Jews fasting for Gaza on Yom Kippur, Westminster, 1st October

JVL Introduction

We post below a record of the extraordinary and exhilarating event of Jews Fasting for Gaza on Yom Kippur near the House of Commons overnight on 1st-2nd October 2025.

This contains a

• a 23-minute video compilation;
• the report circulated by the organisers (@JewishPeaceniksUK) after the event acknowledging all those who contributed to its success; and
• the moving introductory and concluding remarks made on the occasion.

RK

Report issued by Jewish Peaceniks UK

Our callout for 100 Jews to attend our Jewish Fast for Gaza on Yom Kippur exceeded our expectations! 140 joined us on Kol Nidre, and we had a big crowd for the closing stage of Yom Kippur with a fantastically extended shofar blast by a young woman to mark the end of the Fast. Indeed it was an all-female team who ran the whole event: our organising team of 5 and three amazing young women from JAZA (@Jewish Anti-Zionist Action for their WhatsApp and social media messaging and images, as well as the ‘alternative’ liturgical input in a programme we co-created with them, and which they had  printed alongside the leaflets they designed. So huge credit to this dynamic trio who are keen to work with us again.

A big shout out to Peacenik artist Thandie for her sterling work on the fantastic banner, aided by Peaceniks Marsha and Carolyn, and JAZAs Em and Tal. A shout-out also to Hackney Showroom for offering their rehearsal space for the banner-making, and to loyal friend and supporter of Peaceniks, world-class photographer Gideon Mendel for his photography contributions.

Huge thanks also to Pete Hall from the Holocaust Survivors and Descendants  group  for documenting the event on film.

Six dedicated souls, amongst them  Peaceniks  Marsha and Carole, and JVL’s Tony Booth, and Em who led the liturgical aspect of the event, stayed in position outside Parliament throughout the night. People joined us throughout the following  day, when we held public  readings on the hour by different participants, some of them reading from their own work.

A key aspect was the repeated public enumeration of the multiple and deeply shocking ‘sins’ committed by Israel during this genocide. Here’s a quote from the closing ceremony:

“For the second year in a row, Jews worldwide will recite the Al Het (list of sins) and the Vidui (confessional) in the midst of a genocide being carried out in Gaza in which nearly 100,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands are starving and displaced. It is imperative that we acknowledge some of the sins that have been committed in our name by people and institutions claiming to act on our behalf. Among these are – supporting and defending the oppression of Palestinians, engaging in historical erasure, and degrading, dispossessing, starving and exterminating Palestinians in the name of Jewish self-determination.”

It became a very moving  night and day of solidarity, integenerationality and inclusiveness, the day sadly tainted by the murderous event at the Manchester synagogue and the cruel Israeli intervention in  the remarkable Sumud flotilla.

Introductory and concluding remarks induded these words:

On Yom Kippur, our holiest day, Jews stand together as one people to confess our sins. We say Ashamnu, we have sinned.  And on this day each Jew takes on the responsibility for all the sins committed in our name. We may not have committed the sins, but we had the responsibility to prevent our fellow Jews from those acts, and if we erred, we need to express contrition .

It is traditional to cast these sins into flowing water before the start of Yom Kippur, not to absolve us, but as a vow to make recompense.

We shall now enumerate Israel’s sins as they are symbolically cast as breadcrumbs into the flowing Thames.

1. THE SIN OF LARGE SCALE AND WANTON KILLING AND TORTURE:

• 100,000 Gazans killed since Oct 7 2023 – 14 % of the population
• 20,000 children killed
• 39.000 children orphaned, 16000 having lost both parents
• 17,000 women widowed
• 10-20,000 Gazans buried under the rubble
• Countless deaths due to chronic untreated diseases, infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal deaths
• The highest number of amputees per capita in the world
• The detaining and torturing of medical staff amongst the 1000s of civilians detained and tortured  without charge
• The targeted killing of nearly 300 journalists and media workers

2. THE SIN OF LARGE SCALE PERMANENT INJURY AND DISABLEMENT 

• Over 300 sniper induced spinal injuries largely to children caused through the use of quadcopters, many deliberately targeted
• 20% of the wounded now physically disabled with no access to wheelchairs and crutches which Israel has blocked from entering the Gaza Strip

3. THE SIN OF THE DESTRUCTION OF FAMILY LIFE

• 2,200 families wiped off the social and civil register, ie the children, parents, and grandparents all dead. And so there is no lineage in that family left
• An entire population weakened and threatened with death due to enforced starvation

4. THE SIN OF ALMOST TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY, LAND  AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS 

• 90-95% of all buildings in Gaza destroyed, discharging 50 million tons of debris composed of 200 known carcinogens
• The destruction of hospitals, education institutions, religious institutions, government buildings, water treatment plants, sewage works, power plants, fuel stations, libraries, historic heritage sites, ancient artefacts, cemeteries, agricultural resources including ancient olive groves, water wells
• The toxification of all the land

5. THE SIN OF ENFORCED STARVATION

• • The continued use starvation of civilians as a weapon of war against the Gazan population by  Israel’s deliberate restriction and prevention of entry of food

6. THE SIN OF GENOCIDE

• • Deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

The fast was ended with these words

In this season of atonement Jews must take an ethical stand:

• • Demand an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza.
• • Demand that our religious, educational and cultural institutions acknowledge and speak truthfully about the Palestinian Nakba.
• • Demand that Jewish institutions stop attacking, maligning and punishing those who speak their conscience about Israel’s genocidal violence and dispossession of the Palestinian people.
• • Demand an end to the malicious vilification of fellow Jews who name and oppose Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
• • Demand an end to Jewish communal funding for organizations that promote Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism.
• • Demand an end to Jewish communal funding for organizations that support and enable illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land and which defend settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.