Fri 7 Jun 2024
International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine
JVL (Jewish Voice for Labour) introduction
As we prepare for another national UK demonstration in the wake of a deadly Israeli strike on Palestinians sheltering in an UNRWA school in Gaza, pro-Palestinian Jews from 16 countries around the world are gathering for their first ever international congress in London on June 8/9.
In a press release, which we publish below, the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine says its 21 member organisations “stand in strong opposition to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and are active participants in global organising demanding a cease-fire now and full justice and dignity for the Palestinian people.”
On Saturday they will be joining the Jewish Bloc which has become a major feature of the UK protest movement over the past eight months.
Antony Lerman, author of Whatever Happened to Antisemitism: Redefinition and Myth of the ‘Collective Jew’, says:
“Around the world progressive Jewish groups have taken strong stands against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, staging eye-catching public protests. The gathering of representatives of many of those groups in London from 8-9 June aimed at maximising impact through closer international cooperation is a natural and significant initiative spearheaded by the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine (IJCJP). It constitutes a major challenge to Jewish establishment bodies giving carte blanche to Israel to continue flouting international law.”
NWI
Pro-Palestinian Jewish Groups from 16 Countries Hold First Ever International Congress in London
WHAT: After almost four years of meeting monthly on-line, leaders and long-time organisers representing 21 Jewish groups from 16 countries across the globe supporting justice for the Palestinian people are meeting in person in London for the first ever congress of the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine (IJCJP).
Participants will also be joining the Jewish Bloc on the National Demonstration for Gaza in London on Saturday June 8, expressing our conviction that justice for the Palestinian people is a precondition for justice for us all.
WHEN: June 8th – 9th, 2024
WHY: While Israel claims to speak for the Jewish people, growing numbers of Jews around the world are declaring that Israel does not speak in our name. Our organisations are partners in the global movement for Palestinian justice. We have come together to learn from one another and maximise the impact of our work. We stand in strong opposition to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and are active participants in global organising demanding a cease-fire now and full justice and dignity for the Palestinian people.
WHO: Social justice organisers, educators, writers, and others representing Jewish groups from 16 countries across the globe: New Zealand, Belgium, France, Israel, United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, UK, Germany, Catalonia and Netherlands. (See below the full list of organisations and details of our spokespeople.)
“Around the world progressive Jewish groups have taken strong stands against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, staging eye-catching public protests. The gathering of representatives of many of those groups in London from 8-9 June aimed at maximising impact through closer international cooperation is a natural and significant initiative spearheaded by the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine (IJCJP). It constitutes a major challenge to Jewish establishment bodies giving carte blanche to Israel to continue flouting international law.”
Antony Lerman, author, Whatever Happened to Antisemitism: Redefinition and Myth of the ‘Collective Jew’, former Director, Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
—MEDIA PHOTO/INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES—
Friday evening, June 7
Participants will join a Shabbat protest at 6pm at the German Embassy, 23,Belgrave Square, SW1X 8PZ, organised by the Black Jewish Alliance
Saturday protest, June 8
- Attendees will join the Jewish Bloc assembling at 12.15 pm (tbc) in Bloomsbury Square Gardens, WC1A 2NS (the Charles James Fox statue) to take part in the National Demonstration for Gaza.
- Wieland Hoban from Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (Germany) will represent the Bloc and the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine as a platform speaker at the rally in Whitehall. Estimated time 2.30 pm (tbc)
QUOTES
Marilyn Garson, Alternative Jewish Voices, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
“I made this trip to represent AJV because we see genocide being done in our names. We came to throw our weight on the side of life, peace and justice. We will not let our friends – our world – be harmed without making our voices heard. Jewish people are not endangered by protest; all people are endangered by silence in the face of genocide.
IJCJP has let us learn from worldwide experience, while we brought the wisdom of small communities. This conference is very bittersweet. We’ll finally meet in person, but every one of us is heartbroken. It will be quite a mix of emotion and purpose.”
Stefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace, United States
“As we witness the daily horrifying devastation of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, we know that groups and communities across the globe are organizing and protesting–with tremendous power and deep conviction–in solidarity with Palestinians. As a US based organization, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is proud to join Jewish groups from 16 countries across the globe this week in London to strengthen and deepen our work as a collective Jewish voice outraged by Israel’s actions and standing strong with Palestine. As partners in the movement for Palestinian justice, we say loud and clear, ‘Not in our Name’ and ‘Never again means never again for anyone.’”
Wieland Hoban, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East/Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, Germany
“As the unprecedented horror in Palestine continues to unfold, the global solidarity movement has reached an equally unprecedented intensity. This activism is more important than it’s ever been, and that context makes it especially timely for a group that has existed in a digital diaspora for four years to finally meet in person. While the possibilities for online communication and coordination have enabled countless actions that would have been impossible not so long ago, gathering in one place is always a different experience that stimulates different forms of exchange and creativity, and these are more urgently needed than ever.
The situation for Palestine solidarity activists, Jewish and otherwise, is different in each country, and in Germany the movement is faced with particularly repressive methods by the state as well as hostility in the political, cultural and academic mainstream. This makes it especially important to have allies, and it also puts German-based groups like Jüdische Stimme in a position to give other activists information that may help them to deal with their own challenges.”
Sheryl Nestel, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada
“This gathering is enormously significant. IJCJP represents the flourishing Jewish opposition to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. We are challenging the moral certainty of those legacy Jewish organizations whose policies and utterances represent unmistakable complicity with Israel’s actions. We call on our fellow Jews around the world to courageously break ranks, embrace Jewish traditions of social justice, and stand up for Palestinian human rights.”
Leah Levane, Jewish Voice for Labour UK
“It is crucial that we link with Jewish organisations across the world and stand up in opposition to the genocide being committed in Gaza, the brutal occupation in the West Bank and the decades long dispossession of Palestinians from their land and, indeed, their human rights. Throughout the world, Jewish people are warmly welcomed to the protests in support of Palestinians, not least in London. Being part of this international network means we can learn from each other, exploring the similarities as well as the differences we face in our very different circumstances. After more than four years of meeting via zoom, I am looking forward to meeting in person but when we originally planned this congress, we could not imagine that it would be while Israel seems bent on destroying Gaza – actions which Israel claims is to protect us as Jews; nothing could be further from the truth.”
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
IJCJP ORGANISATIONS
Alternative Jewish Voices of Aotearoa NZ – Sh’ma Koleinu (Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Another Jewish Voice /Een Andere Joodse Stem (Belgium)
Boycott From Within/Israeli Citizens for BDS (Israel)
French Jewish Peace Union/Union Juive Francaise Pour La Paix (France)
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
Independent Australian Jewish Voices (Australia)
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)–Canada
Jewish Call for Peace (Luxembourg)
Jewish Network for Palestine (UK)
Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East/Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost(Germany)
Jews for Palestine–Ireland (Ireland)
Jewish Voice for Peace (USA)
Jews Against the Occupation ‘48 (Australia)
Jews Say No! (USA)
South African Jews for a Free Palestine (South Africa)
Tzedek Collective Sydney (Australia)
Erev Rav (Netherlands)
Associació Catalana de Jueus i Palestins – JUNTS (acjp.cat) Spain (Catalan)
Tsedek! Collectif Juif Decolonial (France)
Coletivo Vozes Judaicas por Libertação (@vozesjudaicasporlibertacao) • Instagram photos and videos (Brazil)
IJCJP MISSION STATEMENT (February, 2021)
We are Jews from diverse countries, part of local, national, international networks and organizations. We are connected by our involvement in the struggle for Palestinian rights, and by our determination to work for justice. We oppose Zionism and all forms of racism. We came together to share our experiences of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. Although it claims to protect Jews, the IHRA Working Definition is in fact being used to shield Israel from valid political challenge, silence Palestinians, and suppress any mention of Palestinian rights. The IHRA’s weaponization of antisemitism sets a dangerous precedent for limiting speech on many issues. We take this as our immediate priority, but it is only a starting point for our collective commitment to build a more just world.
IJCJP SPOKESPEOPLE
Marilyn Garson, Alternative Jewish Voices, Aotearoa (New Zealand), lived and worked in Gaza 2011 – 2015. She was a member of UNRWA’s emergency response team through the 2014 war. Returning to New Zealand, she wrote Still Lives, a memoir of her years in Gaza. She co-founded Alternative Jewish Voices (AJV) with Fred Albert in 2020. AJV preserves Jewish pluralism, because there have always been many ways to be a Jew. AJV regards antiracism as a shared task, including antisemitism. And AJV works alongside Palestinian partners who seek freedom and justice based on international legal principles and our equal human rights.
Wieland Hoban, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East/Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden, Nahost, Germany, is a composer and academic translator in the fields of philosophy, art, music, and literature as well as an author of academic and journalistic articles. He is chairman of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, which he represents both in IJCJP and EJJP ( European Jews for a Just Peace).
Leah Levane, Jewish voice for Labour, UK, is a retired Community Development Worker and Town Centre Manager. She served as an elected member of Hastings Borough Council in southeast England from 2018 to 2021. She is co-chair of Jewish Voice for Labour and heads up its antiracism work. In 2012 she spent three months in the South Hebron Hills as a Human Rights Witness and accompanier providing protective presence. Khirbet Zanuta, one of the hamlets that she supported then has been emptied as settler attacks post October 7th became intolerable. In 2017 she participated in the largest ever Jewish delegation to Palestine (with Centre for Jewish Non Violence) spending time with a community in Silwan, East Jerusalem and revisiting the South Hebron Hills. Leah’s story is one of those featured in JVL’s “Jewish Journeys from Zionism” series.
Sheryl Nestel, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada, holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto where she taught sociology and equity studies from 2000-2012 and was the coordinator of the Office of Teaching Support. She is the author of numerous refereed journal articles, book chapters and reports on race and racism in the health professions and the author of Obstructed Labour: Race and Gender in the Re-emergence of Midwifery (UBC Press, 2007), winner of the Canadian Women’s Studies Annual Book Prize for 2007. She recently completed a ground- breaking research project, Unveilling the Chilly Climate: The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada written with Rowan Gaudet, which surveys the impact of harassment, intimidation and the suppression of speech on Palestine on faculty, students and activists in Canada. She serves on the steering committees of the Jewish Faculty Network and the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine. She is an Affiliated Scholar at New College, University of Toronto.
