American Jews for a Just Peace (AJJP) is an alliance of activists in the United States working to ensure equal rights, safety, and dignity for all the people of historic Palestine.  AJJP operates as an alliance of autonomous chapters and individual members across the United States.  AJJP is a grassroots, membership-driven network with the goal of coordinating our collective work under a shared name and agreed statement of Common Ground principles.

We are a predominantly Jewish organization, but welcome the full participation of all people of good will who agree with our Common Ground.

American Jews for a Just Peace strongly opposes yesterday's statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulating Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on his alleged agreement to limit settlement expansion.  This is a direct change in the United States' call for a total freeze of all Israeli settlement activity, including "natural growth," as expressed in President Obama's Cairo speech on June 4, 2009.  All such settlement building is in direct and undeniable violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.  AJJP will continue to press for a just and sustainable resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people, and for full Israeli compliance with international law.  

AJJP member Anna Baltzer presents this 55 minute video on Life in Occupied Palestine.  Please click here to view.

This blog is maintained by Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz. Weiss is 53 and lives in New York state. Horowitz is 35 and lives in Pennsylvania. They maintain the blog because of 9/11, Iraq, Gaza, the Nakba, the struggling people of Israel and Palestine, and our Jewish background.

We recommend you take a look.

It was as if some official, perhaps one of President Obama’s “czars,” like the Czar for Demolishing American Credibility, had orchestrated a systematic campaign to isolate the US from the rest of the world, make it a political laughing-stock and, finally, render it a second-rate power capable of throwing around tremendous military weight but absolutely incapable of leading us to a better future. The Israel-Palestine conflict, while not the world’s bloodiest, constitutes, for many people of the world, a unique gauge of American interests and intentions. So consider the messages this string of actions sent out to the world:  (read the rest of the article......)

Badil, ICAHD and the International Alliance of Inhabitants have drafted a call for the launch of the Zero Evictions in Palestine and Israel, Now! campaign. The International Alliance of Inhabitants has previously launched the Zero Evictions Nigeria Campaign and this will be run under their auspices. The public launch will be in Geneva during the Durban Review Conference next week on 22 April. This is expected to be a fairly high profile effort and intended to build upon the already high profile of house demolitions, yet keep the issue in the context of the hierarchy of privilege inside of Israel and the occupation. The call will be available in Arabic, Hebrew and a dozen other languages before the launch. The Call is reproduced below in the read more section.

Read Alice Rothchild's piece on the ascension of Avigdor Leiberman and the perspective of Sami Abu Shehade, a postgraduate student at Tel Aviv University and community organizer from Jaffa. 

AJJP CONFERENCE A SUCCESS!

AMERICAN JEWS FOR A JUST PEACE, held its 2009 Second Annual Meeting, “The Key Is Justice; the Time Is Now,” on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over the weekend of October 16 - 18, 2009.  In attendance were members of American Jew for a Just Peace from Vermont, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Columbus, Ohio, Chicago, Albuquerque, Seattle and Israel-Palestine.   

The conference began Friday evening with a DVD message of support from U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich.  This was followed by a keynote talk by Jeff Halper titled "New Strategies for an Old Conflict:  Israel/Palestine 2010." Jeff Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and a working partner and ally of American Jews for a Just Peace.  Adam Horowitz, Journalist, Activist and Mondoweiss blogger, introduced Jeff Halper.  Jeff’s talk, open to the public, drew a capacity crowd that included people of all faiths and was distinguished by its multi-generational character.

The conference itself consisted of two days of substantive workshops, including the ongoing participation of Jeff Halper and other noted activists throughout the weekend.  Workshop presenters and moderators included:

·      Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.  Moderated by Adam Horowitz (Mondoweiss), and facilitated by Hannah Mermelstein (co-founder Birthright Unplugged and Students Boycott Apartheid) and   Riham Barghouti (Adalah: NY: The Coalition for Middle East Peace);

·      Working with Christian Churches. Mark Braverman (Author of newly released Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land,                        Activist and  Consultant);

·      Lobbying & the Arms Export Control Act. Jeff Halper and  Jimmy Johnson (ICAHD);

·      Organizing as Jews. Presenters were Dorothy Zellner and Donna Neville (NYC, Jews Say NO);

·      March on Gaza. Felice Gellman (Gaza March);

·      Jewish National Fund.  Hannah Schwarzschild (PJJP). Susan Landau, and Kathy Cohen.

A brief Business Meeting was held on Sunday morning that included an amendment to the By Laws.

 Judith Kolokoff (AJJP, Seattle) and Lori Rudolph (AJJP, Albuquerque), along with members of AJJP’s Campaigns Working Group, facilitated a workshop for much of Sunday out of which the  AJJP membership will determine its actionable agenda for 2010.  Based upon the content of the prior workshops, members were provided an opportunity to address and prioritize interests.  Four working groups were formed on the following topics: (1) AJJP-ICAHD partnership; (2) the Trees of Reconciliation Campaign and the Jewish National Fund; (3) Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign; and (4) working with Christian churches.    For further information about any of these initiatives, email: sjlandau@aol.com                       

 A full conference report will be available to members soon.

Ilan Pappe has written a piece that we think deserves wide attention.  You can read it here.

AJJP has issued the this press release.

Click here to add you name to an Open Letter to Israeli Soldiers.

Henry Siegman discusses the truths and falsehoods of Gaza.

"The rationalization for Israel's massacres, already being faithfully transmitted by the English-language media, is that Israel is acting in "retaliation" for Palestinian rockets fired with increasing intensity ever since the six-month truce expired on 19 December (until today, no Israeli had been killed or injured by these recent rocket attacks).

"But today's horrific attacks mark only a change in Israel's method of killing Palestinians recently. In recent months they died mostly silent deaths, the elderly and sick especially, deprived of food and necessary medicine by the two year-old Israeli blockade calculated and intended to cause suffering and deprivation to 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority refugees and children, caged into the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, Palestinians died silently, for want of basic medications: insulin, cancer treatment, products for dialysis prohibited from reaching them by Israel."
—Ali Abunimah (Electronic Intifada)

Emergency Alert: Take Action to End Israeli Attacks on Gaza

AJJP Press Release: Call to Stop the Bombing in Gaza

Enough of the massacre on Gaza (placard, right). The sign in the background says: Solidarity with the families of Sderot, Ashkelon and Gaza.

Check out our new Trees of Reconciliation project.

The Shministim are Israeli high school seniors—596 of them at the last count—who are taking a strong and principled position against the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of Palestinian citizens of Israel.  They are refusing military service in order to focus world attention on the injustice and cruelty of the occupation.

AJJP urges all progressives to show their support now for these courageous young Israelis.  Their stand takes courage because they are imprisoned, often in solitary confinement, and often multiple times.  Each refusal to serve is treated as a new crime.  Some shministim have been imprisoned for up to two years.  Four of them are serving repeat prison sentences now for their principled opposition to the Occupation.

New Profile, a group that supports the shministim, is itself under criminal investigation for counseling them.  Read the open letter from the shministim here.

CO Tamar Katz refused to wear a military uniform when she returned to Military Prison no. 400 for the third time on 1 Dec., and was therefore placed in the Isolation Ward of the prison.

We now received information that the prison authorities are mistreating Tamar, probably in an attempt to pressure her to wear a uniform against her decision. More specifically, Tamar is not allowed to make phone calls to her family, not allowed to change clothes, and has even been denied the opportunity to wash her teeth.

This calls for some special action to be taken. First and foremost, Tamar herself needs moral support. You can write her messages of encouragement to her prison address:

Tamar Katz
Military ID 5396326
Military Prison No. 400
Military Postal Code 02447, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-3-9579389

But please be sure to back them up with messages sent by e-mail to shministim@gmail.com, as other messages will take much longer to arrive and might well be blocked.

Alternatively, you can fax your letter of support for the shministim directly to:

Commander of Military Prison No. 400 Military Prison No. 400 Military postal number 02447, IDF Israel. Fax: ++972-3-9579389

Mr. Ehud Barak Minister of Defence Ministry of Defence Hakirya, Tel-Aviv 64743, Israel. E-mail: sar@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.il Tel.: ++972-3-6975540 or ++972-3-6975423 Fax: ++972-3-6976711

Avichai Mandelblit, Chief Military Attorney Military postal code 9605, IDF Israel Fax: ++972-3-569-43-70