Tag: petition

For Immediate Release: Over a 1000 Israelis Call to Stop the Genocide in Gaza

On Tuesday, October 17, over 1100 Israelis joined an open letter to the international community organized by “Israelis against Apartheid,” asking other countries and the UN “to intervene immediately to stop the indiscriminate bombing of 2.3 million people living in the Gaza strip”, “to prevent the imminent and disastrous ground military invasion into Gaza,” and “to agree to a prisoner and hostage exchange immediately”.

The group was first formed in 2021 with another 1500-strong petition, calling upon the international community to intervene against the 2021 Israeli attack on Gaza. Last week, on October 12, members of the group shared a similar urgent call for intervention with 400 foreign embassies and diplomats in Israel and with the UN. One of the group’s organizers stressed that “as we watch now hundreds killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza hospital, we implore the international community to stop its cooperation and support for any further killing and displacement of civilians”.

The group’s spokesperson further said that “the Israeli government is using the tremendous loss of Israeli civilian lives to implement a genocidal campaign on the men, women and children of Gaza, ignoring calls of Israelis, including those who just lost their loved ones, to stop.”

“We mourn the indescribable loss of life, and call for massive pressure upon the Israeli government to agree to a prisoner and hostage exchange immediately, and for a safe humanitarian corridor to be created for medical teams and supplies, electricity and fuel. Please help us stop this catastrophe, which is costing the lives of thousands and destroying the vision of a just and safe future for the region.”

The letter is still collecting signatures here: https://act.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/a/israelis-demand-ceasefire

Contact information: Jews4decol@yahoo.co

Call on Israel’s parliament to oppose the bill criminalizing the documentation of soldiers

Israel’s parliament is to consider a law banning the photographing or filming of soldiers. The proposed legislation is entitled the “Prohibition against photographing and documenting IDF Soldiers”.

“Anyone who filmed, photographed, and/or recorded soldiers in the course of their duties, with the intention of undermining the spirit of IDF soldiers and residents of Israel, shall be liable to five years imprisonment. Anyone intending to harm state security will be sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment”, says the bill, proposed by Robert Ilatov, a member of the Knesset and the chairman of the right-wing nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party.

On Sunday 17th June, the Israeli government endorsed the proposal, if the aim is “hurting a soldier’s spirit” or “harming national security.” The bill will now undergo four full rounds of votes in the parliament before it becomes a law. The first round was scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

This is a dangerous, totalitarian attempt to undermine scrutiny of the violations of international law carried out by Israeli forces. Haaretz has condemned the bill, saying its aim was to “to silence criticism of the army, and in particular to prevent human rights organisations from documenting the Israeli army’s actions in the territories. The immediate result of such a prohibition is serious harm to the possibility of protecting human rights and overseeing the army’s activity. The bill does serious harm to freedom of the press and the public’s right to know what the reality is and especially what the ‘people’s army; is doing in its name and on its behalf.”

Israeli forces have long been targeting journalists in Palestine, from directly shooting tear gas and bullets at press and human rights activists (including children) in the West Bank to the recent murders of Yasser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein during the ongoing Great Return March in Gaza. The number of journalists killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 2000 has reached 43.

Please join us in condemning the proposed bill and calling on the Knesset to oppose this law by signing the petition.

An Israeli soldier escorts a Palestinian journalist during a weekly demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on May 11, 2018 (Getty)