Jewish Peace Activism Reemerges in U.S. and Europe

Even pro-Israel activists are increasingly looking to hold the Israeli government accountable for its unconscionable treatment of residents and neighbors.

Jews across Europe have united in a counterpart group to the American J Street organization, dubbed the J Call. Both harshly criticize Israeli policies toward Palestinians and their neighbors, while staunchly standing in support of the Israeli state as a vital part of their Jewish identity.

Both pro-Israeli-, anti-Israeli-policy organizations call for the increasingly popular Two State solution (at least in some circles), the idea that an Israeli and a Palestinian state can peacefully coexist side by side. As momentum toward restarting the long-stalled Middle East peace talks picks up, J Call recently presented it's "Call to Reason" Petition to the European Parliament.

The Call's four principles are worth restating in full:

1. The future of Israel depends upon urgently achieving peace with the Palestinian people on the basis of the Two States Solution. As we all know, this is urgent. Israel will soon be faced with two, equally disastrous choices: either to become a state in which Jews would be a minority in their own country, or establish a regime that would be a disgrace to Israel and lead to civil unrest.

2. It is essential therefore that the European Union, along with the United States, put pressure on both parties and help them achieve a reasonable and rapid solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. History confers on Europe a particular responsibility in this region of the world.

3. While the final decision belongs to the sovereign people of Israel, our commitment to Israel as Jews of the Diaspora obliges us to work towards reaching a just solution. Systematic support of Israeli government policy is dangerous and does not serve the true interests of the state of Israel.

4. Our objective is to create a European movement that will allow the voice of reason to be heard by all. This movement is non-partisan. Its aim is to ensure the survival of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. This depends on the creation of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.

J Street and J Call are actively creating room for criticism of the Israeli government, pushing officials to see their best interests and that of Jews globally in a new light, before already bad situations get worse. As they are proving, being anti-Israeli policies is not necessarily anti-Semitic, and can even be “pro-Semitic,” to borrow a term from Mark Penn. And they are establishing a strong model by which non-residents and even non-citizens of a country can positively influence a country's policies from the outside in.

Indeed, there is a global movement of Jews and non-Jews alike growing around stopping the apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli state, strikingly similar to that which successfully sought to end apartheid in South Africa. Stay tuned to Change.org's War and Peace blog for more on its methods.

Photo credit: stuff_and_nonsense