We are Jews living in the United States, living on stolen indigenous lands, trying to find ways to resist settler-colonialism. We must face and confront this U.S. history and brutality at home. We are also angered beyond words and full of grief by what the state of Israel has done and is currently doing to Palestinians, as whole families are being decimated in Gaza.

For too long Israel has had impunity in its actions. This must stop, NOW. We condemn the Israeli aerial attacks and indiscriminate killing and destruction being rained on the people of Gaza; the ongoing Israeli settler violence throughout the West Bank; Israeli military and police attacks on Muslim worshipers praying at Al Aqsa; the forced expulsion of Palestinian families and stealing of their homes in Sheikh Jarrah; the Israeli Jewish fascist mobs and lynching of Palestinians in Lod, in Netanya, in Haifa, in Bat Yam. This is not new, and is the central issue.Though we are also concerned for our friends and family in Israel, we cannot take our focus away from the fact that Palestinians have been living under the structural violence of occupation for over 50 years without letup.

The current  international exposure to the massive state violence and brutality in Sheikh Jarrah and the military strikes on Gaza show how unconscionably Israel is acting. One has to look at the historical context and the Israeli government's actions even over the last 10+ years to see what produced the Israeli right-wing fascist mobs and the connection to Israeli Jewish settler impunity in violence against Palestinians.

We reject attempts to silence us by Jewish communities at home— communities that are silent, complicit, or apologetic about Israel's actions. It is not antisemitic to say these things. It is ingrained in Jewish culture to question and learn in order to act justly, with compassion and empathy. There is nothing Jewish about settler colonialism or about what Israel has been doing or perpetuating. What we see happening in Palestine today is part of a long history of European colonialism, and yet specific to the ongoing Palestinian Nabka (the catastrophe) by Israel.  We are also not going to try to create a superficial "balance" out of a situation that has no balance of power, or talk about an artificial "two-sides," nor will we ever celebrate harmful acts of violence by anyone. From decades of Palestinians being targeted and martyred, an immense grief and trauma has been embedded in Palestinian life that remains constant. There is no justification for the past or current loss of life at the hand of the Israeli military over an occupied state, nor the targeting of civilian homes and hospitals, further removing access to lifesaving care and services in the siege of Gaza this May.

We have listened to Palestinians, we have read their descriptions and their analysis, we see them posting their realities, we have learned from them, and many of us have spent time in Palestine witnessing the brutality of Israeli military occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. More [Jewish] people need to be listening and learning from Palestinians themselves. More [Jewish] people must cultivate empathy and understanding for kinds of injustices that have been and continue to be perpetrated.

We see the inherent value and beauty in Palestinian lives, cultures, and communities, as we do in all of humanity.  We rise in solidarity with Palestinian resistance to settler colonialism and the systems of oppression.

We see the connections between settler colonialism in the U.S and in Palestine, we see the ways that the governments support each other, the way the two countries work together. We demand a halt to the $3.8 billion in military aid annually given to Israel by US taxpayers. his aid breaks U.S. law and violates Palestinian human rights.

The U.S. has far too long given a green light to Israel in the building and expansion of Israeli settlements throughout Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem, keeping an inhumane siege on Gaza for more than a decade, aerial bombardment of the Gaza strip, military detention including child detention, the demolition of Palestinians houses and neighborhoods, and Israeli military occupation in all of its forms. We say strongly that we actively oppose colonialism wherever it appears. We say that Israel does not offer safety for Jews if it does not offer safety for Palestinians. Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is not what will bring a secure Jewish future. Decolonization, building new futures together, is the only way forward.

We call on the media in the U.S. to accurately report what is going on. There can be no more discussion of ‘clashes’, of ‘conflict’, of ‘two sides’. We need our media to use plain language to describe it as it is: occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism, war crimes. Media coverage needs to recognize the outrageous imbalance of power, the fact that Israel is an occupier, and Palestine is occupied.

We call on everyone to take action nationally and locally. What does this look like?

- Listen to Palestinians, learn from them, be led by their voices. Palestinians are writing, tweeting and sharing information daily. Share their words. Post, tweet, write, and call.

- Write and call President Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to demand the following:
Stop vetoing UN Security Council cease-fire resolutions
End military aid to Israel
Sanction Israel until it complies with international law: end the siege of Gaza, end the illegal occupation of Palestine, end the illegal apartheid system in Israel, stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, recognize the rights of Palestinian refugees.

- Call your representative to support House Joint Resolution to block Biden's proposed sale of $735 million in U.S. weapons to Israel

-Write to your Representative and demand that they support Representative Betty McCollum’s bill, H.R. 2590, the “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act” which is the most comprehensive U.S. legislative initiative to promote Palestinian rights.
 
-Write to your media outlets, tell them to properly cover what Israel is doing, tell them to interview Palestinians in order to accurately describe what is occurring.

-Divest from military corporations that participate in and profit from Israeli war crimes, Israeli apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians.

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We the undersigned U.S. Jews (and supporters), wholeheartedly sign this statement, and commit ourselves to the actions above in pursuit of justice.


*(inspired by the Jewish Australians standing in solidarity with Palestine statement)

ilise cohen
Daniel Rice
Gus Kaufman
Connie Sosnoff
Mary Lucchese
Tori Langemoore
Allison Glass
Tovah J. Melaver
Vinh Vu
Glory Kilanko
Beth-Ann Buitekant
Barrett Smith
Alta Schwartz
Anthony Romano
Kathryn Hall
Sam Jacobs
Barry Heath
Joanna Gerber
Judith B Greenberg
Ruby-Beth Buitekant
Cylantra Dees
Krista Brewer
Declan Keogh
Gary Flack
Audrey McNamara
Rand Warren Aronov
Rachel Lederman
Masarrat Husain
Durreshawar zoberi
Aurora Levins Morales
Barbara Joye
Dimitri Shreckengost
Renee Kocsis
Michael Cruz
Free Solomon Polazzo
Stephanie Davis
Betsy Rivard
Allison Glass
Steven Bell
Henry Kahn
Gabbie Perez
Sara Gregory
Amanda Wessel
Lois wessel
Meryl Franco
Hadar Ben-Simon
Eva Ackerman
Rebecca Wessel
Anya Bernstein
Nicole Stoecker
Gabriel Eisen
Rebecca Snegg
Becky Albertalli
David Small
Nazish Murshedi
Syed Murshedi
May Ye
Rachel Epstein
Elizabeth Cohen
David Schlifka