[Marxism] Fwd: Petition for U.S. Jewish Solidarity with Muslim and Arab Peoples of the Middle East

["Lüko Willms" <lueko.willms@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Forwarded from "Portside" distribution list

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Petition for U.S. Jewish Solidarity with Muslim and
Arab Peoples of the Middle East

http://www.jewishsolidarity.info/petition.php#bottom

This statement was drafted by U.S. Jews committed to
stopping and holding accountable Israel for its
destructive policies and practices--most immediately
for a halt to the current attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.

We are gathering signatures from Jews committed to
this. Our goal is to then publish this statement in the
New York Times and other publications.

Please add your name below as an American Jew of
conscience - only if you agree with all 5 points.
http://www.jewishsolidarity.info/petition.php#signature

[Moderator's Note: In the past two days 525 progressive
Jews have added their names to this statement. Click
here to add yours:
http://www.jewishsolidarity.info/petition.php#signature



August 8, 2006 Petition for U.S. Jewish Solidarity with
Muslim and Arab Peoples of the Middle East

As Jews of conscience living in the United States, we
are outraged by the violence being perpetrated in our
name both as Jews and as U.S. citizens. We, the
undersigned, represent Jews across the United States
who are choosing to stand in solidarity with the
peoples of Gaza and Lebanon.

We are appalled by the blatant self-interest revealed
in the U.S.'s leveraging of Israel's actions towards a
"New Middle East" agenda, which it has advanced in
Afghanistan and Iraq in order to serve an increasingly
unilateral economic and political program enforced
through military aggression. With Israel as its
military proxy, this destructive U.S. foreign policy
agenda seeks to establish puppet governments across the
Middle East, in a grand effort to ensure continued oil
supplies to the West at devastating cost to civilian
lives and democracy across the Middle East and beyond.

Focusing upon Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza as well
as Iraq and Afghanistan, this vision for a "New Middle
East" has facilitated hundreds of Lebanese and
Palestinian civilian deaths, over a third of whom are
children, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and
Afghani deaths. We Jews of conscience know that no
justice, no democracy, and no peace can result from
such brutality.

We call upon Jews everywhere to hold the U.S.
government accountable for its 58-year role in
facilitating and benefiting from Israel's long-
standing, military occupation of Palestine, its
repeated acts of collective punishment against both the
Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, and its military
dominance over Lebanon and other countries in the
region.

We are outraged, but by no means surprised, by Israel's
brutality-and consistent support for it by the U.S.
government. We are not surprised because Israel was
founded through a process of colonization. It is well
documented that Israel's founders knew then that their
role in this colonizing process would require an
ongoing military strategy to continue to "cleanse" the
Palestinian population in the name of a "Jewish" state.
They also knew that military dominance of neighboring
Arab countries would be necessary in the name of Jewish
"self-defense." Israel's current attacks on Gaza and
Lebanon are consistent with this history and Israel's
founding vision.

Over and above its betrayal of Jewish ethical claims to
justice, reason, and equity, Israel, the "Jewish"
state, has failed to realize its stated goal to provide
sanctuary for persecuted Jews. Israel's tactics of
fueling hatred and inciting fear, not least where
tolerance and co-existence were once longstanding
rules, cannot ensure Jewish safety but will endanger
the lives of Israeli citizens and residents and of Jews
around the globe.

There is no Jewish safety in a country that rehearses
the violence and persecution which Ashkenazi Jews
experienced for centuries through the annihilation of
the Palestinian people and their homeland.

There is no Jewish safety in alignment with the current
Christian fundamentalist attack on Islam, used
historically not only to justify persecuting Ashkenazi
and Mizrahi Jews but to rain terror upon Arabs and
Muslims since the time of the earliest Crusades.

There is no Jewish safety in allowing the history of
Jewish persecution to be leveraged in support of U.S.
political and economic interests as these entail
amassing funding for Israel's military industry.

Finally, there is no Jewish safety, nor Jewish claims
to justice, reason, or equity, beyond Jewish commitment
to the unconditional safety and liberation of the
peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and the other Arab and
Muslim countries currently under assault by Israel, the
U.S. and its allies.

We, Jews of Conscience, demand that the U.S.
government:

   1. Require Israel to stop its brutal siege on Gaza
   and on Lebanon and call for an unconditional cease
   fire.

   2. Require Israel to stop the expansion of the
   Israeli Wall of Separation, dismantle the completed
   sections, and completely withdraw from Gaza, the
   West Bank and East Jerusalem.

   3. Support the United Nations resolutions demanding
   that Israel uphold international law and support the
   sanctions against Israel necessary to enforce these
   resolutions.

   4. End military and economic aid to Israel.

   5. Support reparations for the Palestinian and
   Lebanese people for the death and destruction they
   have suffered and for aid towards the rebuilding of
   their countries.

For more information contact us at
contact@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------
visit http://www.mlwerke.de Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotzki in German

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