Jewish Voices for Palestine

JVL introduction

Jewish involvement in mass protest against the slaughter of Palestinians has been conspicuous by its absence from mainstream media coverage. But that involvement has taken place at every level, with Jewish speakers at rallies large and small across the UK, as well as vigils, letters, petitions and statements expressing the revulsion many Jews feel at the very idea that Israel is acting in our name.

When the Conservative government peddles the lie that chanting “Free Palestine” is a threat to Jews, and when the Labour leader treats Muslims as if their concern for victims of Israeli war crimes is based on their religion rather than their humanity, it is vital that we show our solidarity with all who stand up for justice for Palestine.

We publish here two contributions from Jewish Voice for Labour representatives at demonstrations last weekend.

See below the video of Glyn Secker addressing the crowd in central London on October 21, and the text of Tony Booth’s speech to a rally in Colchester the following day.

Finally we post a video about the demonstration for Palestine in London on 21st October, here at the bottom of this post.

Glyn Secker speaks at the Palestine Solidarity demonstration in central London on October 21. His text appears at the bottom of this post or click on the video. MigrationFilms 2023

Tony Booth speaks about Jewish Voice for Labour and the Gaza tragedy at a rally organised by Colchester PSC on October 22.

My name is Tony Booth. I am on the executive committee of Jewish Voice for Labour – JVL. This title is misleading. Many of us have left the Labour Party. Or rather the Labour Party left us. We are all disgusted by the support the Labour Party now gives to a racist, apartheid, Israeli state.

It is a privilege as well as a heartbreak to stand in solidarity with you, as we witness what is happening in Gaza right now.  By yesterday there were 4,500 dead. 13,500 injured. Collective punishment on the people of Gaza for the brutal attacks by Hamas in the south of Israel is a war crime.  It is a war crime to continue the siege of Gaza and the prevention of water, food and fuel reaching Gaza’s population. The 20 aid trucks that have been allowed through the Rafah crossing are aid-washing, pretending to the world that the Israeli state is fulfilling humanitarian obligations when 1000 trucks a day are needed to supply the population with survival levels of food water fuel and medicine.

We were appalled by Sunak’s meeting with the right-wing extremist Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu, when he told him that he hoped for an Israeli victory in the war against Hamas, in the war against Gaza, in the war against the Palestinians.  How many deaths does a victory require? 10,000, 20,000? Gaza is full of children. How many children have to die before it is enough?

Our leaders behave as if this war started on October 7.  How ignorant. It is a continuation of decades of oppression and abuse of the Palestinian people. This year is the 75^th anniversary of the Nakba. This is a clear starting point for this conflict: the forced expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians followed by the systematic destruction of villages and eradication of Palestinian history.

People are still talking about a two-state solution consisting of a series of Bantustans under military surveillance in the West Bank with an encircled Gaza. This is not a viable solution. It denies the Nakba and therefore the right of return of dispossessed Palestinians.

So what does the future hold? I listen to the words of Jamileh Tawfiq, a young woman journalist in the south of Gaza. Her family had evacuated there to escape the bombing but bombs are still falling there. She says:

“No one knows what is going to happen next…they even made us leave our homes, not knowing if we can ever return. We’re trying to stay alive, but we don’t have hope anymore.”

Is anyone capable of hope at the moment? I listened to the words of a 19-year-old, Orly Barlev, who survived the attacks on the kibbutz in the south of Israel. She called on Netanyahu to be thrown out for letting down its own citizens. She insisted, through her trauma and grief,

“I know what I am demanding, I am demanding a just peace, I am demanding that Bedouins in the Negev receive the same support as Kibbutz Be’eri. Don’t talk to me about revenge. Talk to me about a political solution”.

She wants a solution that will bring peace to her and her neighbours – Gazans living 4.5 kilometres away as well as Bedouin.

And that political solution? We call for a “Free, Free Palestine”. We say: “From the River to the sea Palestine will be free”. What do we mean? Free for the young women in the South of Gaza and in the South of Israel and in the West Bank and even for my sister and her family in Tel Aviv? Last week, Ilan Pappe, the historian, talked of the future for the area as a “de-zionised, liberated and democratic Palestine, from the river to the sea”.  Can we have a democratic secular Palestine? A truly non-discriminatory state? A state for all its people? I hold that possibility in my heart.  Thank you.

The text of Glyn Secker’s speech at the PSC demonstration in London on October 21, 2023

Read the slogans on my T shirt – Not in our name. Not in my name.

The gunning down of Israelis civilians were deplorable crimes against humanity. The carpet bombing retaliation by Israel, its attacks on hospitals, shutting down water, food and medical supplies, Are crimes against humanity and war crimes approaching genocide, Unspeakable outrages we utterly condemn. Who created this hell?

In Jews for Justice for Palestinians and Jewish Voice for Labour we have family in Israel. So I’d like to quote +972 magazine – Palestinian and Israeli journalists:

“The dread Israelis are feeling right now is a SLIVER of what Palestinians have been feeling on a daily basis under the decades-long military regime.”

So this war did not start on October 7th. It started with the massacre of Dier Yassin and 18 other villages in ’48, which drove the ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Palestinians; It continued with the ’67 West Bank occupation, its illegal settlements and brutal settlers; its demolitions of 60,000 Palestinian homes, it’s day upon day, year upon year violence, and humiliation of Palestinians;

The Sabra and Shatila massacres, the Huwara and Jenin pogroms; the abduction of children in the middle of the night, many beaten and thrown into solitary confinement; the 6,400 Palestinians killed and 138,000 injured since 2008 – before this month. the rejection in 2004 & 2006 of offers by Hamas of a two state solution; and the assassination of its leader Sheikh Yassin. Then the 16-year siege of Gaza which the United Nations stated became uninhabitable by 2020.

This is Israeli apartheid.

17 failed peace initiatives from 1991. The false definition of the boycott campaign as antisemitic shuts out peaceful direct action.

Context is everything. If it were Israel that suffered this fate who in the world would criticise it if it used force to fight for freedom? No one. No one.

All wars generate crimes against humanity. Israel, the occupying power legally must uphold human rights. It has violated them for 57 years. With its massive military force it is responsible for generating this hell and its outrages. With no siege of Gaza, and no Occupation there would be no rockets fired into Israel and no murder of young Israelis.

We are Jews who are always with the oppressed, never with the oppressor. We demand an end to the occupation and the siege of Gaza. We demand the return of human rights and freedom to the Palestinian people.

From the river to the sea we shall ALL be free.

The demonstration for Palestine on 21st October was certainly the largest seen in London since that against the Iraq War.

This video captures something of the atmosphere of that amazing day as ordinary people from all walks of life – families with children in pushchairs, many trade-union voices but above all young people – protested against the war and against the supine attitude of uncritical support for Israel’s unrelenting bombing and flattening of Gaza and ever-increasing violence on the West Bank shown by Rishi Sunak’s government – and by the Labour “opposition”, terrified of taking a principled, humanitarian stance.