by Jewish Artists & Writers for Palestinian Liberation

 

Who we are:

• We are artists and writers in the Diaspora, as diverse as the Jewish community itself. We are religious, secular, and spiritual. We are Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Arab Jews/Mizrahim, Beta Israel, mixed race, and others. Some of us have family in Israel, some of us have lived in Israel, some have no relationship to Israel.

• We are artists of performance, page, paint, song, lens, craftworks, stage, and screen. We are visual artists, producers, cultural workers, entertainers, educators, musicians, documentarians, essayists, novelists, comedians, poets, storytellers, and more.

• We are both traditionalists and innovators. We know that our work shapes contemporary culture, thought, and practice – both within our Jewish community and throughout the broader communities in which we live and work.

 

What we believe:

• We believe in human rights for all people, including the right to life, liberty, and bodily autonomy; the right to culture, education, and care; the right to remain and the right of return. 

• Liberation for the Palestinian people, and Palestinian self-determination over the land of Palestine.

• Safety in solidarity for the Jewish people. Our safety internationally is interconnected with the Palestinian people’s.

 

What we want:

• As a people that has experienced genocide, we seek an end to the genocide of Palestinian people. 

• We demand an end to the war of aggression done in our name. We demand an end to the 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

• We want a regeneration of Jewish life in the Diaspora independent from Zionism. This regeneration is defined by our culture(s), practices, service, and is aimed at building a better, more beautiful, and more just world for all.

 

What we're doing:

• We stand in solidarity with the call to boycott the State of Israel, whose policies do not represent our Jewish values, and whose culture is one of aggression and domination. We denounce state-sponsored cultural events that claim to represent us. We call for an arms embargo on Israel, and for our governments to use our taxes to fund housing, health, and education, not genocide, war, and occupation.

• We join the worldwide struggle to end this war of aggression. We call for an immediate ceasefire to end the Israeli offensives in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. We call for the leaders of the Israeli government to be tried for war crimes in international courts.

• We pledge to make space for the creation and celebration of culture in alignment with our Jewish values of human rights, liberation, self-determination, empathy, solidarity, curiosity, imagination, and beauty. We pledge to do our part to heal the brokenness of the world, to do the work of Tikkun Olam.