Jewish Voices In Support Of Occupied Palestine

As Israel바카라�s War on Gaza intensified and the Western leaders and governments came in open support of what they called 바카라�Israel바카라�s right to defence바카라�, hundreds of Jews across the world raised their voices under the slogan of 바카라�Not In Our Name바카라�.

Take the example of Dr Gabor Mate, a survivor of the Holocaust. When he was asked by Piers Morgan on his show about Israel바카라�s right to defend itself, he responded by saying that most Israelis are not aware of the history of what Palestinians have suffered. 바카라�They don바카라�t know in 1948 there were multiple massacres of large numbers of people by Israeli forces.바카라�

Announcing a hunger strike for a permanent ceasefire, actress Cynthia Nixon said, 바카라�Never again means never again for everyone. As the mother of Jewish children, whose grandparents survived the holocaust.바카라�

While Israeli historian Prof. Ilan Pappé was seen on almost all TV channels defending Palestine, others like Miko Peled, author of books like 바카라�The General바카라�s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine바카라�, were also on the different news programmes putting forward the case for Palestine. Pappé said, 바카라�The Palestinian National Movement is not a movement of terrorism. It바카라�s an anti-colonialist movement that has not stopped fighting.바카라�

Peled tweeted: 바카라�Hostages vs terrorists is how the world is describing the exchange taking place now in Gaza. Not a word about the immense suffering of Palestinian families, mothers whose sons and daughters are held and tortured for years by Israeli authorities.바카라�

Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy is one of the prominent voices within Israel asking for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory. He went further in one of his interviews and said in the last one and a half months, the Israeli society has shifted even more towards racism.

바카라�It (the peace) will not come from Israeli society. Israelis will not wake up one morning and say, 바카라�The occupation is too cruel, apartheid (racist regime) is illegal, let바카라�s put an end to this,바카라�바카라� said Levy. 

In his latest article in Haaretz, Levy wrote, 바카라�A bereaved father, whose eight-year-old son was shot dead by soldiers, stood this week at the entrance to his home at the border of the Jenin refugee camp and stated the simple truth: 바카라�These children will never forgive the soldiers. You바카라�re raising another generation of resistance. Now our children want Israeli children to be killed too.바카라�

바카라�An unbridled and terribly cruel attack against Gaza creates hatred of Israel at levels we바카라�ve never seen before, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the Palestinian diaspora, in the Arab world and everywhere in the world where people are seeing what the Israelis don바카라�t see and don바카라�t want to see. And what바카라�s even more terrible is this hatred will be justified. Nothing will be more justified.바카라�

In an interview with an Indian news channel on October 19, Levy told the Indian anchor who told him that many in Israel and India would describe him as anti-national as he calls Gaza 바카라�cage바카라� and 바카라�open prison바카라�: 바카라�How else you can define Gaza? There is no other way to define Gaza than a cage. It is closed from all directions바카라� Nobody can come in, nobody can leave without permission of Israel바카라�How long do you think human beings live like this.바카라�

These are not isolated voices.

Dr Gabor Mate said: 바카라�Look, I used to be Zionist. I am a Holocaust survivor and Zionism was important for me as a salvation for Jewish people until I found out that the state was founded based on expatriation, the expulsion, and multiple massacres of the local population and that is not historically controversial. So I am taking a longer view on this. I am saying that the present situation cannot be understood without looking at the historical context.바카라�  

Mote went on to say there was no co-existence, not even fragile co-existence. 

바카라�There was oppression, periodic massacres, land occupation, in the West Bank continuous expulsion of population from their homes. I visited the occupied territories three times now, the first time during the first Intifada period, I cried every day at what I saw. So this cannot go on. 바카라�how about returning the land that has been stolen from Palestinians, I am not talking about the state of Israel, I am not talking about 1948, I am talking about 1967 and what is going on right now,바카라� said Mote.

Amanda Gelender, who is a writer, poet, and also calls herself Jewish queer and anti-Zionist wrote: 바카라�I generally like to stay in my own lane, but where is the mass movement of Christians resisting Zionism and Israel바카라�s genocide? Jewish people play a specific role in upholding Israel바카라�s settler colony, but the majority of Zionists globally are Christian.바카라�

In her piece titled 바카라�Kaddish for the Soul of Judaism: Genocide in Palestine바카라�, she wrote, 바카라�As I write this, the wheels of genocide are turning. As I write this, I am preparing for Shabbat바카라�When I see Gaza, I see my own people languishing in concentration camps. I see a world that has turned its back on us, letting us be slaughtered en masse because we aren바카라�t quite human enough. I am having a nightmare, can you wake me up? I바카라�m dreaming that the Star of David is not sewn onto our clothes but affixed to the genocidal soldiers who bomb hospitals, schools, and churches with no regard for life. Who round up entire communities and shoot kids dead in the street.

바카라�I remember there was talk of Tikkun Olam and Tzedakah바카라�바카라�바카라�is our humanity buried somewhere under the rubble? Is anyone still breathing under there? I scour bombed remnants of residential buildings for shreds of Judaism바카라�s soul. I thought it was still here. I thought so many things that evaporated in the dust of an air strike.

바카라�We built institutions and monuments to 바카라�never forget바카라� but look at us now. It seems we left our humanity outside the door of the holocaust memorial museum. Jews are a diasporic miracle trapped in a nation-state of lies. Israel has sacrificed our humanity at the altar of nationalism.

바카라�I don't condemn the resistance for hitting back at an occupying force that annexed their land and murders tens of thousands of civilians cyclically. From Warsaw to Gaza blame the genocidal racist state not the victims of it for fighting back.바카라�

Jewish Voice for Peace, an NGO that works for 바카라�Palestinian liberation and Judaism beyond Zionism바카라� pleaded for a ceasefire and organised protests for the ceasefire. Jewish Currents, a magazine founded in 1946 committed to the 바카라�rich tradition of thought, activism, and culture of the Jewish left바카라�, advocated for Palestine. On November 20, the magazine published a poem by poet and essayist Mosab Abu Toha after he was arrested in Gaza while fleeing with his family:

Palestinian Painter바카라�
Two birds바카라�leave their nest,바카라�singing a song, perhaps바카라�
for the artist working바카라�
in what used to be바카라�
a well-kept old garden.

He바카라�s painting a new house,바카라�
even a new garden.바카라�Without shrapnel,바카라�
without twisted metal beams,바카라�
without broken bricks and loose바카라�
electrical wires.
But then I see him hesitate,바카라�looking at a headless doll바카라�
lying in the rubble.

I바카라�m wondering if he바카라�ll paint it바카라�
as part of the new house and the바카라�resurrected garden.바카라�
It might destroy바카라�
its harmony.바카라�It might disturb바카라�
visitors from abroad.