Alternative Jewish Voices Stand Up With Palestinians Because 'never Again' Is Today

Alternative Jewish Voices stand up with Palestinians because 'never again' is today We stand up with Palestinians because never again is right now.

We stand up because it is right. We unify our religion and our principles when we stand beside the oppressed and those in harm’s way.

Why do we march? We find it important be visible when we make this statement. We who love our Jewishness can help to embody the fact that loving Palestinians in their equal humanity is not anti-Jewish. Supporting Palestinians in pursuit of their political rights is thoroughly in keeping with the activist, social justice vein of Jewishness. As Avraham Joshua Heschel so beautifully said of marching for civil rights for Black Americans in his day; when we march for Palestinian freedom today, we are praying with our feet.

Zionism is nationalism, and the bombardment of Gaza is the violence of ethnic nationalism – not the Jewish religion. We find no Jewish compulsion to meekly nod and turn away.

75 years of normalised oppression, 17 years of an illegal blockade, and the escalating violence driven by Israel’s government led to this – but no provocation excuses Hamas’s abuse and murder of Israeli civilians. The right to armed resistance is not unlimited.

Hamas’s actions may have triggered but do not justify or excuse Israel’s gross and ongoing violations. What we see unfolding in Gaza is not self-defence. It is the overwhelming targeting of defenceless civilians and the structures of their life, the forcible transfer of populations, their collective deprivation of the necessities of life, and the pointless brutalising of 2.3 million people.

Stop it, stop them now. We are disgusted by our government’s indifference, and by the media’s unwillingness to more clearly broadcast the voices of Palestinians and the fact of public solidarity with Gaza.

We seek the freedom of all the captives – those held by Hamas, those Palestinian civilians held in Israeli military jails and every Gazan who is being held captive behind that loathsome wall.

We plead for a ceasefire, for the supply of humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza. Let those who have acted illegally be brought to the international courts.

That is half the job. The other half is justice. Address the cause. Require the change. These catastrophic days reiterate that no one will be safe until Palestinians are free and self-determining.

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