Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine: A Look at the Activities of Independent Jewish Voices and the BDS Movement: In Pakistan it is often thought that the Jews community the world over supports the policies of the Israeli government, including the often-brutal oppression of Palestinians. but that, in fact, is not the case.
Organizations amplifying Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine often draw from deep traditions of Jewish social justice.
Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine: Diverse Jewish Perspectives
There are large segments of the Jewish public that do not support the actions of the Israeli state including a number of Jewish organisations that stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The rise of Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine reflects a broader shift in global Jewish opinion.
In order to learn more about the plurality of views on Israel-Palestine within the Jewish community, Soch spoke to Aaron Lakoff, an organisation that advocates for a properly negotiated peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people and opposes any attempt by the Israeli government to impose its own solution on Palestinians.
About the Organization
Independent Jewish Voices is a national network here in Canada of Jewish people who are very much grounded in Jewish traditions of anti-racist work, of the Jewish concept of Tikkun olam, which means to mend the world.
The way that that work translates for us is very much in terms of doing peace and justice work in Israel-Palestine. And so, we firmly stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their liberation struggle.
Historical Background
We’ve been in existence since 2008, when we were formed. In 2009, one year after Independent Jewish Voices came together, we became the first national Jewish organization, not only in Canada but the first national Jewish organization in the world to endorse the Palestinian led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS movement against Israeli apartheid.
For us, safety and freedom for Jewish people must also involve safety and freedom for Palestinians and for all other people. Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine reject the notion that criticism of Israel equates to antisemitism.
Understanding the BDS Movement
BDS or Boycott Divestment and Sanctions is a movement that was launched in 2005 by a coalition of roughly 170 different Palestinian civil society organizations, throughout historic Palestine in the occupied territories and in the Palestinian diaspora as well.
Purpose of BDS
What BDS was, was a call to the world to engage in a nonviolent campaign of solidarity with Palestinians to finally put an end to Israeli apartheid and to simply call for full equality for all people of the region.
Effectiveness of the Campaign
It’s a brilliant campaign because it lays out actions that people can take at different levels of civil and political society. Events highlighting Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine are being organized across North America and Europe.
So, boycotts are consumer actions that any of us can take around the world to choose to not buy Israeli products or products made in illegal Israeli settlements.
Divestments are a thing that can be taken on more of an institutional level. So when people’s trade unions or professional associations cut institutional ties with Israeli apartheid.
Sanctions Approach
And then sanctions are things that we push for at a governmental level to try to isolate Israel at the international level and to cut off diplomatic relations.
And I’m very happy to say that in Canada right now, we’ve seen some incredible strides forward in the last few weeks with regards to sanctions.
We had the leader of the NDP (the New Democratic Party), which is Canada’s more left-leaning party, Jagmeet Singh, he called for an end for Canadian arm sales to Israel.
Growing Parliamentary Support
And we’re seeing more and more members of parliament in Canada from a range of political parties, actually start to take up this call for sanctions.
I think that question would even be up for debate, amongst members of IJV. What we agree on unequivocally are the central demands of the BDS (the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement).
Right of Return
we absolutely feel that the right of return for Palestinian refugees is a must. Palestinians have been clear since 1948, since the beginning of the Nakba, that there will be no just solution without the right of return for Palestinians who have been displaced from their homelands.
Definition of Nakba
Nakba is an Arabic word; Palestinians refer to it. It means “the catastrophe”. And so, some Palestinians call the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 the Nakba.
Colonization Process
And really very much, in a way, it is like the beginning of the current phase of colonization that we’re seeing in Palestine with displacement, with people being removed from their homes and from their ancestral lands, entire villages quite literally being wiped off the map.
In 1948 estimates range between three quarters of a million and one million people who were displaced from their homes. And, like I said, just entire villages wiped off the map.
Legal Appropriation
And then you had just a few years later, Jewish Israelis coming in and implementing the laws such as the Absentee Property Act, where they could, legally under Israeli law, steal those homes that were once the homes of Palestinians and acquire them as Israeli property.
Systemic Discrimination
You started to see the beginning of legal structures and legal mechanisms that not only displaced Palestinians, but in a sense started to entrench the apartheid systems that we’re seeing right now. The military occupation of the West Bank needs to end. The Gaza ghetto needs to be free. Gaza absolutely must be free.
Blockade Duration
It’s absolutely abhorrent to think that the Gaza strip has been under one of the tightest embargoes, one of the tightest lockdowns, now going on almost 15 years.
It’s been [embargoed] since 2007. And then of course, it’s really important to also look at the situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel who still don’t live under full equality with full citizenship and civil rights.
Vision for Equality
So, we absolutely believe that any kind of a just solution in Israel-Palestine must involve full equality for all Palestinian citizens of Israel. So, when I think about a just peace, you know, those are some of the different pieces of what that just peace would look like.
Jerusalem’s Status
Of course, any kind of a just solution has to involve Jerusalem being a shared capital for all people. We have to reject this very far right Zionist, far right Israeli, move to try to claim all of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided eternal capital.
Understanding Zionism
Zionism in its current form, if we’re talking about modern political Zionism, at its core is a movement for a Jewish homeland in Israel-Palestine; a movement for Jewish self-determination.
Extremist Zionism
We have the more extreme, far-right—and I would even say bordering on fascist—forms of Zionism that are embodied in movements like the Kahanist movement and other Israeli far right groups who we’ve seen organizing in Jerusalem in recent weeks, with their followers marching through the streets, chanting “death to Arabs”.
Varieties of Zionism
We have other manifestations of Zionism that are more liberal forms of Zionism, ones that do want to see a two-state solution. Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine emphasize the importance of solidarity rooted in shared humanity.
Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine: Cultural Zionism
You have cultural Zionism, for example, which doesn’t necessarily pronounce itself on a one state versus a two-state solution. you can read more about Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine here. you can watch about Jewish Voices in Support of Palestine: