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affiliate of canpalnet.ca CANADA-PALESTINE SUPPORT NETWORK
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Open Letter of International Jewish Opposition Committees and Individuals in Solidarity with the Palestinian People September 2003 On this occasion of the third year of the current Intifada we wish to address ourselves to the Palestinian People as members of the Jewish communities and as individuals from around the world. We declare that Jewish people are not represented by the State of Israel. Not even a majority of Jewish people have wanted to live in the Israeli State. Of those living in North America only 22 percent of American Jews today consider themselves to be Zionists.* When asked about Israel ending its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a majority of American Jews, 58.5 percent, said they support an end to the occupation. The majority of Jewish-Americans, 82 percent, supported the idea of a Palestinian state. ** We have organized ourselves in 150 cities throughout the world as of the year 2001 to speak out against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and also to educate the general public as well the various Jewish communities on this illegal seizure of land. This occupation is maintained by the persecution of the Palestinian people and has only resulted in a decreased level of security for Palestinians in the first instance as well as for Jewish citizens of Israel. We know that the Jewish citizens of the State of Israel cannot demand the recognition of a National identity for themselves without recognizing that the Palestinians also have the right to a National identity and self-determination. Excluding the Palestinians from collective human rights both as a People and as individuals negates the social and political rights of all people, including Jewish people. We know that the occupation of the 1967 Palestinian territories is the continuation of the militarized campaign to exclude and 'ethnically cleanse' the Palestinian people from their lands, beginning in the Palestinian Nakba of 1948. When it has not been possible to completely displace the Palestinians to become external refugees, a terrible separation has been built by the apartheid Government of the State of Israel aiming to isolate one people from the other. In addition to the devastating effects of the Israeli apartheid system on the Palestinian people living under occupation since 1967, we see this Israeli Apartheid system as holding the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel as a captive nation -- ghettoized by institutional racism. The disrespect for Palestinian political, civil, social and economic existence extends to each family; all those who have relations are no longer even able to see them because they do not have a permit to travel to or from the West Bank/Gaza Strip, whether from within the State of Israel or from without. This has been true for the Palestinian refugees of 1948, most of whom live within a day's travel of the Israel controlled lands but are barred from returning to their personal properties. This is why the right to return is here being acknowledged as essential to the just settlement of Palestinian lands and homes and we know that it is possible, as the work of Dr. Salman Abu Sitta convincingly demonstrates. Concerns expressed over majority and minority status are ill-founded; we are confident that both peoples will learn to live together in a democratic secular Palestine/Israel in a democratic secular world. Together as Jewish dissidents the world over, we are able to negate the claims of the Israeli State to represent the Jewish People as a whole by denying that it represents ourselves, as individuals and as representatives of Jewish civil society organizations. The Zionist movement has no right to use our name to justify its illegal occupation. Together with the Palestinian people we will break out of the well worn pathways that are set up for hatred to continue. Do not despair for the time when your liberation will be respected. You are not a defeated people and you need not resort to seeking hope in retribution for its own sake. Together with the Palestinians, who refuse the rule of the State of Israel, we also refuse to allow the Zionist State to represent ourselves and the Jewish communities as a whole. In this way we will make our contribution to the alleviation of the horrendous conditions of Palestinian existence and to the liberation of the Palestinian Arab people from political Zionist apartheid. Both in our civil societies and inside the Jewish communities themselves, world-wide, we are active to make the Palestinian voice heard. Together we will oppose the oppression of Palestinians that is carried out every minute at every check-point. We say; no more to lies, no more to occupation, no more to hatreds. In this way we shall build freedom with our solidarity. We think that the dream of the two people living in harmony is realisable. We will never lose the determination to make from the dream a day-to-day reality. ----------------- * Shammai Engelmayer, 'Getting to the roots of parade attack: It all comes down to money,' Jewish Sentinel, 5 / 26 /1995: "A recent American Jewish Committee study found that only 22 percent of American Jews today consider themselves to be Zionists, and that 32 percent feel distant from Israel." The 4 / 19 / 2002 Jewish
Forward of New York said that "Participation declined by nearly 20,000
from the last election in 1997 [for delegates to the WZO (World
Zionist Congress)], with only 90,000 Jews casting their votes this year."
** Palestine Chronicle! Tuesday, 5th August 2003 Is Anybody Listening to Arab-American
and Jewish-American Opinions?
Poll jointly conducted by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and Americans for Peace Now (APN). 'The majority of Jewish-Americans, 82 percent, supported the idea of Palestinian state.' 'When asked about Israel ending its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a majority of American Jews, 58.5 percent, said they support an end to the occupation; 29.1 percent said they oppose ending it.' ---------------------------------------------------------------- This Open Letter will be presented toThe Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy . MIFTAH, Ramallah, Palestine Dr. Uri Davis, Sakhnin, uridavis@actcom.co.il
David Kalant, Montréal, Québec,
Canada
Bruce Katz
Mark Krantz,
Dr. Clement Leibovitz, Physicist and
historian
Mike Marqusee, London, UK Roland Rance, Secretary, Waltham Forest
Trades Union Council;
emma rosenthal, Los Angeles, California
Robert Silverman, Jewish Alliance Against
the Occupation (Montréal),
Dr Philip Ward, Sheffield, UK Abraham Weizfeld B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D. cand., Montréal, saalaha@cam.org Note: organizations listed for identification purposes Signers should send their message to:
Please include;
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