tarekk
26.10.03, 10:36
-----Original Message-----
From: Abraham Weizfeld [mailto:saalaha@cam.org]
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 5:15 PM
To: Palestine_Embassy_Ottawa_List
Cc: Palreport
Subject: [palestineinmyheart] Jewish Open Letter to the Palestinian People
Open Letter
of International Jewish Opposition Committees
and Individuals
in Solidarity with the Palestinian People
September 2003
On this occasion of the third year of the current Intifada we wish to
address ourselves to the Palestinian People as members of the Jewish
communities and as individuals from around the world.
We declare that Jewish people are not represented by the State of Israel.
Not even a majority of Jewish people have wanted to live in the Israeli
State. Of those living in North America only 22 percent of American Jews
today consider themselves to be Zionists.* When asked about Israel ending
its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a majority of American Jews, 58.5
percent, said they support an end to the occupation. The majority of Jewish-
Americans, 82 percent, supported the idea of a Palestinian state. **
We have organized ourselves in 150 cities throughout the world as of the
year 2001 to speak out against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and
also to educate the general public as well the various Jewish communities on
this illegal seizure of land. This occupation is maintained by the
persecution of the Palestinian people and has only resulted in a decreased
level of security for Palestinians in the first instance as well as for
Jewish citizens of Israel.
We know that the Jewish citizens of the State of Israel cannot demand the
recognition of a National identity for themselves without recognizing that
the Palestinians also have the right to a National identity and self-
determination. Excluding the Palestinians from collective human rights both
as a People and as individuals negates the social and political rights of
all people, including Jewish people.
We know that the occupation of the 1967 Palestinian territories is the
continuation of the militarized campaign to exclude and 'ethnically cleanse'
the Palestinian people from their lands, beginning in the Palestinian Nakba
of 1948. When it has not been possible to completely displace the
Palestinians to become external refugees, a terrible separation has been
built by the apartheid Government of the State of Israel aiming to isolate
one people from the other. In addition to the devastating effects of the
Israeli apartheid system on the Palestinian people living under occupation
since 1967, we see this Israeli Apartheid system as holding the Palestinian
Arab citizens of Israel as a captive nation
