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December newsletter
In This Edition
Commentary Cecilie Surasky exhorts Jews to speak out about Israel
What's New at JVP JVP gets bigger, Human Rights Watch, media highlights
Quote of the Month Israeli support for divestment
Jewish Peace News Abbas statement, Israel = South Africa?, disengagement, divestment
Talk Back Response to divestment statement
Lifting the veil of silence: speaking out about Israel
Cecilie Surasky, Director of Communications, Jewish Voice for Peace
A look at the causes and devastating consequences of Jewish silence about Israel's human rights violations, including the atmosphere of intimidation in the mainstream Jewish community.
Below: IDF soldier and a protestor at the wall in Budrus
 Every time a Gazan father faints as he watches his family home demolished...
Every time an Israeli or Palestinian is violently attacked because they are nonviolently protesting the separation wall...
Every time a rain of IDF bullets flies into the body of a young child on her way to school...
Every time a young Palestinian man is made to play violin by laughing Israeli soldiers, or a pregnant woman dies at a checkpoint, Jews like us must come out.
Remaining closeted is no longer an option. We can no longer allow our trauma, our deep fear of anti-Jewish hatred implanted in us through generations of persecution, to make us remain quiet at the expense of truth.
Our continued silence perpetuates the fiction that all Jews are of one mind when it comes to Israel-- that we think it can do no wrong; that we believe the Israeli government is innocent of war crimes; that we believe US military support for Israel's illegal occupation is a sign of our special relationship, and not a cynical use of Jewish suffering to provide moral cover for strategic interests in an oil-rich region.
Our silence puts us in more danger, not less. Through it, we give our consent not only to the obliteration of the Palestinian people, but to the end of our own people. If not our bodies, then certainly our spirit.
Jews like us know in our hearts that every time a Palestinian mother stands sobbing in the road, clutching her children and watching her home being demolished by an Israeli army bulldozer, another brick is dislodged from the edifice of five thousand years of Jewish values, ethics, and justice.
We see one of the world's greatest armies cry self defense as it uses tanks, bulldozers and missiles against a poverty-stricken civilian population, and we cry inside for the callous manipulation of Jewish fear for the sake of expansionism.
We watch images of teenaged soldiers, who are told they are making Jews safer, shooting at children and young men, tearing up ancient olive trees, and destroying entire neighborhoods. We tremble inside knowing they are only creating a new generation of children whose anger burns so bright that they may one day wear a home-made bomb meant to kill any Jewish man, woman and child.
We silently cheer for the rabbi who puts his body in front of a Caterpillar bulldozer to stop it from uprooting olive trees or destroying a home for minor permit violations; the young Israeli conscientious objectors who choose jail over serving in the territories; the Israeli women, many of them older, who spend hot days in the sun monitoring checkpoints in an effort to ensure that the soldiers don't humiliate or torture the Palestinians who must cross them.
We cry when we see the myriad ways the occupation has dehumanized the occupier as well as the occupied.
And yet, we remain silent, too afraid to speak the words out loud. We say nothing to our families, our friends, our colleagues, our rabbis, our congregations.
The truth is that if we don't "come out" about Israel now — speaking openly and clearly about our heartache and outrage, about the injustice we see, the unspeakable wrongness of Israel's pursuit of land over peace -- then in the future there will not be a Jewish tradition left to defend.
It will have become an empty shell, and all of the infinite good works done every day by Jews throughout time and place will be rendered meaningless by the actions of a state that claims to be a light to the Jewish people, but has become so accustomed to co-creating death and chaos that it can barely claim now to care for its own citizens.
How did we become so fearful about calling injustice what it is? Worse, how did, with few notable exceptions, our appointed and de facto leaders become so scared? So lacking in the moral courage we desperately need now?
Because I work in a Jewish peace organization, I think I know the answer.
More than one rabbi says, 'I support what you are doing, but I can't help you because my congregation is too conservative'. Meanwhile, members of temples report they are too fearful to speak because they believe their rabbi is too conservative. A man in a retirement home where people with hawkish views on Israel dominate, calls for help but refuses to give his last name for fear of retribution. A Jewish doctor confesses she still hasn't been able to admit to her parents her passionate disagreement with the Israeli government. A rabbi in New York is certain he has suddenly lost his job because of a Yom Kippur sermon critical of Israel. A Jewish journalist at a major daily sues because, he says, he is fired for his work on Israel's occupation, and another's Sunday feature story on Jewish peace activists is inexplicably killed two days before publication.
An Israeli rabbi who is a world renowned human rights activist frequently meets with Jewish leaders in coffee shops because they are afraid to be seen with him in their offices. The head of a campus Hillel in Virginia is fired because, despite always being balanced at her job, she expressed her personal views to her superiors and to the Israeli embassy. At UC Berkeley, the progressive Jewish student group Tzedek is finally forced to disassociate with the campus Hillel after determining that "the organization is laden with mechanisms designed to stifle dissent from what it perceives as "mainstream" (Jewish) views about Israel."
And groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, despite having a large membership, are not accepted in mainstream Jewish institutions. On top of it all, we must weather isolation in our own families, and an almost daily barrage of hate messages—from other Jews.
From fear of being socially shunned, and the systematic pressure campaigns launched a few years ago against most major newspapers for being "anti-Israel", to the Jewish community council that trained others how to neutralize Jewish peace groups by meeting behind closed doors and using pro-peace buzzwords to co-opt their views, there are all too many examples of the mainstream Jewish community silencing dissent and principled Jews staying in the closet.
This phenomenon is all the more puzzling because many would say that questioning and dissent is encoded in Jewish DNA. From Emma Goldman and Saul Alinsky to Betty Freidan, Larry Kramer and refuseniks like Yoni Ben-Artzi, we find a long list of remarkable outspoken Jews whose willingness to stand up for what is right and to question the status quo made history, but also made them enemies. They stand as our heroes not only because of what they achieved, but because of what they faced in order to make all of us better as human beings and citizens of the world.
The atmosphere of intimidation in the American Jewish world has had a corrosive effect not just on our families and communities, but on the very tradition which binds us together. We are famous for speaking our minds when we perceive that an injustice is taking place. That is not true when the perpetrator is Israel. Suddenly, we allow our fears of being ostracized from our communities and families to silence us. And as a result, history will show that much of the mainstream Jewish leadership has failed us, and failed us profoundly. Perhaps we will have failed ourselves.
But courage does not mean being fearless, it means acting in the face of fear. And Jews like me have to ask, if we no longer stand up for moral courage and call injustice when we see it— regardless of who commits it—then what do we stand for?
Email Cecilie Surasky at cecilie@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
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JVP's growth
We are thrilled to announce the addition of our first chapter outside of California's Bay Area. The respected Washington DC peace group, Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), has joined forces with JVP and is now our official DC chapter. The addition of their collective brainpower, access to important decision-makers, and organizing experience will strengthen the entire JVP network. In the coming months, we look forward to joining with other peace groups and to creating new chapters throughout the country so that we can all coordinate our activism and grow even stronger in our work to uphold the Jewish justice tradition.
In addition to our remarkable board and volunteer activist membership, we are excited to announce that our staff has expanded to four with the addition of Max Cohen, our new Administrative and Development Assistant. Max, who has wanted to be a grassroots fundraiser since he was 15, has been involved in many social justice youth organizations as an organizer, and has been a phenomenal addition to our office.
Media coverage
JVP works hard to garner media coverage to amplify the voices, in particular, of pro-peace and justice Jews. In the past few months, our vocal support of the Presbyterians has been written about in the Christian Science Monitor, From churches a challenge to Israel's policies; the Christian Post, Divestment Debate Continues with Resolution Against Caterpillar; Arab News, US Churches Take Stand Against Israeli Occupation; and in the Presbyterian News Service, Jewish peace group challenges Caterpillar's Israel business.
 We also worked closely with Human Rights Watch who joined our campaign to stop Caterpillar from selling bulldozers. A joint release about HRW's letter to Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens, and our re-filing of the Caterpillar shareholder resolution, was covered in a number of media outlets throughout the world including the Associated Press, Rights group calls on Caterpillar to halt bulldozer sales to IDF; South Africa's Mail and Guardian, Academics call for boycott; The Forward, Rights group targets bulldozer company; Pakistan's Daily Times, HR body urges US company to halt bulldozer sales to Israel; and the Inter Press News Service, Groups Push Bulldozer Maker to End Sales to Israel.
In addition, Liat Weingart's powerful piece, The Wrath of the Jews, was a feature story in Alternet and Znet, while Mitchell Plitnick's analysis of Bush and Kerry was reprinted in the Jordan Times.
Death of Arafat
JVP expresses our condolences to the Palestinian people over Yasir Arafat's death. We issued this statement on the day of his death, and worked to balance coverage by conducting interviews with many media outlets including this important one with the Jerusalem Post. Read this op-ed that was printed in J, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California, as well as our longer review of Arafat's life, contributions and shortcomings in our piece, Who Was the Real Arafat?.
More news
Director of Education and Policy Mitchell Plitnick spoke about the American role in the Middle East conflict at Oak Park, Illinois, and at the University of Buffalo. Mitchell Plitnick also wrote What's wrong with Gaza withdrawal, an important FAQ located on our website that explains why Sharon's plan is not all that it appears to be.
Most of you have already seen our statement on selective divestment as a strategy to end Israel's occupation. You can download it on JVP letterhead here. The feedback on this final statement was overwhelmingly positive.
 SAVE THE DATE! SUNDAY MAY 8, 2005, Jewish Voice for Peace Awards & Fundraising Dinner, featuring keynote speaker Naomi Klein, comedian Charlie Varon (and more!) at the beautiful new Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 5:30-9:30pm. Please mark this date on your 2005 calendars--this is going to be an exciting, informative and uplifting event, an opportunity both to build community and celebrate together, as well as to honor those who are working to end the occupation.
Tickets are $75 and will be available soon; we only have room for 300 people. Please consider organizing your own table of friends, family and colleagues--you'll be a table mensch! We're also looking for event sponsors: benefits include being listed on the invitation and program, preferential seating, and a special reception with Naomi Klein. For more info., call Max Cohen at JVP at 510-465-1777.
T-shirts and calendars 
The wonderful folks at Lekas Miller Design have generously donated designs for our new "End the Occupation" t-shirts. Printed on black sweatshop-free shirts, we have beautiful women's cuts as well standard men's. On the back (which can also be worn on the front) they say, "Israelis and Palestinians. Two peoples, one future." Get yours now. We also are selling gorgeous calendars featuring the artwork of various Palestinian artists who receive partial proceeds from the calendar. Find out more here.
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Ofra Ben-Artzi, in-law of Benjamin Netanyahu, supports divestment
Ofra Ben-Artzi's son, Jonathan Ben-Artzi, is perhaps Israel's best know refusenik because he is the nephew of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both of Jonathan's parents, academics Matania and Ofra, as well as his siblings, are passionate voices for justice. Ofra, who is also a member of Machsom Watch and hails from one of Israel's original "Mayflower" families, recently sent us these words in response to our position on divestment:
Dear JVP:
I just wanted to thank & encourage you for your initiative. Under the circumstances, there are two ways to fight the occupation, even when there are some positive prospects, these are just talks and the reality on the ground is terrible. (I know it as an activist in Machsom Watch). The internal one is through REFUSAL. And the external one is divestment and sooner or later-BOYCOTT.
REFUSAL & DIVESTMENT are the most patriotic actions in order to save Israel, and are in the best interest of the welfare of Jewish communities around the world.
Best Wishes,
Ofra Ben-Artzi
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Jewish Peace News Highlights |
Following are some highlights from Jewish Peace News, the free news service offered by Jewish Voice for Peace. Get pre-selected stories from global news sources sent to your email box regularly, with thoughtful analyses prefacing each article.
Abbas: Armed struggle a mistake, harms Palestinians (Ha'aretz) Statement comes on the heels of trips to Egypt and Syria
Is it Apartheid? (Direct E-Mail) Moshe Machover analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa
Sharon's Gaza Pullout: Not Gonna Happen! (Electronic Intifada) Tanya Reinhart does not believe Sharon will dismantle settlements
Shamai Leibovitz on Divestment (Direct e-mail) Israeli refusenik and human rights activist on the question of divestment from Israel
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Here are a couple of the emails we received in response to our divestment statement.
It's clear. It's strong. It's rational. Thank you.
Joanna G.,
I was deeply moved by the call for selective disinvestment from companies directly aiding the disastrous occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It is a profound truth that the occupation dishonors Jews abused for ages because they stood for justice and human dignity. Every subsidized illegal settlement is a blot on the core values of Judaism. It is tragic that so many American and Israeli Jews are branded as self haters or traitors because they speak out against oppression of Arabs in the occupied territories. I admire your courage and honesty.
Bob B., Los Angeles, CA
Keep the feedback coming.
About Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace is a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights. We support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination. Learn more about us at www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org. Download a fact sheet about JVP or our mission statement. Send questions, comments or concerns to the JVP staff at info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org.
Jewish Voice for Peace
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