About

Our call for a permanent ceasefire is about saving lives. With every passing minute that the US refuses to call for a full and robust ceasefire, more Palestinians are being killed. Palestinians in Gaza have been incredibly clear on what they need in the moment: an immediate ceasefire. Ceasefire includes the diplomacy that will allow for full release of hostages, including Palestinians taken into prison without trial by Israel, and will allow us to begin to address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis inside Gaza.

We also are listening to the grieving families of those taken hostage by Hamas,  families who have advocated for a permanent ceasefire and diplomatic negotiations to bring their loved ones home. Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza puts Israeli hostages at life-threatening risk. And the Israeli government has made it clear that they are prioritizing their genocidal campaign over the release of hostages. We believe that an immediate ceasefire is a moral imperative to save the lives of every person in Gaza, including hostages.

We recognize a ceasefire is not the end of this work — JVP has been organizing for Palestinian liberation for nearly 30 years and we are committed to this movement for the long-haul. We work closely with Palestinian-led movement organizations on the ground and in the U.S. to ensure we are being strategic, impactful, and accountable.

JVP has a specific, critical role to play in the movement for Palestinian liberation. As Jews, we work to answer the call of our Palestinian partners to build a Jewish movement that can effectively form a counterweight to Jewish Zionist support for Israeli apartheid. That often includes defending our Palestinian partner organizations, when they are accused of antisemitism for criticizing the policies of the Israeli state. 

Our role in the movement for Palestinian freedom is to shake the U.S.-Israel alliance by fundamentally changing the financial, cultural, and political calculus of Jewish support for Israeli apartheid and for Zionism. 

As a Jewish organization, we understand deeply and personally the threat of antisemitism and believe that antisemitism is completely incompatible with any movement for collective liberation. We understand antisemitism as historically contextual, situated amidst interrelated conditions and struggles.

We fight antisemitism within, and as part of, broader struggles against oppression and for collective liberation. For instance, white nationalist violence has been on the rise in the U.S., fueled by anti-immigrant and racist manifestos, sentiments, and conspiracy theories, such as the “great replacement” theory. Jews are among the targets of white nationalist violence, along with Black people, immigrants, Muslims, and trans and queer people, among others.

Our safety is bound together with the safety of all people, and none of us is free if we aren’t all free. For more, you can see some examples of how we approach the work of dismantling antisemitism.

We do our work to organize our people and we resist Zionism because we love Jews, Jewishness, and Judaism. Our struggle against Zionism is not only an act of solidarity with Palestinians, but also a concrete commitment to creating the Jewish futures we all deserve.