Professor Irene Bruegel

We are sad to have to announce the death of Irene Bruegel, who started Jews

for Justice for Palestinians.   Irene was 62 and has disappeared long before her time and will be greatly missed.   Below is an appreciation put out by Jews for Justice for Palestinians followed by some tributes from IJV members.

Irene's energy, commitment and creativity and that of her partner Richard

Kuper, were central to the establishment and spectacular growth of JfJfP.

She returned from a trip to the West Bank at the end of 2001, determined to

do something, and when she was determined, something usually got done. From

a meeting of fifteen of Irene and Richard's friends in a pub near Kings

Cross, JfJfP has grown into one of the biggest and most influential Jewish

organisations campaigning for the end of the Israeli occupation of the

Palestinian territories and the negotiation of a just and peaceful

settlement in Israel/Palestine. Irene was brimful of ideas about extending

JfJfP's work. She avoided sloganizing, ever aware of the importance of

reaching people who might join in a campaign for justice, if they were only

prompted in a constructive way. She was usually the one who picked up the

pieces if one of us dropped them.

For several years Irene also chaired JfJfP's charitable offshoot - the

British Shalom Salaam Trust. Her loyalty, determination and tenacity ensured

that BSST became a hugely important lifeline for dozens of grassroots

education, health, peace and cultural projects on both sides of the Green

Line.

In this year, the sixtieth anniversary of Israel's foundation, Irene had two

priorities - that the sixtieth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba be

remembered, and that we celebrate the courage of all those Israelis whose

lives are committed to combating the occupation. The 'Another Israel'

exhibition, which she organized, oversaw, and which continues to be

dispatched all over Britain, is a memorial to her imagination and

enthusiasm.

Irene was many things - a feminist, an internationalist, a writer and a

teacher. Above all, she was an activist, who thought the point of her

academic writing and her other work was to effect progressive change. We

hope to establish a fund to commemorate her work and will let you know as

soon as this has this has been agreed.

Our thoughts are with Richard and the children, Martin, David, Dan & Jo and

the other members of her family.

Tributes from members of the original IJV Steering Group.

Irene was simply indefatigable. I have watched her over the years create

with such determination and conviction the political space she so strongly

felt was needed for Jews on behalf of Palestinians. It was immensely bold

and it worked, through her and through Richard. IJV learnt from her.  We

have always known how much we are in her debt.

Professor Jacqueline Rose

The death of Irene Bruegel leaves the world a poorer place, bereft of one of the
most vital and passionate people ever to have taken up the cause of justice for
Palestinians in Britain. It was the ‘modest proposal’ Irene sent out to her Jewish
friends in 2001, suggesting that we could, and should, raise our voices
collectively to express our dismay at the ongoing annihilation of the human
rights of Palestinians in Israel’s Occupied Territory that became the trigger for
so many us to begin working for peace and justice in that region. Together with
her partner, Richard Kuper, Irene was in every sense uniquely inspirational in
making contacts around the world for encouraging Jews and Palestinians to work
together for peace. I have always been inspired and moved by Irene’s courage
and imagination, and am confident that her memory will continue to encourage
us to support those causes that she fought for so tenaciously. However, her
energy, creativity, insight and intelligence will be sorely missed as Irene was,
quite simply, an irreplaceable presence in our midst.

Professor Lynne Segal

When Irene Bruegel started Jews for Justice for Palestinians it was an

immensely brave and imaginative venture.   In  typically uncompromising

fashion Irene insisted on putting the word ³Palestinian² in the name,

knowing that it would cause ripples in the Jewish community but Justice for

Palestinians WAS the issue and there was no compromising with that.   With

unflagging energy, even in the face of illness, Irene pursued that end in a

variety of ways, not least the setting up of the splendid Shalom/Salaam

Trust, adding practical assistance to the activities of a pressure group.

Ann Jungman

Indefatigable is the word that comes to mind when I think of  Irene.  And

persistent. Unbelievably so. She would nag, cajole and morally  blackmail

you into adding your voice to the cause  of justice for Palestinians, and

part of the reason she was impossible to shake off was because it was

clear that no matter how much she persuaded you to do, she would always be

doing much, much  more.  A face so familiar at every meeting.   What a

terrible loss of someone who was determined to make her mark  and let her

voice be heard,  not out of some misguided sense of egotism, but for the

sake of people whose voices cannot be heard.

Gillian Slovo

I didn't really know Irene personally but I felt the force of her tenacity

in fighting for the rights of Palestinians and for a different turn in the

narrative of Israel. A Jew who embodied  a precious commitment to justice

and to playing  an important part in the attempt to make that justice, her

spirit represents the kind of jewish identity we can respect and admire. A

terrible loss. Much love to Richard and all the family and close friends.

Susie Orbach