronski, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Robin Bernstein, African and African American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Alice Jardine, Romance Languages and Literatures and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Jean Comaroff, African and African American Studies and Anthropology

Nicholas Harkness, Anthropology

Musa Syeed, English

Ingrid Monson, Music and African and African American Studies

Sarah S. Richardson, History of Science and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Alex Rehding, Music

Lucie White, Harvard Law School

Suzanne Preston Blier, History of Art and Architecture; African and African American Studies

Katrina Forrester, Government and Social Studies

Christopher Hasty, Music

Robb Moss, Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Gabriela Soto Laveaga, History of Science

Ana Isabel Keilson, Social Studies

Sugata Bose, History and South Asian Studies

Peter E. Gordon, History

Jesse McCarthy, English and African and African American Studies

Jeffrey Schnapp, metaLAB (at) Harvard; Romance Languages and Literatures

Vincent Brown, History and African and African American Studies

Sylvaine Guyot, Romance Languages and Literatures and Theater, Dance & Media

Tracey Rosen, Social Studies

Tom Conley, Romance Languages and Art, Film & Visual Studies

Glory Liu, Social Studies

Linda Schlossberg, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

András Riedlmayer, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture

Andrea Wright, Anthropology

Mary D. Lewis, History

Namwali Serpell, English

Malavika Reddy, Anthropology

Philip Deloria, History

Peter Der Manuelian, NELC and Anthropology

George Paul Meiu, Anthropology and AAAS

Matthew Liebmann, Anthropology

Byron Good, Global Health and Social Medicine, and Anthropology

Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Global Health and Social Medicine

Claire Messud, English

Claire Chase, Music

Karthik Pandian, Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Carissa Rodriguez, Art, Film and Visual Studies

Salma Waheedi, Harvard Law School

Rebecca Williams, Harvard Kennedy School

Samuel Dolbee, History and Literature” (“Statement by [72] Harvard Faculty in Support of Palestinian Liberation”, Palestinian Forum, 22 May 2021: https://www.palestineforum.net/statement-by-harvard-faculty-in-support-of-palestinian-liberation/ ).

HASHOMER HATZAI (The Young Guard): “A Nazi is a Nazi he be a Jew or otherwise, and it is a false sentiment of the Jewish people to condemn Nazism and condone Jewish fascism”

Hashomer Hatzai (The Young Guard, a secular socialist Jewish Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austrian Poland) on 13th March, 1946: “A Nazi is a Nazi he be a Jew or otherwise, and it is a false sentiment of the Jewish people to condemn Nazism and condone Jewish fascism” (Hashomer Hatzai quoted in Vacy Vlazna, “How terrorism created modern Israel- Book Review”, Palestine Chronicle, 7 February 2018: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/terrorism-created-modern-israel-book-review/ ).

HASS, Amira. Jewish Israeli Haaretz journalist: "[Israelis] turned Gaza into an internment and punishment camp for 1.8 million human beings"

Amira Hass (Jewish Israeli Haaretz journalist) (2014): “Those who rejected Fatah and Yasser Arafat’s peace proposal for two states have now been given Haniyeh, Hamas and BDS. Those who turned Gaza into an internment and punishment camp for 1.8 million human beings should not be surprised that they tunnel underneath the earth. Those who sow strangling, siege and isolation reap rocket fire. Those who have, for 47 years, indiscriminately crossed the Green Line, expropriating land and constantly harming civilians in raids, shootings and settlements – what right do they have to roll their eyes and speak of Palestinian terror against civilians? (Amira Hass, “Reaping what we have sown in Gaza” Information Clearing House, 22 July 2014: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39186.htm ).

HELLMAN, Lillian. Anti-racist Jewish American writer: "Zionism is an atavism"

Lillian Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an anti-racist Jewish American author of plays, screenplays, and memoirs and was linked with many socialist and humanitarian causes. Outstanding anti-racist Jewish American writer Lillian Hellman was hated and defamed by the Zionists. Alice Kessler-Harris has recently observed that "Hellman was understood by many people in the fifties and sixties to be a "non-Jewish Jew" or a "self-hating Jew". Yet she had been an early opponent of Hitler's Germany and an active contributor to funds for Jewish refugees in the late thirties and forties". Zionist fanatics picketed the Academy Awards in which Vanessa Redgrave was awarded an Oscar for her performance as Julia in "Julia" based on a controversial story about an anti-Nazi heroine by Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda played Lillian Hellman) (Google "Vanessa Redgrave" for the Wikipedia account: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Redgrave ). One can begin to understand the venom of Mary McCarthy's appalling demolition of Lillian Hellman; "Everything she writes is a lie, including "and" and "the"" (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Hellman ).

Lillian Hellman: "Zionism is an atavism", "[Zionists] were angry that I wasn't" and "I am not only not a well-known Zionist, but Zionist have accused me of being an anti-Zionist". [1].

[1]. Lillian Hellman quoted in “The Stolen Legacy of Ann Frank. Meyer Levin, Lillian Hellman, and the Staging of the Diary.” by Ralph Melnick (p34).

HESSEL, Stéphane. Jewish French Resistance hero & humanitarian compares German Occupation of France in WW2 with Apartheid Israel Occupation of Palestine

Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (20 October 1917 – 26 February 2013) was a Jewish German who became a French citizen. He was diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, French Resistance fighter and an agent of the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations, commonly referred as the BCRA, the World War II-era forerunner of the SDECE, the French intelligence service)(. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. He participated in the editing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. His short book Time for Outrage! sold 4.5 million copies worldwide (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Hessel ).

In 2011 Hessel wrote an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, in which he compares the Nazi occupation of France during WWII with the occupation of Palestinian Territories by Israeli army: "The German occupation [of France] was, when compared for example with the present occupation of Palestine by the Israelis, a relatively harmless occupation, apart from exceptions like the arrests, detentions and executions, also of the theft of art treasures.” [1].

[1]. Stéphane Frédéric Hessel quoted in “”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Hessel .

HIRSCH, Samson Raphael. Outstanding 19th century Rabbi Hirsch; Zionism forbidden by orthodox Judaism

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].

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Reform Jews’ opposition to Zionism as summarized by Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok (2010): “Reform Jews therefore objected to Zionism because it undermined Jewish allegiance to host nations and because it emphasized the ethnic, nationalistic spirit of Judaism. Many of the Strictly Orthodox disapproved of Zionism for completely different reasons. Although the Torah teaches that it is the duty of all Jews to pray for the return to Zion, this ingathering must be preceded by the messianic redemption. Only when God has sent His long-promised “anointed one” will the exiles of Israel return to the Holy Land and all nations will turn to Jerusalem to learn of the One God. The neo-Orthodox leader, Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-88), had taught that it was forbidden to accelerate divine deliverance and that it would happen in God’s good time. The Zionist movement was thus perceived as an evil conspiracy against God’s will and yet another episode in the long history of false messianic hopes” [2].

[1]. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, quoted by True Torah Jews Against Zionism: http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/rabbi_quotes/hirsch.cfm .

[2]. Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, “Judaism: A Beginner’s Guide”, Oneworld, 2010.

HONIG-PARNASS, Tikva: "Discussion of Israel’s democracy must include both the obvious and observable apartheid regime in the 1967 Occupied Territories—to which the left abroad is willing to admit—and the somewhat masked apartheid within the Green Line (“Israel Proper”)"

Tikva Honig-Parnass (anti-racist Jewish Israeli socialist activist and member of the Israeli Socialist Organization Matzpen (“Compass”); she is also a veteran of the 1948 War)(2019): “The Israeli regime encompasses by now all historical Palestine—from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Israel has settled half a million of its own citizens there; it has extended its own laws there and uses aquifers and airspace there every single day. In practice, Israel has annexed the West Bank without officially declaring it. Many among the left Zionists adhere to the misleading claim that the West Bank (and Gaza) are exterior to the state of Israel and that the 1967 occupation is only temporary and eventually these areas will constitute the independent Palestinian state. They thus conceal the fact that these areas have in fact been annexed and are part and parcel of Greater Israel—something that allows them to retain the image of Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Zionism has enforced its government on different parts of Palestine in different historical stages. Hence the different levels of civil rights and civil status of the Palestinian inhabitants of these parts—from no civil rights in the West Bank and Gaza, to formal citizenship granted to the remaining Palestinians after the Nakba of 1948, something that was a condition imposed on Israel in order to be accepted as a member of the United Nations. Therefore, the discussion of Israel’s democracy must include both the obvious and observable apartheid regime in the 1967 Occupied Territories—to which the left abroad is willing to admit—and the somewhat masked apartheid within the Green Line (“Israel Proper”), which they are reluctant to depict as such and still regard as a democracy” (Tikva Honig-Parnass interviewed by Leo Fischer, “Apartheid Israel and the contradictions of left Zionism”, International Socialist Review, Issue #72, 2 May 2019: https://isreview.org/issue/72/apartheid-israel-and-contradictions-left-zionism ) [the last issue after 22 years: https://isreview.org/issue/72 ].

HONOR LIST: numerous anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Palestinian human rights have been listed in an extensive Honor List

Numerous anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Palestinian human rights have been listed in an extensive Honor List by Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh (see “Honor List”, Qumsiyeh: a human rights web: http://qumsiyeh.org/honorlist/ ).

INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIAN JEWISH VOICES. IAJV for non-racism, rejects false "anti-Semitism" Zionist assertions

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 (Canada). 1st in Boycott, Disinvestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel

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/ .

INDEPENDENT JEWISH VOICES, UK (IJV, UK). Pro-peace IJV (UK) rejects any form of racism

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/ .

INTERNATIONAL JEWISH ANTI-ZIONIST NETWORK (IJAN). IJAN slams US imperialism and Zionist racist colonization

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].

Letter published in March 2011 by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network that endorses the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The letter was issued in response to a February 15 statement by Zionist (pro-Israel) groups that said the BDS campaign was anti-Semitic and “antithetical to freedom of speech”:

LETTER: "Because academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel:

• are being called for by Palestinian civil society in response to the occupation and colonisation of their land,

• are a moral tool of non-violent, peaceful response to more than sixty years of Israeli colonialism,

• and, rightfully place accountability on Israeli institutions (and their allies and partners) that use business, cultural, and academic ties to white-wash Israel’s responsibility for continuing crimes against humanity,

The undersigned organisations and individuals stand firm in our support of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) initiatives against Israel until it meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.

BDS is not anti-Semitic

We reject the notion that the 2005 BDS call from Palestine, and the BDS campaigns the world over which it has inspired, are rooted in anti-Jewish sentiment.

On the contrary, BDS is an anti-racist movement against the daily, brutal occupation of Palestine and military threat to the region by the state of Israel.

False claims of anti-Semitism distort the true nature of the Palestinian struggle and are an affront to, and betrayal of, the long history of Jewish survival and resistance to persecution.

BDS is not anti-democratic

We also reject the assertion that the cultural and academic boycotts of Israel defy the democratic principle of free speech.

Research and development in academic institutions play a central role in designing and defending Israel’s military and intelligence machinery.

Cultural institutions perpetuate the deception of Israeli democracy. To defend freedom of speech for those who disregard justice while demonising those who struggle for justice is a great disservice to genuine democracy.

Through boycott, divestment and sanctions, civil society asserts our commitment to not contribute to the Israeli state, which is responsible for atrocious acts of disregard for human life and well being.

Attacks against BDS campaigns will not prevent us from taking this stance against Israeli impunity.

For the Jewish organisations signed onto this letter, self-determination for Jews includes the right to participate in the movement for justice in Palestine and to live in the world with our fellow citizens in peace, freedom, and equity.

It does not include the domination and colonisation of other people or living separate from our fellow human beings in a state that privileges Jews.

BDS was a key strategy in ending the white South African system of apartheid by applying international pressure.

In pursuit of justice, peace and freedom for all, we speak out as Jews committed to BDS and Palestinian liberation.

• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

• Not In Our Name (Argentina)

• Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in Middle East (EJJP, Germany)

• Not in Our Name: Jews Opposing Zionism (Canada)

• Jews for a Just Peace (Fredericton, Canada)

• Independent Jewish Voice (Canada)

• Middle East Children's Alliance (USA)

• Critical Jewish Voice (Austria)

• Women in Black (Austria)

• French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP)

• Bay Area Women in Black (USA)

• St. Louis Women in Black (USA)

• Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace (USA)

• American Jews for a Just Peace (USA)

• Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (Britain)

• JUNTS, Catalan Association of Jews and Palestinians, Spain)

• Ronnie Kasrils, former South African government minister, writer, founder Not In My Name, South Africa

• Antony Loewenstein, Independent Australian Jewish Voices

• Peter Slezak, Independent Australian Jewish Voices

• Moshe Machover, Professor (emeritus) (UK), founder Matzpen

• Felicia Langer, Israeli lawyer, author, Right Livelihood Award 2006 (Alternative Nobel Prize) 1990, Bruno Kreisky Prize 1991

• Mieciu Langer, Nazi Holocaust survivor

• Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor

• Hajo G. Meyer PhD, Nazi Holocaust survivor

• Kamal Chenoy, IJAN India & The All India Peace and Solidarity Organization

• Paola Canarutto & Giorgio Forti, Rete ECO, Italy

• Liliane Cordova Kaczerginski, IJAN France

• Sonia Fayman, IJAN France & UJFP

• Ernesto Rosenberg, GRAMARPAL (Argentine-Palestinian Friendship Group, Neuquen, Argentina)

• Mark Elf, blogger, Jews sans Frontieres. " END LETTER & SIGNATORIES. [2].

[1]. The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) home page: http://www.ijsn.net/home/ .

[2]. “Jewish groups defend Israel boycott”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47299 .

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) describes itself thus on its website: “IJAN is an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human survival and emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. We are committed to the right of return for Palestinian refugees and to ending Israeli colonization of historic Palestine, which is reinforced by US economic and military power. We support full Palestinian self-determination and the right to resist occupation. We look to the Palestinian grassroots and Palestinian-led organizations as our primary points of reference in this struggle. The State of Israel betrays the long histories of Jewish struggles for liberation and traditions of participation in collective struggles for liberation more broadly. We protest Zionism’s exploitation and debasement of histories of Jewish persecution and genocide to justify the unjustifiable – the colonization of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the theft of their land and destruction of their families, communities and way of life. IJAN is part of the international movement against Zionist militarism and repression. We have active chapters in the United States, Argentina, the UK, Spain, Canada, and France… IJAN organizes from a Jewish location, which we understand as social and historical, but our members hold a range of relationships to the religious, spiritual, and cultural expressions of Judaism. IJAN’s members come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and cultural lineages (including Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Sephardic)” (The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN): http://www.ijan.org/who-we-are/ ).

ISAACS, Isaac. Sir Isaac Isaacs, first Australia-born Australian Governor-General, denounced Zionism

Sir Isaac Isaacs (1855–1948), an Australian judge and politician, was the ninth Governor General of Australia and the first born in Australia to occupy that post. He was strongly opposed to Zionism (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs ; also see Max Gordon, “Sir Isaac Isaacs”, Heinemann, Adelaide, 1963).

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].

Sir Isaac Isaacs: "the Zionist movement as a whole...now places its own unwarranted interpretation on the Balfour Declaration, and makes demands that are arousing the antagonism of the Moslem world of nearly 400 millions, thereby menacing the safety of our Empire, endangering world peace and imperiling some of the most sacred associations of the Jewish, Christian, and Moslem faiths. Besides their inherent injustice to others these demands would, I believe, seriously and detrimentally affect the general position of Jews throughout the world." [1].

[1]. Sir Isaac Isaacs, quoted by Wikipedia, ”Isaac Isaacs”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs .

ISRAELI ARMY RESERVISTS: Open Letter by 50 Israeli Army Reservists on Why They Refuse to Fight in Gaza

Open Letter by 50 Israeli Army Reservists on Why They Refuse to Fight in Gaza (2014): “We were soldiers in a wide variety of units and positions in the Israeli military—a fact we now regret, because, in our service, we found that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve duties, and we support all those who resist being called to service.

The Israeli Army, a fundamental part of Israelis’ lives, is also the power that rules over the Palestinians living in the territories occupied in 1967. As long as it exists in its current structure, its language and mindset control us: We divide the world into good and evil according to the military’s categories; the military serves as the leading authority on who is valued more and who less in society—who is more responsible for the occupation, who is allowed to vocalize their resistance to it and who isn’t, and how they are allowed to do it. The military plays a central role in every action plan and proposal discussed in the national conversation, which explains the absence of any real argument about non-military solutions to the conflicts Israel has been locked in with its neighbors.

The Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are deprived of civil rights and human rights. They live under a different legal system from their Jewish neighbors. This is not exclusively the fault of soldiers who operate in these territories. Those troops are, therefore, not the only ones obligated to refuse. Many of us served in logistical and bureaucratic support roles; there, we found that the entire military helps implement the oppression of the Palestinians” (“Petition By Israeli soldiers and reservists… ” (“Open Letter by 50 Israeli Army Reservists on Why They Refuse to Fight in Gaza. Petition By Israeli soldiers and reservists”, Countercurrents, 26 July 2014:https://www.countercurrents.org/isr260714.htm

ISRAELI COMMITTEE AGAINST HOUSE DEMOLITIONS (ICAHD) opposes and resists illegal demolitions of Palestinian homes by Apartheid Israel

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 .

ISRAELI-NEVO, Atalia. Anti-racist Jewish Israeli activist condemns Israeli Apartheid.

Atalia Israeli-Nevo (anti-racist Jewish Israeli activist) (21 May 2019): “Ever since violence broke out across Israel-Palestine in the past two weeks, the city of Jaffa, where I live, feels like it has been placed under military occupation.… This narrative of protection has been dictated again and again by the State of Israel ever since its establishment in 1948. It was there following the Nakba, in which more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from this land without the ability to return, when the Israeli government began waging a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population between the river and the sea, when it placed Palestinian citizens under military rule for nearly two decades, when it passed discriminatory laws and expropriated Palestinian land, or as it maintains a 54-year occupation in the West Bank and more than a decade of siege on Gaza” (Atalia Israeli-Nevo, “As Israeli Jews, we demand international intervention against apartheid. Over 500 Israeli Jews sign an open letter calling for liberation for all people between the river and the sea”, +972, 21 May 2019:https://www.972mag.com/apartheid-israel-jewish-open-letter/?fbclid=IwAR1lv329aWL6IzPzPpo03jmpRwh9VGMdUDKw04C5QuCZkmtsq5CFRr5DiAw .)

ISRAELIS AGAINST APARTHEID.

Israelis Against Apartheid Open Letter to the international community against genocidally racist Zionism, another Gaza Massacre and Israeli Apartheid (2019): “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, Yafa, 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. 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 Bill, 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 of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, alongside the active prevention of 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 up-scaled 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 founding a state of all its citizens.

#IsraelisAgainstApartheid”[745 signatories as of 24 May 2019] (Israelis Against Apartheid, “Israeli Jews call “Stop Israel’s Apartheid! An Open Letter to the international community”, May 2019:https://jews4decolonization.wordpress.com/?fbclid=IwAR2N21j-efNd3weSZvFSMlsyaIYfPi5WO5SCSJMYH_pEF3vsFr5rtHm0ca8 ).

JEWISH AND NON-JEWISH AMERICAN WRITERS AND EDITORS urges Boycott of Israel "a state that practices occupation, colonialism, and apartheid"

Open Letter to the Brooklyn Book Festival re Israeli sponsorship (2015): “We, the undersigned, including participants and exhibitors at the Brooklyn Book Festival, recently noticed that the festival has chosen to accept support from Israel's Office of Cultural Affairs in New York for one of its panels…

Israel has systematically attempted to suppress, expropriate and suffocate the art, culture, and literature of Palestinian writers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, and poets. We hope that you agree that partnering with a state that practices occupation, colonialism, and apartheid is paradoxical for a festival that celebrates a "lively literary marketplace"…

As was the case in South Africa, where international solidarity played a crucial role in bringing down apartheid by boycotting the economic, sports and cultural institutions of the apartheid regime, we sincerely hope you will not partner in any capacity with the Israeli government and other complicit institutions, until the Israeli government fulfills it obligations under international law and fully recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to live in full equality and freedom in their homeland.”

Initial Signatories

[2].

[1]. Jews for Justice for Palestinians, “Statement” : http://jfjfp.com/?page_id=2 .

[2]. Jews for Justice for Palestinians, “Signatories - deceased”: http://jfjfp.com/?page_id=16014 .

KASRILS, Ronnie. Jewish South African anti-Apartheid hero slams Israel as "worse than Apartheid"

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. UK MP comparing 1.5 million inmate Israeli Gaza Concentration Camp with Nazi Warsaw Ghetto

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, Joe. Anti-racist Jewish American political columnist for Time magazine: "[Zionists] now leading the charge for war with Iran”

Joe Klein (anti-racist Jewish American political columnist for Time magazine and author of the political novel “Primary Colors”): “I have now been called antisemitic and intellectually unstable and a whole bunch of other silly things by the folks over at the Commentary blog. They want Time Magazine to fire or silence me. This is happening because I said something that is palpably true, but unspoken in polite society: There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003. Their motivations involve a confused conflation of what they think are Israel’s best interests with those of the United States. They are now leading the charge for war with Iran” (“Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing”, Hypertext: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jewish%20Intellectuals%20Who%20Opposed%20Zionism%20Israel%20Racism%20Injustices%20Apartheid%20Ethnic%20Cleansing.htm ).

KLEIN, Naomi. Naomi Klein slams Israeli human rights abuses

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[s], '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].

Naomi Klein on sanctions against Apartheid Israel as against Apartheid South Africa (2009): “It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” [4].

Naomi Klein signed the following letter together with Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago, and Howard Zinn on the occasion of the 2006 devastation of Gaza and Lebanon by the Apartheid Israeli military machine (2006):

“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 alloted 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.” [5].

[1]. Yotam Feldman, “Naomi Klein: oppose the state not the people”, Haaretz, 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/ .

[4]. Naomi Klein, quoted in “Voices against Israel’s apartheid system”, Green Left Weekly, 10 April 2011: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47300 .

[5]. Tariq Ali, John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Naomi Klein, Harold Pinter, Arundhati Roy, José Saramago and Howard Zinn, “Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine”, Open Letter, 19 July 2006: http://www.chomsky.info/letters/20060719.htm .

KOLKO, Gabriel. Anti-racist Jewish American and leading historian on modern warfare: "There is simply no rational reason that justifies the state’s creation”

Gabriel Kolko: “The result of the creation of a state called Israel was abysmal ... There is simply no rational reason that justifies the state’s creation. The outcome is a small state with a military ethos that pervades all aspects of Israel’s culture, its politics and, above all, its response to the existence of Arabs in its midst and at its borders. From its inception, the ideology of the early Zionists — of Labor Zionism as well as the rightist Revisionism that Vladimir Jabotinsky produced — embodied a commitment to violence, erroneously called self-defense, and a virtual hysteria” (“Jewish Intellectuals Who Have Opposed Zionism and/or Israeli Racism, Injustices, Occupation, Apartheid and/or Ethnic Cleansing”, Hypertext: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jewish%20Intellectuals%20Who%20Opposed%20Zionism%20Israel%20Racism%20Injustices%20Apartheid%20Ethnic%20Cleansing.htm ).

KOSMINSKY, Peter (film maker): "But if you’re Jewish, as I am, and you criticise the domestic and/or foreign policy of the sovereign state of Israel you are immediately called ‘an anti-Semite’"

Peter Kosminsky (an anti-racist Jewish British writer, director and producer; directed Hollywood movies e.g. “White Oleander” and TV movies e.g. like” Warriors”, “The Government Inspector”, “The Promise”, “Wolf Hall” and “The State”) (2013): “Nothing prepared me for the level of vitriol that was going to drop on me from the Zionist lobby… personal, vicious stuff came my way… I was left with one really striking puzzlement... If I choose to criticise my country, and I often do, nobody or very few people say I'm not patriotic, certainly no people call me ‘a racist’. They accept that it’s a legitimate thing in a free society to criticise the political and diplomatic behaviour, the domestic and foreign policies of a sovereign state. It doesn't mean that you're not a loyal member of that state, it just means that you disagree with its political behaviour. But if you’re Jewish, as I am, and you criticise the domestic and/or foreign policy of the sovereign state of Israel you are immediately called ‘an anti-Semite’. Very clever isn’t it. You can't criticize the behaviour of a sovereign state, a member of the United Nations, without being called ‘a racist’ and of course because of the Holocaust... you know, it's an immensely sensitive accusation to level at someone, that ‘you're anti-Semite’. And to me that's the most troubling thing, as they say a cuckoo in this academic nest... about a whole discourse that the Western world is ultimately hampered in its ability to criticize, irrespective of more geopolitical considerations, we are still after all these years, restricted in our ability to criticize the straightforward behaviour of an elected government in the state of Israel, for fear that we will be accused of being anti-Semites and that's what I've been spending two years and plus, wrestling with...” ( Peter Kosminsky “Peter Kosminsky explains the hate he received”, YouTube, 26 April 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ3f9d1l0hg ).

KOZAK, Marion. UK peace & human rights activist & mother of Labor leader Ed Miliband: "Jews for Justice for Palestinians... We oppose Israeli policies that undermine the livelihoods, human, civil and political rights of the Palestinian people”

Marion Kozak (Marion Kozak Miliband) (born 1934 as Dobra Jenta Kozak, also known as Maria Kozak) is a Polish-born Jewish Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the UK in the 1950s. In 1961 she married famous socialist scholar Professor Ralph Miliband (1924–1994) and their two sons, David Miliband and Ed Miliband, were major figures in the Labour Government. Ed Miliband defeated his brother to become the present leader of the British Labour Party. Marion Kozak is a long-standing human rights campaigner, an early activist for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and is a long-standing supporter of pro-Palestinian organisations being a signatory of the founding statements of both Jews for Justice for Palestinians (founded 2002) and Independent Jewish Voices (launched 2007) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Kozak ).

Marion Kozak was a signatory to 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.” [1, 2].

[1]. Jews for Justice for Palestinians, “Signatories”: http://jfjfp.com/?page_id=9 .

[2]. Jews for Justice for Palestinians, “About”: http://jfjfp.com/?page_id=2

KUHN, Rick: "Satisfy the aspirations of the Palestinians for freedom. Only a democratic state made up of all those now living within the borders of historic Palestine, together with the Palestinian diaspora, can achieve that goal"

Professor Rick Kuhn (an anti-racist Jewish Australian Marxian economist, political analyst and Reader (Associate Professor) at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, and a founder of Jews Against Occupation and Oppression) (2017): “There’s a fight going on inside the [pro-Zionist] Labor Party over the cosmetics of its position on Israel and Palestine. Currently, party leader Bill Shorten is sticking with the ALP’s longstanding policy [2-state solution and no recognition of a Palestinian state yet]. Whether Labor or the Coalition has been in office, Australian governments have been among the fiercest supporters of apartheid Israel since its creation. Unlike about 138 other countries, Australia has refused to recognise the Palestinian Authority [PA] as the government of a Palestinian state. Slavish backing of Israel is mainly a by-product of the Australia-US alliance, which has long benefited the ruling class here… The squabble in the Labor Party over how best to back Israel reflects growing sympathy, crucially from ordinary people rather than governments, for the Palestinians. Increased recognition of the repressive PA as a state is symbolic of this shift. But it won’t satisfy the aspirations of the Palestinians for freedom. Only a democratic state made up of all those now living within the borders of historic Palestine, together with the Palestinian diaspora, can achieve that goal” (Rick Kuhn, “Labor in a tizz over how to save an apartheid Israel”, Red Flag, 6 March 2017, page 25: https://redflag.org.au/node/5696 ).

LANG-LEVITSKY, Daniel. Cofounder of Jews against the Occupation

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].

[1]. Daniel Lang-Levitsky , "Jews confront Zionism", Monthly Review, June, 2009: http://www.monthlyreview.org/090622lang.php .

LANGSAM, David. Australian journalist: "In Australia in the 1980s, I guessed that I was part of a 5-10% minority of Jews prepared to be publicly critical of Israel"

David Langsam is an anti-racist Jewish Australian writer, broadcaster, human rights activist and peace activist.

David Langsam is an journalist) “I am now again the Zionist I once was (But the Zionist caravan has moved on)”: “I guess what I have always tried to do as a journalist is to disprove common currency lies. In 1989 the Israeli lie was that Palestinians children were only shot by the IDF when their parents pushed them forward … In Australia in the 1980s, I guessed that I was part of a 5-10% minority of Jews prepared to be publicly critical of Israel. (Today, that percentage may have crept up to 10-15%, but I believe there are far more that have become disengaged, partly because Israel does bad things and partly because of the bully-boy tactics of its Australian support groups, AIJAC, the State Zionist Council and the Anti-Defamation Commission.) In London in the late 1980s, I surveyed the British Board of Deputies for The Observer newspaper and found one third of respondents opposed Rabin’s 1987 policy of “Break their bones”. In Israel, I am not at all radical – I am mainstream Old Labor, maybe Meretz. I have not changed, Zionism has.” [1, 2].

[1]. David Langsam, “Once you see you cannot unsee” in “Beyond Tribal Loyalties. Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists”, edited by Avigail Abarbanel (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012) (pp 43 & 45).

[2]. David Langsam quoted in Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Beyond Tribal Loyalties”. Stories of anti-racist Jews”, MWC News, 18 January 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/24184-gideonpolya-beyond-tribal-loyalties.html .

LENDMAN, Stephen. Top anti-racist Jewish American writer slams ethnic cleansing and gross abuse of Palestinians

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].

Stephen Lendman on Jews against the evil of Zionism (2009): “At its core, Zionism is fundamentally racist, extremist, undemocratic, and militant:

-- in espousing Jewish supremacy, exceptionalism, and uniqueness as God's "chosen people;"

-- in relying on occupation, oppression, violence and dispossession;

-- in justifying a Jewish ethnocracy based on structural inequalities;

-- in ruling by force, not coexistence;

-- in choosing confrontation over diplomacy and the rule of law; and

-- by denying Arabs and all others the same rights as Jews.

No ideology that destructive can endure. No regional peace and reconciliation is possible until it's repudiated.” [3].

[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/ .

[3]. Stephen Lendman, “Jews against Zionism”, Rense, 7 December 2009: http://www.rense.com/general88/lnd.htm .

LERNER, Michael. Anti-racist Jewish American Rabbi: "But [for a Jew to] say, 'I don’t support the State of Israel,' and you are likely to be labeled a 'self-hating Jew' or anti-Semite, scorned and dismissed""

Rabbi Michael Lerner (anti-racist Jewish American editor of Tikkun Magazine): “If a Jew today goes into any synagogue in the U.S. or around the world and says, 'I don’t believe in God or Torah and I don’t follow the commandments,' most will still welcome you in and urge you to become involved. But say, 'I don’t support the State of Israel,' and you are likely to be labeled a 'self-hating Jew' or anti-Semite, scorned and dismissed" (David Wilson, “From Albert Einstein to Noam Chomsky: famous Jews who have opposed Israel”, Stop the War Coalition, 12 August 2014: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/1307-from-albert-einstein-to-noam-chomsky-famous-jews-who-have-opposed-israel ).

Michael Lerner (anti-racist Jewish American Rabbi) delivering a eulogy for Muhammad Ali (2016): “One of the reasons we have called upon the United States to stand up to the part of the Israeli government that is oppressing Palestinians [applause] is that we as Jews understand that our commitment is to recognize that God has created everyone in God’s image and that everyone is equally precious and that means the Palestinian people as well as all other people on the planet ”(Phil Weiss and Annie Robbins, “Michael Lerner brings down the house at Muhammad Ali funeral by standing up for Palestinians and against Netanyahu”, Mondoweiss, 11 June 2016: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/standing-palestinians-netanyahu/ ).

LEVI, Primo. Anti-racist Jewish Italian science fiction writer & Auschwitz survivor: "Everyone has their Jews. For the Israelis they are the Palestinians"

Primo Levi (famed anti-racist Jewish Italian science fiction writer, industrial chemist and Auschwitz survivor): "Everyone has their Jews. For the Israelis they are the Palestinians" (David Wilson, “From Albert Einstein to Noam Chomsky: famous Jews who have opposed Israel”, Stop the War Coalition, 12 August 2014: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/1307-from-albert-einstein-to-noam-chomsky-famous-jews-who-have-opposed-israel ).

LEVITSKY, Steven. Anti-racist Jewish American scholars Steven Levitsky (Harvard) & Glen Weyl (Chicago): "We are lifelong Zionists... we’ve chosen to boycott Israel"

Anti-racist Jewish American scholars Steven Levitsky (a professor of government at Harvard University) and Glen Weyl (an assistant professor of economics and law at the University of Chicago) (2015): “We are lifelong Zionists. Like other progressive Jews, our support for Israel has been founded on two convictions: first, that a state was necessary to protect our people from future disaster; and second, that any Jewish state would be democratic, embracing the values of universal human rights that many took as a lesson of the Holocaust. Undemocratic measures undertaken in pursuit of Israel’s survival, such as the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the denial of basic rights to Palestinians living there, were understood to be temporary. But we must face reality: The occupation has become permanent. Nearly half a century after the Six-Day War, Israel is settling into the apartheid-like regime against which many of its former leaders warned. The settler population in the West Bank has grown 30-fold, from about 12,000 in 1980 to 389,000 today. The West Bank is increasingly treated as part of Israel, with the green line demarcating the occupied territories erased from many maps. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin declared recently that control over the West Bank is “not a matter of political debate. It is a basic fact of modern Zionism.” This “basic fact” poses an ethical dilemma for American Jews: Can we continue to embrace a state that permanently denies basic rights to another people? Yet it also poses a problem from a Zionist perspective: Israel has embarked on a path that threatens its very existence… It is thus, reluctantly but resolutely, that we are refusing to travel to Israel, boycotting products produced there and calling on our universities to divest and our elected representatives to withdraw aid to Israel. Until Israel seriously engages with a peace process that either establishes a sovereign Palestinian state or grants full democratic citizenship to Palestinians living in a single state, we cannot continue to subsidize governments whose actions threaten Israel’s long-term survival” (Steven Levitsky and Glen Weyl, “We are lifelong Zionists. Here’s why we’ve chosen to boycott Israel”, Washington Post, 23 October 2015: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-zionist-case-for-boycotting-israel/2015/10/23/ac4dab80-735c-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html?utm_term=.dfeafec3b09f ).

LEVY, Gideon. Progressive Israeli journalist slams racism of an increasingly Fascist Israel

Gideon Levy is a columnist and editorial board member of the progressive Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Levy ).

Gideon Levy on an increasingly fascist Apartheid Israel (2014): "All the seeds of the incitement of the past few years, all the nationalistic, racist legislation and the incendiary propaganda, the scare campaigns and the subversion of democracy by the right-wing camp – all these have borne fruit, and that fruit is rank and rotten. The nationalist right has now sunk to a new level, with almost the whole country following in its wake. The word 'fascism', which I try to use as little as possible, finally has its deserved place in the Israeli political discourse" [1].

[1]. Gideon Levy quoted in Mike Carlton, “Israel’s rank and rotten fruit is being called fascism”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 July 2014: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/israels-rank-and-rotten-fruit-is-being-called-fascism-20140724-zwd2t.html .

LEVY, Lesley. Canadian peace activist: "“Not in my name!” I cannot remain informed of what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people and at the same time continue to be a silent bystander"

Lesley Levy is an anti-racist Jewish Canadian human rights and peace activist.

Lesley Levy on “Not in my name” (2012): “I have been actively involved in the Palestinian rights, anti-occupation movement for the past nine years … When mainstream Jews insist that Zionism and Judaism are synonymous, I cannot help as a Jew but to feel tarred with the same brush. There is a yearning to cry out, “Not in my name!” I cannot remain informed of what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people and at the same time continue to be a silent bystander… My sense of outrage, guilt , and shame about the treatment of Palestinians clearly demonstrates that I do identify strongly as a Jew. I can disagree with the Zionist ideology and the policies of the Styate if Israel and still be proud of my Jewish heritage. One advantage of being in my sixties is that I have much less to lose by speaking out. I no longer worry about what others think, or whether it will ruin my chances of getting a job. I have earned the courage of my convictions.” [1, 2].

[1]. Lesley Levy, “The courage of my convictions”: in “Beyond Tribal Loyalties. Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists”, edited by Avigail Abarbanel (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012) (pp 87-88 & 94).

[2]. Lesley Levy quoted in Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Beyond Tribal Loyalties”. Stories of anti-racist Jews”, MWC News, 18 January 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/24184-gideonpolya-beyond-tribal-loyalties.html .

LINDELL, Geoffrey. Australian Law professor denounces and renounces the racist Zionist "law of return" that "is in fact a form of racist privilege that abets the colonial oppression of the Palestinians"

G. J. Lindell is an Australian barrister and solicitor and an honorary protfessor in the law faculties of both the University of Adelaide and the University of Melbourne (http://www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/researcher/person364.html and http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/03/03/prominent-australian-jews-including-peter-singer-reject-the-israeli-right-of-return/ ).

Professor Geoffrey Lindell as a signatory on the "Petition Against the Right of Return to Israel on Behalf of Australian Jews” (March 2010): “We are Jews from Australia, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel’s “law of return.” While this law may seem intended to enable a Jewish homeland, we submit that it is in fact a form of racist privilege that abets the colonial oppression of the Palestinians.

Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land—a right recognized and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish, thereby potentially taking the place of Palestinians who would dearly love to return to their ancestral lands.

We renounce this “right” to “return” offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may “return” to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.’ [1].

[1]. Antony Loewenstein, "Prominent Australian Jews reject the Israeli "right of return", Media release, 3 March 2010:

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/03/03/prominent-australian-jews-including-peter-singer-reject-the-israeli-right-of-return/.

LOEWENSTEIN, Antony. Slams Zionist use of “anti-Semite” slur and demands honest debate on Israel and Palestine

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. “Israel will accept no authority in the Palestinian territories that it does not ultimately control”

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 OxfordUniversity'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 diff