Jews Say No! joins with Palestinians and all those across the globe who welcome Amnesty International’s recently released report Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity, which describes in great detail the system of apartheid that has characterized Israel since its creation.
The Amnesty investigation, which entailed four years of research, follows numerous other reports, including, most recently, those from Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, and reiterates what Palestinians have been making painstakingly clear for more than two decades. The report concludes that “massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.”
Shamefully, some Jewish organizations and the Israeli government have called the report antisemitic—without, notably, any actual refutation of the report’s findings. Their anti-Palestinian racism is all too evident, and they make a mockery of actual antisemitism.
The Amnesty report, as well as other critical reports on Israel’s apartheid system, can best be understood within a context of the broader Palestinian-led movement for justice against settler colonialism and the Zionist movement’s theft of Palestinian land beginning in 1948 with Israel’s creation. At that time, 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land and homes, known as the Nakba, the catastrophe. This process of ethnic cleansing continues to this very day, as we have most recently seen in Sheikh Jarrah and throughout East Jerusalem with the violent expulsions of Palestinian from their homes.
We will continue to stand firm with the Palestinian movement for freedom, justice, equality, and dignity, which includes our support for the global call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and equal rights for all from the river to the sea.
Jews Say No!
New York City
February 2022
Jews Say No: Not In Our Name! 