“There is nothing antisemitic about fighting for people’s right to live,” says Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Elena Stein, who on Monday joined hundreds of protesters arrested to block entrances to the New York Stock Exchange.
We discuss the historic mass protest, which called for an Israeli arms embargo and an end to war profiteering by companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. “We are filled with horror beyond words and are attempting to embody just an ounce of that refusal,” Stein says of the moral urgency of protesting Israel’s actions in the Middle East, which she describes as a “war of extermination … done with U.S. cover.” She says JVP chose the stock exchange in order to draw attention to the role of U.S. financial and corporate interests in arming the Israeli military
“There is nothing antisemitic about fighting for people’s right to live,” says Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Elena Stein, who on Monday joined hundreds of protesters arrested to block entrances to the New York Stock Exchange.
An excellent point.
Iran’s proxy militant/terrorist groups aren’t going to stop killing Israelis if Israel stops receiving weapons, instead they’ll launch 10s of thousands of rockets and ballistic missiles at Israeli population centers unhindered because there won’t be an Iron Dome to intercept them, or precision guided bombs to destroy terrorist weapons stockpiles.
These people have lost the plot and are useful idiots working for Russian and Iranian interests.
And, of course, what’s so important for all of us here in the U.S. to understand is that this is being done with U.S. bombs, those bombs that are massacring family after family in this war of extermination — because, make no mistake, that is the goal: extermination. It is being done with U.S. bombs, with U.S. weapons and with U.S. cover, with shielding Israel from accountability at any international institution.
Now, the Biden administration wants you to believe that the reason the U.S. is arming and funding and covering the Israeli government like this is for the sake of Jewish safety. Right? This is the moral cover that they use. This is the justification used to cloak the entire enterprise.
And so, we are there to say we reject this myth, this sick myth, with every fiber of our beings. We refuse to let our histories, our identities, our traditions be used to torture, to starve, to massacre, to erase Palestinians. And we are there to say the true interests of the Biden administration, the true interests of the U.S. government are this: its own imperial interests and its own financial interests. And so, we are there to say to the U.S., “Stop arming Israel. Stop profiting from genocide.”
Yitzakh Rabin was really our last best hope for peace, wasn’t he… I guess that’s why he was assassinated.
I wouldn’t say that. The Oslo Accords weren’t about any genuine peace. It was mainly a way to quell insurgent resistance movements with the establishment of an internal authority (PA) to police Palestinians from Resistance as the Settler Colonialism continued in the West Bank, allowing Israel to de-facto annex over 70% of the West Bank under the guise of a ‘Peace Process.’ However Rabin’s agreement to pull militarily out of part of the West Bank was seen as a concession to the Palestinian, which was intolerable to the more Right-wing members of Israel, leading to his assassination
Spoiler
In formally recognizing Israel’s right to exist, the PLO essentially gave up sole sovereign claims to 78% of the Palestinians’ historic homeland that was now claimed by Israel.
In response, Rabin wrote to Arafat that Israel would “recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.” He did not recognize the Palestinians’ right to form their own state.
Since then, Israel has expropriated nearly half of the West Bank for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers, in violation of international law. It also routinely siphons off water from Palestinian underground aquifers for the use of the settlers, while depriving Palestinians access to their own water.
By ignoring this power imbalance, the Oslo Accords effectively allowed Israel to continue to confiscate land and resources with no consequences. With 60% of the West Bank under Israeli control, the prospects for a viable, independent Palestinian state were undermined.
To enforce this agreement, the Palestinian Authority – an autonomous body that rules over Palestinians in the West Bank – agreed to coordinate with the Israeli military over security matters. It would either arrest Palestinians whom Israel suspects of carrying out hostilities or allow Israel to enter Palestinian areas and arrest suspects themselves.
This coordination protects Israelis from Palestinian violence, but it does not protect Palestinians from violence by the Israeli military. Since fall 2000, the Israel military has killed eight times as many Palestinians as compared with Israelis killed by Palestinians. Half of those Palestinian victims were not involved in hostilities when they were killed, according to analysis from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Palestinians are also subjected to other kinds of human rights abuses from the Israeli state. These include home demolitions, imprisonment without charge or trial and abuse at checkpoints. Most soldiers accused of harming Palestinians do not face consequences for their actions, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization.
Thank you for sharing. I’m being too reductionist on an issue which deserves more nuanced discussion.
You can become a member of Jewish Voices for Peace for as little as $18 a year.
You don’t have to be Jewish.
This seems to be attempting to tear down an org that is trying to do the right thing?
Tear down how? I’m a member.
If a lot of non-Jewish people become members, critics could argue that the organisation isn’t really “Jewish” voices for peace.
Critics can argue whatever they want.
How do you prove the members are Jews?
I don’t know, but the critics won’t be the ones to have to do so. They can point towards comments like yours suggesting that non-Jewish people should become members to begin claiming it’s a “fake” Jewish org. This sows distrust in the organisation.
At least, that is what I think the other commenter meant. I don’t care who becomes a member myself.
Well until those critics find a way to determine who is or is not a Jew based on that person joining any organization, good luck to them.
Labelling someone as a critic when they make an observation is very othering.
I am not the one who initially used that word.
