On Tuesday, a group of activists organized by Jewish Voice For Peace, a grassroots organization of Jewish-Americans against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, filed into the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces offices in New York City’s Times Square.
“We would like to talk about donations,” one of them said to the woman working the front desk.
“Oh, great — with all of these people!” she replied, immediately ushering them inside of the offices.
Once the activists were inside, they unfurled banners that called out Friends of the IDF’s complicity in the assault on Gaza, and began reading a list of the names of the dead. As one of the Jewish charities that collects donations to fund the Israeli army, the activists at Jewish Voice for Peace saw the organization as directly implicated in the assault on Gaza.
The staff at Friends of the IDF immediately and frantically called the police, who arrested nine activists.
“We felt very strongly that given everything that has been happening and the level of massacre in Gaza, the numbers of civilians who have been killed, it was time to step it up to the next level,” said Rebecca Vilkomerson, one of the nine activists who was arrested. “We wanted to put a little bit more on the line to broadcast the message that the war and siege on Gaza has got to stop.”
Since Operation Pillar of Defense began 21 days ago, Israel’s air strikes and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and injured over 6,200. Meanwhile, thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged, and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced. Ceasefire negotiations have not progressed and the Israeli air force — claiming that it is targeting Hamas — has moved on to bombing hospitals and UN schools, where many civilians have taken refuge. It is the third major Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in 10 years.
“I think it’s particularly important that we do this as Jewish activists, and show that the Jewish community is split on this issue and that there are a lot of Jews in the United States who don’t support what Israel is doing right now,” Vilkomerson said.
Despite the expected backlash from Israel supporters, Jewish Voice for Peace says the response to their action and organization has been overwhelmingly positive.
Thanks for reporting this. There has been a tremendous amount of energy building around resistance to U.S. support of the Gaza invasion, Jewish and otherwise. Last Friday was a Palestinian-led #NYC2GAZA action in New York City, including four arrests during a die-in at an Israeli bank, and then today I believe nine people were arrested in the Jewish-led group organizing under the slogan of the ancient rabbi Hillel, “If Not Now, When?”
Thank all of you who value human lives. You will be judged by History to be those persons of conscience. We must never lose the voice of reason, even when the shouts of unreasonable majority threatens to silence us. Never forget the inhumanity that has occurred in the past. Be the beacon of hope always.
y hats off to you. Over the years, I have met many people of Jewish faith who have voiced their concerns on the apartheid policies of the successive regimes in Israel against the Palestinians. We therefore need to differentiate between the Zionism and Judaism.
One of such people is an energetic girl Anna Baltzer whom I have met personally. She is the direct decedent of a holocaust survivor. Please visit her website http://www.annainthemiddleeast.com.
John Stewart is another example of people with conscience.In fact there are a number of holocaust survivors who have come forward to strongly condemn the policies of the Israeli government. However, I am afraid such nice people are in minority and the curriculum as well as various camp activities in the Israeli schools are successful in brain washing the younger generation of Israel. As an example, visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp67KehlVGU. After going through this kind of “training”, it becomes very easy for a young Israeli army person to shoot and kill any Palestinian.
Incredible! Women and children died in Berlin and Dresden not because Great Britain and America were conducting ethnic cleansing but because they waged a war of necessity. Why is Israel any different? Thirteen years of rocket attacks, terrorist invasions by sea and tunnels, and a constant existential threat. Britain did not vote the Nazis into power, Germans did. Israel did not vote Hamas into power, the Palestinians in Gaza did. When Israelis/Jews die it’s inconvenient, when Arabs die, it’s ethnic cleansing. The double standards and Israel hatred is pathological. How many times can Israel offer a unilateral cease fire only to be targeted by more rocket and tunnel attacks?
Clara B, You asked why is Israel any different? You’re not comparing apples to apples, dear, when you compare Great Britian’s war against Nazi Germany to Israel’s war against the Palestinians. You see, Israel is the instigator in this conflict because it purged the land it claims of its original inhabitants (and I’m not talking about ancient history here, I’m talking about the pogroms and murders and bombings the Irgun and others waged against the Arabs and Bedouins who lived in Palestine before the Ashkenazic Jews arrived there from Europe).
And the Palestinians did not vote Netanyahu into power either, but he gets to decide if they are allowed to fish in their own waters, if they get to build houses on their own land, if they get to keep the water under their land that’s been in their families for generations, if they can fly in their own airspace, if they can attend international events or accept scholarships abroad, get medical care (or die waiting at a check point), go to work, or even eat.
You complain about thirteen years of rocket attacks and terrorist invasions, but I ask you, how many Israelis have died in that intervening 13 years? And how many Palestinians have died in that same time period at the doing of the Israelis? Israelis have lost almost 1,200 people (including soldiers) and the Palestinians have lost almost 8,000 people. Just over 8,500 Israelis have been injured and just over 62,000 Palestinians have been injured. Additionally, Israel holds more than 6,000 people, including children, prisoner, while Palestine holds none. As for home demolitions, Israel has purposely bulldozed the homes of more than 28,000 Palestinians, but Israeli Jews have lost 0 (zero) homes. Even after they burned that young boy. Alive.
The world does not hate Jews. The world hates the overwhelmingly unfair, inhumane, genocidal treatment of the Palestinians by the nation of Israel, a nation, by the way, with the 13th strongest military in the world. Palestine didn’t even make the list.
Clara “dear”, Israel need not apologize for the so-called disproportionate loss of life on the Palestinian side. Israel has invested in defensive technologies and shelters to protect its civilians. Hamas views the loss of Palestinian civilians as a propaganda victory. Both Palestinians and Israelis have legitimate claims. That is why the majority of Israelis would support a two-state solution that brought about real peace and an end to hostilities. Unfortunately, Hamas, which presently runs the Palestinian agenda is an evil, nihilistic, murderous cult that states very cleary in its founding charter that Jews (not just Israelis) are to be killed. They cannot be bargained with. Israel has every right to defend itself.
Oded, can I ask you how many children’s lives it’s worth to do this? How many Israeli conscripts and how many palestinians need to die to sort it out?
For 60 years Israel and it’s neighbours have been essentially in an on-off state of war. In the last 40 years Israel has near universally been the aggressor. Does it not suggest to you that 40 years of aggression in the name of self defence has achieved:
(wait for it)
Nothing.
Just more deaths. So how many deaths is it worth to blow up Hamas tunnels that have been perfectly acceptable to Israel for a number of years?
I believe that, although they may have shot the first bullet(as in 1967), Israel has always fought defensive wars. And so I disagree that Israel has been the aggressor. I believe with all my heart (as do the majority of Israelis) that what Netanyau said is true. That is, that if the Arabs disarm, there will be no more wars…if Israel disarms, there will be no more Israel. What would you have Israel do? So far, over 3,000 rockets have been fired at Israeli population centres. These tunnels, which you apparently believe to be harmless, are meant to be used to slaughter and kidnap Israelis. No sovereign nation can tolerate this. I don’t know where you live VEVD, but I can assure you that pretty much any other nation on earth would respond in a much more forceful way to these kinds of attacks than has Israel. Unfortunately, Hamas is an organization that has no interest in saving the lives of Palestinian children, but is more than happy to sacrifice them in support of its Islamist ideology. This is the irony of this situation. Israel cares more about protecting innocent Palestinian civilian lives than does Hamas.
It’s time for Jewish and Palestinian peace activists to unite, coordinate and set examples in peace and friendship. The brunt of the violence is directed at Palestinians so Jewish peace activists have to shoulder a great burden to stop the violence.
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If these people think that the occupation is wrong, why would they themselves occupy FIDF?