JVP Media Statement on Attacks on Gaza and Lebanon

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Mitchell Plitnick, cell: 510-484-6472, office 510-465-1777
 
Jewish Voice for Peace Media Statement

 July 17 Protest at Israeli Consulate in SF To
 Urge Israel To End Military Attacks on Gaza and Lebanon

War crimes will not bring peace, security and justice to Palestinians, Israelis or to Jews anywhere.

(San Francisco, July 17) – Members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), one of the nation’s largest grassroots Jewish peace groups, are organizing public actions in major cities across the country to help bring an end to the current conflict. Many of us have friends and family in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel.

JVP believes that all parties in this horrifying escalation of violence must be held accountable to international law. However, Israel’s refusal to negotiate and its decision to act with overwhelming force—using weapons supplied by the United States-- have escalated this situation to war. Far from bringing peace, Israel’s actions only empower extremists.

First in Gaza and now in Lebanon, Israel has responded to attacks on military targets by targeting civilian, not military infrastructure. As a result, Gaza –where 64 elected members of Parliament were arrested by the IDF and where Palestinians now lack proper access to electricity, water, fuel, hospital care and essential foodstuffs--is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. Lebanon is being devastated. Now Israeli citizens have become targets.

It is essential to understand that this entire sequence of events did not begin with recent Hamas and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli targets. It must be traced to Israel's continuing 39-year illegal, immoral and unjustified occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Israel can never know peace as long as they occupy another people.

Israel, like any other country, including Lebanon and the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, has the right to defend itself. Hizbullah’s attack on an IDF post within Israel’s borders was a clear violation of international law, and its subsequent missile strikes on Israeli cities and civilians doubly so.  

But Israel’s response to attack has been to punish the civilian population of Lebanon with enormous force, and this is both illegal and intolerable. As with Gaza, Israel has employed the most blatant form of collective punishment, and they have completely refused to talk.

By taking this tactic, Israel has endangered not only Palestinian and Lebanese citizens, but also their own people. We call on Hizbullah to immediately release the two Israeli soldiers they are holding and for Israel to immediately cease its military operations in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. We call on our government in the US to act immediately to bring about a cease-fire and to commence negotiations between Israel and the duly elected Palestinian Authority aimed at resolving the fate of the soldier being held by Palestinians; at ending all attacks by Israelis and Palestinians against each other; and at ending the 39-year old Israeli occupation and finally bringing a just peace to the region.
                                                          

About Jewish Voice for Peace
Founded in 1996, Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots peace organization dedicated to promoting a US foreign policy in the Middle East based on peace, democracy, human rights and respect for international law. With over 13,000 supporters and members, JVP’s board of Jewish American and Israeli advisors includes Pulitzer and Tony award winner Tony Kushner, actor Ed Asner, poet Adrienne Rich as well as other respected rabbis, artists, scholars and activists. JVP has chapters in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago, Sacramento and San Francisco.

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