IJV Adverts in the Jewish Chronicle

Independent Jewish Voices is publishing a series of adverts, initially in the Jewish Chronicle,

If you would like to comment on the advert, or suggest content for future ones, click through here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th july 2008

I feel like they are destroying part of me"
- Mohammed Shawanreh, Palestinian farmer surveying his destroyed olive
groves.

Olive trees beautify Ma'ale Adumim
A vast Jewish settlement deep into the West Bank

But the trees, like the land of the settlement,
Were taken from Abu Dis and other Palestinian villages

Hundreds of thousands of olive trees
Have been uprooted by settlers and soldiers

In defiance of Jewish, Muslim and international law
Wrecking the livelihoods of Palestinian farmers


This is Occupation

6th June 2008: What is Jerusalem?

The Israeli government has just announced plans to build nearly 900 new housing units for Jewish residency in East Jerusalem. But what is Jerusalem. Following the 1967 war, Israel annexed not just the 6 sq km of East Jerusalem but an area 10 times that size - an additional 64 sq km including numerous outlying Palestinian villages.

Ever since, Israel has defined these West Bank hilltops as part of Jerusalem. To the rest of the world, the announcement by the Israeli government sends a clear message: relentless expansion in defiance of the Road Map freeze on settlement building. 

Is this the way to pursue peace?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are not looking for signatories, as it is not a full page advert. The idea is a series of small, affordable adverts like those published by Gush Shalom in the Ha'aretz newspaper in Israel. However being able to continue depends on donations:

Please help to pay for this and future advertisements by sending a cheque to 'Independent Jewish Voices', PO Box 56912, London N10 3WW or by direct bank transfer to LloydsTSB, Sort Code: 30-94-24, Acct. No. 00655956

 

6th May 2008

60 Years - We wish everyone could celebrate

It is 60 years since the creation of the state of Israel, celebrated by most Israelis and many Jews around the world. But which Israel is being commemorated?

Is it the Israel that, in its Declaration of Independence in 1948, in the wake of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, proclaimed that "it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex ... will be faithful to the principles of the UN Charter ... extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness"?

Or is it the Israel that for decades has occupied the territory and lives of its Palestinian neighbours, surrounded them with settlers, barriers and checkpoints, confiscated their land, demolished their homes, uprooted their trees, subjected them to daily humiliations, mass detentions, periodic sieges and deadly incursions, and deprived them of the right to self-determination and freedom that Israel vigorously asserts for itself?

The state of Israel was at one time a major unifying force for Jews of different persuasions around the world - from left to right, from religious to secular. Today it is probably the single main cause of division. In country after country, including Israel itself, public dissent from Israeli policies has become a widespread reality. Informed by traditional Jewish values and concern for universal human rights, a growing number of Jews are openly repudiating the claim of successive Israeli governments to speak and act in the name of all Jews.

In another 10 years, Israel will be commemorating its 70th anniversary. Unless the occupation is brought swiftly to an end, there may be little left to celebrate.
****************************************************************************************

Placed by Independent Jewish Voices Steering Group. Please help to pay for this and future advertisements by sending a cheque to 'Independent Jewish Voices', PO Box 56912, London N10 3WW or email for details of payment by direct bank transfer.