… We know that our safety, our dignity and our very souls as Jewish people are to be found in solidarity, not in apartheid.
In multiracial coalitions against white supremacy, not in coalitions with white supremacists.
In channelling our fear and our rage and our grief into movements for justice, not into military superpowers.
We will not be used as a moral cover for the oppression of Palestinian people.
…
We are proud to come from generations of Jews who opposed each and every form of oppression, including Zionism.
Who saw Zionism for what it was a false solution to the crimes of European anti-Semitism
that would be used that would be used to dispossess indigenous Palestinians of their land.
…
Because it’s been used to generate wealth for weapons manufacturers, war profiteers, tech companies and Western military powers.
Because it makes freedom chants on college campuses somehow more controversial than an actual genocide that is actually happening before our eyes, now.
Because it has been used to stoke Islamophobia, to criminalise dissent, to break apart social justice movements with false and cynical accusations of antisemitism.
Because it has been used to flatten diverse Jewish lives and traditions and histories and pain, and turn them into tools of oppression.
Because it has been used to harm Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, separating them from their home countries and cultures positioning Palestinian people and Jewish people of Arab descent
on the opposite sides of a colonial regime instead of as neighbours who have lived together
for generations.
Because it is the cornerstone of the Christian right agenda throughout the world.
The same antisemitic forces that are behind attacks on abortion, on trans kids, on trans care, on Black studies, on immigrant rights, on Palestine solidarity and more.
Because it has been used as a tool for British imperialism in Palestine and as a false solution to centuries of European antisemitic violence.
Of European fascism that Palestinians have nothing to do with and should not have to pay for.
Because if you really care about Jewish safety and about antisemitism,
you would fight fascism
and you would fight white supremacy
and you would fight austerity
and you would fight militarism
you would not fight Palestinians.
Because we use the word genocide on purpose, not only because Israel’s acts meet the legal definition of the crime of genocide, but because we know what genocide is and because the lesson we take from the Holocaust is that everyday people let it happen.
Because we must let the life or death of Palestinian people be more urgent than our fear of being criticised, being ostracised or being fired.
Because history will judge us by what we do and what we do not do, now.
As my friend Sumaya Awad says, ‘Your silence will haunt you’.
The Israeli government wants the public to believe that they speak on behalf of all Jews.
But here’s the truth.
In the past two months we have organised the largest demonstrations of Jewish people in solidarity with Palestinian freedom in history.
We have poured into the streets and locked down congressional offices and shut down train stations and blocked bridges and taken over the nation’s capital to say “No business as usual”
while the U.S. is arming and funding the genocide of the Palestinian people.
The Israeli government hopes that we will grow tired and weary.
Many in our own government hope so, too.
In Canada’s gov’t too.
They hope we will give up and give in.
But I want to tell you this we are only growing in numbers.
We are only growing in moral clarity.
We are growing in urgency and growing in power.
The only thing we feel more than heartbroken and horrified and enraged is determined like never before.
As thousands are chanting around the world, we are not freeing Palestine. Palestine is freeing us.
Because none of us are free until all of us are free.
From every river to every sea.
‘Not in Our Name: On Jews Rejecting Zionism’ – Passionate speech by Morgan Bassichis of Jewish Voice for Peace 12:10 Min. Mar 4, 2024 posting on Dec 2023 speech
Refer also to:
Dear Rosalie Abella, This post is for you.
