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Jewish Women for Justice in Israel and Palestine |
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STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/Palestine (JWJ) is a Boston-based group that formed in October, 2000, in the first weeks of the current Intifada, to clearly state that those national and local Jewish organizations proclaiming unconditional support for Israeli government actions and vehement condemnation of all forms of Palestinian resistance did not speak for us and to press for a just resolution of the conflict between the Palestinian Arab and Israeli Jewish peoples. In our work, we are both inspired by and committed to the tradition of justice that infuses Jewish teachings, Jewish practice and Jewish history. We urge all Jewish people in the United States, Israel and elsewhere to remember what our own history tells us—that silence in the face of injustice is complicity with injustice—and therefore to join us in speaking out against Israeli abuses. All self-identified Jewish women who agree with the following principles, and who are willing to take action in support of them, are invited to become members. 1. We support an immediate end to Israel's immoral and illegal occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and evacuation of the unlawful Jewish settlements it has used to subvert the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. 2. We condemn all attacks on civilians, no matter who the perpetrators. We are painfully aware of the imbalance of power between the massive army and resources of the State of Israel, and the desperation of the Palestinians, impoverished and brutalized under Occupation. 3. We oppose all manifestations of the occupation, including military siege and assault; house demolitions; crop destructions; vastly unequal distribution of the area's resources, such as water and electricity; economic strangulation of the territories; administrative detention; roadblocks, curfews, closures, prevention of access to medical and other facilities, and all forms of collective punishment; and all excessive use of force, including torture, assassination, and summary execution. 4. We call for an end to the U.S. government's political and diplomatic support for, as well as substantial economic subsidization of, the occupation. We seek a U.S. Middle East policy that supports and facilitates Palestinian self-determination and peace with justice for Israeli Jews and for Palestinians. 5. We support the Palestinian appeal for immediate international protection. 6. We recognize and honor the courageous Palestinian and Israeli women's organizations that have been forging relationships under the most difficult of circumstances and developing agendas that advance the common good of their respective peoples. These groups are laying the real groundwork for a just and sustainable resolution to the conflict; their exclusion from the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process has severely hindered the prospects for peace and must be reversed. Moreover, the needs and interests of both Palestinian and Israeli women and girls must be fully integrated into the negotiation and implementation of all peace agreements. 7. We support collaborative efforts by progressives on all sides of the conflict and the establishment of genuine good-faith negotiations. 8. We support comprehensive local and international media access to the Occupied Territories. 9. We support human rights for all in the region, including established conventions for women's and children's human rights. |