We Jews Will Not Be Celebrating Israel’s Anniversary

This is a statement first crafted by Harold Pinter and other British Jews and recently endorsed by those listed below.

TO ADD YOUR NAME CLICK HERE MAKE SUBJECT: ENDORSE JEWISH STATEMENT or send an email to mail@thestruggle.org

The Guardian,  April 30, 2008

We Are  Not Celebrating Israel’s Anniversary

In May, Jewish organizations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-Semitism and Hitler’s genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasized, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Nakba is to the Palestinians.

In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa’s market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorized the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.

In July 1948, 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in Lydda and Ramleh in the heat of the summer with no food or water. Hundreds died. It was known as the Death March. We will not be celebrating.

In all, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Some 400 villages were wiped off the map. That did not end the ethnic cleansing. Many thousands more when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Under international law and sanctioned by UN resolution 194, refugees from war have a right to return or compensation. Israel has never accepted that right. We will not be celebrating.

We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.

Paula Abrams-Hourani
Vienna, Austria

Miriam Adams
Albuquerque NM

Keren Batiyov
Jew of Conscience
Arlington, VA

Maya Beasley,
Professor, CT

Aja Beasley,
designer, Chevy Chase, MD

Prof. Daniel Boyarin,
UC Berkeley

Hanna Braun; teacher (retired)
London; UK

Lenni Brenner,
author, Manhattan

Dan Burnstein,
lawyer, Boston, MA

Paola Canarutto

Ellen Cantarow
writer, musician, teacher

Smadar Carmon
Not in Our Name
Toronto

Ruth Clark

Judith Deutsch,
Toronto, Canada
Psychoanalyst, Vice-President Science for Peace

Shraga Elam
journalist, Zurich, Switzerland.

Dror Feiler
Stockholm
Sweden

Judith Fieldstone,
Chevy Chase, MD

Joel R Finkel
Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago

Ruth Fruchtman
Malmöer Str. 25
10439 Berlin
Germany

Sherna Berger Gluck
California, Professor Emerita,
Member of SWANA (South and West Asia and North AFrica) Collective of KPFK/Pacifica

Sue Goldstein
artist and anti-zionist activist
Toronto

Jepke Goudsmit
Coogee, Australia

Andy Griggs
California, teacher; union and human rights/social justice activist;

Freda Guttman
International Middle East Media Centre
Beit Sahour, West Bank, Occupied Palestine

Yael Korin,
UCLA Research Scientist, Los Angeles, Ca

Carole LaFlamme, Women in Black-Los Angeles

Barbara Harvey
Attorney
Detroit, Michigan

Iris Hefets
student, berlin, Germany

Batya Hecker
bernran@aol.com

Adam M. Helfgott
Substitute Teacher, Middletown, CT

Stanley Heller
host “The Struggle” TV News
Connecticut

Louis Hirsch

Philippe Jacob

Stephen Kamnitzer

Mark Kaswan
Doctoral Candidate in Political Science, Los Angeles, CA

Jenny Kastner
I am a grandmother, retired community organizer, and anti-zionist activist.

Alisa Klein,
Israeli and U.S. Citizen, Public Policy Consultant, Northampton, MA

Jason Kunin, teacher
Educators for Peace and Justice
Toronto, Canada

Fey Kurd

Howard Lenow
Vice Chair, Jewish Voice for Peace

Joseph Levine
Dept. of Philosophy
Univ. of Mass

Micki Ezri Longum
Teacher/counsellor
Oslo/Norway

Jennifer Lowenstein

Barbara Lubin
Middle East Children’s Alliance
http://www.mecaforpeace.org

Hilda Meers
(UK)

Peter Melvyn
Vienna, Austria

Hajo G. Meyer, Ph D (theor. Physics)
survivor of Auschwitz for 10 months,
former Director of Research, Philips Electronics Cy in the Netherlands,
Author of The End of Judaism and
Tragic Fate, The German Jews, Paragon and Victim of the Effects of Forces in History,

Roirand Michele
France

Linda Milazzo
Writer/Educator/Activist
Los Angeles, CA

Mark B. Miller

Rachella Mizrachi.

dorinda moreno,
usa
fuerzamundial/we are the ones
sybersysters for peace in the mideast

Dorothy Naor
American-Israeli (residing in Herzliah, Israel)
activist against Israel’s occupation of Palestinians and Palestine

Alex Nissen
Victoria, Australia

Dr. Marcy Newman,
Associate Professor of English, Boise State University

Henry Norr
Berkeley, California, USA

Prof. Bertell Ollman,
NYU

Norah Orlow,
Jerusalem
political activist

Jean Pauline
Oakland, California
Bay Area Women in Black,

Lillian Pollak

Karin Pally
Santa Monica, CA

Karen Platt
member of Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany, CA

Vivienne Porzsolt
Sydney, Australia

Dr. Alice Powell, psychologist and peace activist

Stewart Robinson,
retired professor of Mathematics, Cleveland Ohio

Marta Romer
Sydney, Australia

Lori Rudolph
Visiting Professor
New Mexico Highlands University

Carol Sanders
Activist with Jewish Voice for Peace
Bay Area, California

MARGOT SALOM
Retired Social Worker, Writer
Brisbane Australia

Ellen L Shifrin

John Sigler
Jewish Friends of Palestine
http://wwwjewishfriendspalestine.org
One State Bibliography Project
http://www.onestate.org

Phyllis Solomon, senior citizen and great-grandmother,
Seal Beach Leisure World in California.

Vera Szoke
Pro-Palestinian activist (Jewish)

Roger Tucker,
webmaster of http://www.one-state.net , Hillsborough, NC

Darlene Wallach, San Jose, California, substitute high school teacher,
working with the Free Gaza Movement to break the siege of Gaza summer
2008.

Donna Wallach,
Anti-Zionist Activist, San Jose, CA

Bill Weinberg,
writer, radio producer, WBAI, New York City

Eric Weissberg
Musician
Woodstock NY

Saria Idana J. Young
Los Angeles CA