UK Guardian: Prominent Jews call for open debate on Israel

[seafan]

Prominent Jews call for open debate on Israel

By Julian Borger
Monday February 5, 2007

A group of prominent British Jews will today declare independence from the country's Jewish establishment, arguing that it puts support for Israel above the human rights of Palestinians.

Independent Jewish Voices will publish an open letter on the Guardian's Comment is Free website calling for a freer debate about the Middle East within the Jewish community. Among the more than 130 signatories are Stephen Fry, Harold Pinter, Mike Leigh, Jenny Diski and Nicole Farhi, as well as leading academics such as Eric Hobsbawm and Susie Orbach.
"We come together in the belief that the broad spectrum of opinion among the Jewish population of this country is not reflected by those institutions which claim authority to represent the Jewish community as a whole," the letter says. Jewish leaders in Britain, it argues "put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people" in conflict with Jewish principles of justice and compassion.

.....

The emergence of the group, which calls itself a "network of individuals" and can be found at www.ijv.org.uk comes at a time of ferment over attitudes towards Israel, stoked by the war in Lebanon and the bloodshed in the occupied territories. The question of whether radical opposition to Israeli policies necessarily amounts to anti-Semitism is central to the debate.
The row was brought to a head in recent weeks by the resignation of board members of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (IJPR) after it emerged that its director, Antony Lerman, had voiced support for the merging of Israel with the Palestinian territories into a single bi-national federation and a repeal of the "law of return" giving the right of anyone of Jewish descent to Israeli citizenship.

.....

The row has brought furious exchanges to the Jewish Chronicle's letter pages. "Some of our biggest mailbags lately have been prompted by prominent Jewish public figures voicing dissenting views of Israel, which typically provokes angry rebukes from other members of the community," David Rowan, the editor, said.

A parallel struggle is under way in the US where the American Jewish Committee published an article accusing liberal Jews such as the historian Tony Judt of fuelling anti-Semitism by questioning Israel's right to exist. The essay by Alvin Rosenfeld said that "one of the most distressing features of the new anti-Semitism" was "the participation of Jews alongside it".
Prof Judt told the New York Times: "The link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is newly created." He feared the two would become so conflated that references to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust would be seen as "just a political defence of Israeli policy".

[damntexdem]

1. I was first alerted to the fate of Palestinians by Jewish people.

Back in the early 1970s, most people didn't much follow, nor care, what happened. There would be excitement when there was a war, with most Americans cheering for the Israelis; but then Americans would go back to not caring, to not having the Middle East on their radar screens. Of course, the PLO soon changed that a bit. But until then, had it not been for a few honest, Jewish progressives, I would not have become aware of the continuing theft of Palestine from the Palestinians.

[seafan]

2. It seems that the more dialog about this, the better.

There are, imho, distinct parallels in that there is a small group of right wing ideologues in both the US and Israel who are forcing their respective populations to bend to their will and are completely ignoring what the people of the countries want.

People want to live in peace, raise and educate their families, have clean food and water, have a healthy ecosystem and to find fulfillment.

We are not that different, no matter where we live on this planet.

We need to do everything we can to facilitate change for the better in the leadership/policies of both the US and Israel before we will see any improvement.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Howardx]

7. yeah this helps

why is this post still here?

[IndianaGreen]

3. American politicians pander to rightwing Jewish organizations such as AIPAC

thinking that all Jews are cut from the same mold, while ignoring the many voices in the Jewish community.

Back in 2002, Hillary and Lieberman went to Israel. Lieberman met with everyone, including Palestinians and Israeli peace activists. Hillary only met with the rightwingers.

[Tom Joad]

4. Exactly. Read Greenwald's excellent essay about this....

Read this post:
http://tinyurl.com/yvhch2

The idea that all Jewish Americans believe in the same stuff propagated by aipac is basically the tenet of
a)aipac and apologists
b) real anti-semites.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. This is good news for some, a real boon, so to speak.