Jews for Justice for Palestinians – two interventions

JVL Introduction

Over recent weeks Jews for Justice for Palestinians has been running an ad in the Independent making clear that not all Jews support Israel in the current conflict. That ad was seen by around half-a-million readers.

The number of people reported killed was updated from time to time in line with the rising death toll.

Clicking on the ad (see left) takes you to the JJP website where a brief explanation and model letter to your MP appears (see below).

If you haven’t sent this letter there is still time to do so! Click here.

This followed an earlier attempt to place a paid advertisement in the Observer. Following extensive negotiations about price, placement etc and submitting an agreed text, JJP received the following  reply: “[U]nfortunately, the Ad Approval team have decided that this is not suitable for an advertisement.” There was no elaboration…

JJP was also involved in writing to the European Union about the situation early on in the war on Gaza. It did so as part of European Jews for Just Peace, of which it is a founder member. The letter was addressed to Dr. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commissionand Michael Mann, Head of Division (MENA.2), EEAS. You can download that letter here as well as a note about EJJP.

RK

Demand a permanent ceasefire and stop arming Israel

Keep up the pressure on MPs to call for a permanent ceasefire, for the UK to stop arming Israel and restore UNRWA funding for Palestinians, and to end the occupation.

Send an email today – it only takes a couple of minutes, but it makes a big difference.

Israel’s bombardment has now killed more than 31,000 Palestinians – 13,000 of whom are children. More than 75% of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed and 85% of the population has been displaced. Nowhere in Gaza is safe. Israel bombs the places it told Palestinians to flee to. United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights have warned of an impending genocide. Israeli media reports that Israel is obstructing humanitarian aid…. Yet our government won’t vote for a ceasefire in the Security Council.

Take action to stop this – write to your MP today, even if you’ve already written before.

After enter your postcode to search for your MP, the following draft email appears. It can be modified or simply sent on as is with a click

Dear MP,

I am writing to you as a constituent, horrified by Israel’s ongoing attack on the people of Gaza.

Israel was responding to the massive attack by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Israel on October 7th. More than 1,100 people were slaughtered, mostly civilians. That was a war crime and a crime against humanity.

However, Israel’s response of ferocious collective punishment, continuing for five months, goes well beyond a state’s legitimate duty to protect its citizens. It flouts the principles of proportionality and discrimination central to the protection of civilians in times of war and is therefore also a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Holocaust scholars are warning of a genocide in Gaza. The recent International Court of Justice ruling has given the same warning and has ordered Israel to desist from all practices that could be genocidal. On 16 January 2024, eight United Nations Special Rappoprteurs on Human Rights said in their report “Our alarm for the unfolding genocide…”

More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, three times the number killed in all six previous Israeli offensives. 1.9 million people have been displaced. The deliberate destruction of hospitals, shelter, sanitation, clean water and food supplies is causing a public health catastrophe.

António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, spoke truth to the Security Council on 24 October. He said “the deadly assault by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum… the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation…”

That is the issue underlying the Hamas attack and the violence of the last 56 years.

• There are now some 700,000 Israeli settlers in 270 settlements and outposts in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. All are illegal under international law.
• The settlement population has been increasing by 20,000 a year.
• Settlers live under Israeli civil law while 2.9m Palestinians live under punitive military law.
• One million Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since 1967, many without trial.
• Over 50,000 Palestinian homes had been demolished or destroyed by bombing before October 7th.
• Gaza has been blockaded since 2007. Under international law it is still occupied.

Israel is now addicted to occupation and settlement. Without substantial economic and diplomatic pressure from the international community, it will never change. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Our government has been complicit in Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza.

• The Israeli arms company, Elbit Systems, has several factories in the UK. They make military drones, engines and other parts. Three British companies- BAE Systems, Eaton Mission Systems and L3Harris – make parts for the F35 Stealth fighters used by Israel in Gaza. Our government has continued granting licenses to export this military equipment to Israel during the bombardment of Gaza.
• The UK, along with the United States and several other countries, has suspended funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides desperately needed food, shelter and medicine to the Palestinians in Gaza. That was in response to unproved Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack, despite those employees making up less than one-tenth of one percent of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza.

We call on you to demand that our government:

• calls for a permanent ceasefire
• stops arming Israel
• reinstates UNRWA funding
• and works with other countries to demand that Israel ends the occupation and allows the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination

Thank you for your support,