The Growing Jewish Resistance to Israel’s War on Palestine

On Oct. 20, more than 100 people were arrested in New York while calling on Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to support a cease-fire in an action sponsored by the New York chapter of JVP. On Oct. 23, Jewish groups in Chicago organized an unprecedented coalition that motivated hundreds of people to protest the Israeli government’s violence and led 50 people to risk arrest while blocking traffic at a major downtown intersection at rush hour. They were demanding Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth support a cease-fire while chanting, among other things, ​“never again is now.” And on Oct. 25, more than 100 Jews and allies held sit-ins in the offices of Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, demanding they back a cease-fire and address the root causes of Israeli occupation and apartheid. 

DSA members have made more than 100,000 phone calls to members of Congress asking that they sign on the House cease-fire resolution. And there have been many more rallies, marches, demonstrations, and sit-ins all over the country, led by both Palestinian-led organizations like Adalah Justice Project, Al-Awda and the Palestinian Youth Movement, as well as by Jewish groups who support Palestinian rights.

New York Mayor Eric Adams has slammed pro-Palestinian activists and organizers, including the New York City chapter of DSA, as being anti-Semitic. Adams accused DSA members of ​“carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people,” even though there’s been no proof whatsoever of that charge. (The chapter did post on social media about a pro-Palestine rally on Oct. 8 where a swastika was reportedly seen, but otherwise had no involvement in it.) A recent exposé by Political Research Associates also revealed the disturbing phenomena of neonazis and white supremacists showing up to pro-Palestine rallies aiming to sow further division, yet politicians like Adams and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) cast DSA as a hate group while letting white supremacists, a major threat to our safety, skate by largely unnoticed. While some members have publicly clashed with DSA over its position on the conflict, many other members are doubling down on their support for Palestinian rights, including many Jewish members. 

A member of New York City DSA, Oren Schweitzer, along with a member of North New Jersey DSA, Jake Ephros, co-organized an open letter titled ​“Not in Our Name! Jewish Socialists Say No to Apartheid and Genocide,” which has now been signed by nearly 400 Jewish socialists (including myself, as well as two members of the In These Times staff, Ari Bloomekatz and Sam Fine). The letter states, ​“Make no mistake: opposing Israeli apartheid and the impending genocide in Gaza are just, right, and not anti-Semitic. We are proud to be Jewish, socialist and pro-Palestine. As Israel carries out the same crimes once committed against our ancestors, we declare not in our name!”

Schweitzer was driven to author the letter in part due to his own Jewish identity and family history. He told In These Times that he and Ephros had seen ​“massive amounts of outrage toward DSA’s pro-Palestine stance… Apartheid and genocide are not Jewish values, in fact, fighting against ethnic cleansing and justice for all is one of the most Jewish values imaginable. My grandfather escaped the Nazi holocaust and many of his family were exterminated in the camps. I stand with Palestinian liberation because in their struggle I see my own family’s struggle for freedom, peace, and security.”

Elliot Lewis, a Jewish member of New York City DSA and a signatory on the letter, told In These Times that ​“it’s pretty deep in my Jewish and socialist ethics that when any people are being oppressed, we have a duty to fight for their freedom. And [DSA] has condemned Hamas’ attacks on civilians, and also has condemned Hamas. We just also condemned the violence that Israel has been carrying out over the last 75 years. It’s a pretty reasonable position, but our opponents and people acting in bad faith are trying to smear us.” (Lewis was also one of the arrestees at the demonstration outside Gillibrand and Schumer’s office.)

There’s a long and rich history of Jewish anti-war activism, along with Jewish socialism and even Jewish non-Zionism and anti-Zionism. In the heat of the Vietnam War, many Jews stood up to oppose U.S. involvement, and the majority of Jews in the United States were against the war in Iraq as well. For generations, Jews around the world have been involved in the fight for socialism, as illustrated by the General Jewish Labour Bund in the early 20^th Century. And while many mainstream Jewish organizations gloss over this history, there have always been anti-Zionist Jews who believe that our homeland is wherever we are.

Over the last few weeks, there have been many social media posts and op-eds written by Jews who feel ignored or forgotten by the Left, or who feel like they have to choose between their progressive politics and their support of Israel. But there’s a growing movement of progressive Jews who believe the occupation and system of apartheid do not make Israelis or Jews safer, who believe in Palestinian liberation, and who never consented to a genocide being executed in our name. As someone who has been involved in the movement for Palestinian rights for nearly a decade, I can say first hand that it has grown exponentially — which was never more clear to me than when I got arrested last week with hundreds of other Jews. But no matter how many times we say we’re Jewish, and how those values and history are exactly why we support the fight for a free Palestine, we’re called traitors.

In Hebrew School I was taught to understand the importance of practicing both Tikkun Olam, the mandate to repair the world, and chesed, loving kindness. Razing buildings that house entire families, cutting off access to water and electricity, bombing churches and hospitals, shooting children: none of that is loving kindness. Many Jews also frequently quote the portion of the Talmud that says, ​“whoever kills one life kills the entire world, and whoever saves one life saves the entire world.” Any Jew who takes our teachings seriously should support a cease-fire and engage in loving kindness and any effort that might save even one life — because for each life we save, we help save the entire world.