Jewish Friends of Palestine An Online Resource of Jewish Activists for a Free Palestine www.jewishfriendspalestine.org

Origins

The Jewish Friends of Palestine project - originating in Denver, Colorado (USA) - was inspired by the creation of a local Jewish organization supporting a just peace. Upon the creation of this organization it occured to a few activists that there are many such organizations throughout the United States and around the World although there was only limited interaction between them. The project was first launched in May of 2002 with the goal of creating an online community of Jewish activists supporting a free Palestine, by means of a WebRing connecting Jewish activist sites as well as a "Gateway" website meant to help direct interested parties in locating Jewish activists with whom they agree.

However, due in part to the diverse, and at times confrontational, nature of the various ideologies, beliefs, and viewpoints of many of the Jewish organizations that support a free Palestine, this original initiative met with a cool response from many quarters. While many people supported the "Gateway" site and few joined the WebRing, especially among Israeli activists, many others expressed a wariness to - and one group expressed an absolute unwillingness to - associate with a project that included this group or that due to differences of opinions or beliefs between them.

This led to a reassessment of the project and its intentions. It was noted that the Jewish Friends of Palestine was more of a resource as opposed to an actual campaign suggesting or endorsing specific action(s). This meant that there was little actual incentive for organizations to join the WebRing or associate with the project. Therefore, in middle June 2002, Jewish Friends of Palestine was redesigned into its current format and the WebRing aspect of the project was dropped altogether.

Criteria ^{Amendment 1}

The Jewish Friends of Palestine project is meant for individuals and organizations that identify themselves as being, in whole or in large part, "Jewish" - religiously, ethnically, culturally, et cetera. Among such Jewish organizations and individuals those that advocate the bare minimum requirements for a sustainable peace for Israel/Palestine - namely, an end to the Israeli occupation of the Territories conquered in 1967 (constituting 22% of Palestine - the "West Bank" and "Gaza Strip") and a willingness to share Jerusalem/Al Quds - are included. These two factors, Jewish and supportive of the necessary requirements for peace, constitute the sole criteria for inclusion, despite the various opinions, beliefs, and viewpoint points that have led to this conclusion.

The vast majority of sites and individuals represented on this website represent various shades of Left-wing opinion, most of which do not question Israel's right to exist with peace and security within its pre-1967 borders. However, also included are a number of sites that express less popular and more controversial viewpoints, such as organizations supporting a "one state solution" (the unification of Israel and Palestine into one secular state with all peoples, Arab and Jewish, having identical rights and opportunities, no more strictly "Jewish State"); organizations of religious Torah Jews that consider Israel and Zionism a heresy, Jewish Bundist survivors that oppose the concept of Zionism on ideological grounds, Classical Reform organizations that reject the Zionist advocacy of a "Jewish nationality", but define Judaism as strictly a religion, and so on.

It was the inclusion of these smaller and more controversial organizations that led to the wariness to join the WebRing among many of the more mainstream progressive organizations. Be that as it may, it was decided not to exclude these smaller groups because part of the entire idea is to help illustrate the diversity and broad array of Jewish perspectives that support a free Palestine. The hope is that while virtually everyone will find at least a couple sites that they strongly disagree with, at the same time, hopefully they will also find a number of sites with which they agree and decide to associate with. Contrary to the commonly held view that only the progressive organizations question the continued occupation, as the Intifada continues and Likud repeatedly fails in every respect to stop it, many others who do not necessarily look kindly on the Jewish Left are beginning to privately question whether or not ending the occupation would be a reasonable price to pay for a sustainable peace. We hope that people of this ilk find something useful here as well.

For the record, the Jewish Friends of Palestine project is owned and operated by people holding liberal and progressive viewpoints, but in true liberal tradition, are also willing to include organizations that we may personally disagree with. The sole grounds for exclusion from this project are those few Jewish individuals that voluntarily associate with or support Holocaust deniers and real Anti-Semites (people who hate Jews because they are Jews, not Anti-Zionists or people that question Israel), as well as those that advocate racist positions.

Goals

In general, the Jewish Friends of Palestine project has three primary goals:

1. To provide an online resource for Jewish activists as a means of encouraging further networking, interaction, and coordination. There is a distinct lack of coordination and cooperation among Jewish activists that share the same or similar goals and hopefully this initiative will help to counter that trend in some small way.

2. To illustrate that the commonly propagated myth that "all Jews" support Israel's policies and the continued occupation is, in fact, quite untrue. Although there have been some Jewish organizations that have made a strong public appearance in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in general, Jewish people that have the audacity to question the Occupation are treated as some insignificant fringe element in the West. This project hopes to illustrate that, while Jewish people openly opposing the Occupation in the West do in fact constitute a minority, it is hardly insignificant or a tiny fringe movement.

3. The third goal is to encourage other Jewish people of conscience to speak out by showing that they are not alone and providing them with the means of getting in touch with others that share their views. The "Israel - Right or Wrong!" orthodoxy maintained by much of the organized Jewish community in the West is a powerful means of stiffling dissent. Perhaps this project can play a minor role in breaking this orthodoxy and showing that exercising one's right to question the occupation is not an act of treason or even anti-Israel. In fact, ending the Occupation is very much in Israel's best interest, so those that recognize this should not be discouraged from saying so.

Future

Jewish Friends of Palestine is an open ended project that hopes to expand into various forms of activism in the future. We welcome any suggestions on how to improve our current operations and are open to any ideas that promote the goals of the project. Comments can be submitted by way of our General Feedback option.