Jewish support for ICC prosecution of Israeli leaders for war crimes
Jewish support for ICC prosecution of Israeli leaders for war crimes; vehement rejection, by us Jews, of abuses against Jews throughout the world due to a fallacious conflation between Israel and Jewishness as well as a misuse of the word “anti-Semitism”.
Statement :
We, Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Jewish Voices for a Just Peace in the Middle East), express our support for the statement of the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court on September 10, 2024, urging the Court to produce, “of the most urgently,” arrest warrants for war crimes against Israelis Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
For almost a year, the State of Israel and the Israeli government have been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a daily basis in the Gaza Strip. In recent months, the extent of these crimes has become even worse. Almost every day, the Israeli army massacres traumatized refugees and displaced civilians, including in areas declared “safe” by the army itself. The repeated killing of civilians is not an isolated mistake but reflects a pattern and intent to destroy Gaza and the Palestinian people there and in other territories occupied by the State of Israel.
Since October 2023, the State of Israel has been starving the population of Gaza and blocking water resourceskilled more than 500 health workerssystematically destroyed hospitals and the health system as well as agricultural infrastructure. It deliberately hinders access to care for people suffering from serious illnesses (at least 12,000 people), forced the displacement of more than 90% of the population of Gaza and directly killed more than 40,000 Palestinians. Some 500,000 people face “catastrophic levels of food insecurity “. The built environment was almost entirely destroyed (“domicide”). It is clear that the actions of the State of Israel are aimed at making Gaza uninhabitable for Palestinians.
These atrocities were ordered by the government of the State of Israel and carried out by the Israeli armed forces. We draw public attention to the numerous racist and dehumanizing statements made by figures across the spectrum of Israeli leadership, including President Isaac Herzog, who declared that there are “no innocent Palestinians.” .es in Gaza,” and former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who has taken an active part in every phase of Gaza’s destruction, including last week calling on the world to support the Gaza state. Israel by putting more pressure on civilians in Gaza.
We state in the clearest terms that we reject the argument by Netanyahu and the State of Israel that it would be an anti-Semitic act to prosecute them before the highest courts. We unequivocally affirm that if there is any entity endangering Jewish lives and abusing both the rights and security of Jews around the world, it is the State of Israel.
The State of Israel has no right to speak on behalf of the Jews of the world, nor to unilaterally decide what anti-Semitism is based on its interests and whims. We categorically reject the assertion that Israel is the “Jewish State.” The Jewish people live all over the world. Claiming that Israel is the “Jewish state” is tantamount to admitting the old anti-Semitic clichés that Jews cannot belong to Europe, the Americas or any other continent, but should go to Palestine. Of all the states, Germany is the one that cooperates the most with these anti-Jewish policies of the State of Israel. Germany’s insistence on calling the State of Israel “the Jewish State” and letting that state, in effect, decide what should and should not be considered anti-Semitism, constitutes the worst kind of exclusion of Jews from Europe. We repeat: not only is the State of Israel not not our representative as Jews, but he acts against our interests as Jews in Europe and in the world. Germany, for its part, would do well to focus on combating the worrying rise of its far-right, which has historically endangered our lives and those of other groups in Germany, and persists in doing so. do today.
The State of Israel claims that there is a double standard – and unfortunately we have to acquiesce. Germany, the United States and other Western countries unconditionally support the State of Israel by ignoring its crimes in a way they cannot do with other countries. Whether because of the responsibility felt by Germany and Europe for their history of anti-Semitism and the extermination of Jews during the Nazi genocide, or because of the tolerance of Western countries towards colonial projects , or even out of pure Islamophobia, we must put an end to this double standard. The Western world must immediately stop giving carte blanche to crimes committed by the State of Israel. As Jews, we demand that all Western countries – and Germany in particular – stop using this false and misleading term “Jewish State”, and that they stop letting this State decide what is “Jewish” and what is “anti-Semitic”.
Berlin, September 11, 2024
Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost e. V. (Germany)
(Translated from English by Joëlle Marelli)
Other signatories, in support:
Jewish Network for Palestine (UK), Jewish Voice for Labor (UK) Tsedek! Decolonial Jewish Collective (France), French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP) (France), Kessem – decolonial Jewish feminists (France), De-Colonizer (Belgium), Union of Jewish Progressives of Belgium (UPJB) (Belgium), A Different Jewish Voice (EAJG) (Netherlands), Erev Rav (Netherlands), Jews for Palestine (Ireland), Jewish Call for Peace (Luxembourg), MARAD – Decolonial Jewish Collective (Switzerland), Judeobolschewiener*innen (Austria), Junts – Associació Catalana de Jueus i Palestins (Spain), Israelis Against Apartheid Boycott from Within (Israel), South African Jews for a Free Palestine, Jews Say No! (USA), Jews Against the Occupation ’48 (Australia), Alternative Jewish Voices of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Note-s
French Jewish Union for Peace
