No Way to Treat a Child

JOIN OVER 1,600 JEWISH LEADERS IN SAYING “NO KIDS IN CAGES”

As a partner of the No Way To Treat A Child Campaign led by DCI-Palestine and AFSC, Jewish Voice for Peace is organizing a letter from Jewish leaders in support of legislation recently introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN).

The “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act” (H.R. 2407) would prohibit any of the $3.8 billion in military aid the U.S. grants annually to Israel from being used to support the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention.

Over 1,600 Jewish activists, artists, rabbis, writers and other leaders have already signed on to our letter to say that Palestinian children, like all children, should never experience military detention and torture. Join them and say clearly: no kids in cages, anywhere. Not in our name, and not with our tax dollars.

Not Jewish and/or want to take more action? Contact your member of congress directly.

We are Jewish faith, organizational, and community leaders outraged and heartbroken about the State of Israel’s systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children.

Since the year 2000, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 have been detained, prosecuted and incarcerated by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank. Often dragged from their homes in the middle of the night by armed soldiers, they suffer physical and emotional violence and frequently face verbal abuse, humiliation and/or intimidation. These children are interrogated without family or lawyers present, in an effort to generate forced confessions justifying their detention for months on end — often in solitary confinement.

This is unacceptable.

We, the undersigned, hold a range of political perspectives; we are multiracial, multigenerational, religious and secular, come from different class backgrounds, and hold multiple genders and sexualities. What unites us is that we are all compelled, as Jews, to speak out against injustice — especially when it is committed in our name.

We call on members of Congress to cosponsor legislation recently introduced by Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN), the “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act” (H.R. 2407). This legislation prohibits any of the $3.8 billion in military aid the U.S. grants annually to Israel from being used to support the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. It poses a clear question to Congress: if you oppose widespread physical violence, forced confessions, denial of due process and other abuses Israeli forces inflict on Palestinian children, what are you willing to do about it?

Judaism recognizes that the wellbeing of society as a whole is determined by our treatment of children, and that all human beings are made in divine image. From the US to Israel/Palestine, we will not abide the brutalization and caging of children.Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.

Rabbi Leora Abelson, Congregation Agudas Achim, Attleboro, MA
Rabbi Alana Alpert, Congregation T’chiyah
Ady Barkan, Center for Popular Democracy
Rabbi David Basior, Kadima Reconstructionist Community
Rabbi Haim Beliak
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Rabbi Joseph Berman, The New Synagogue Project
Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein
Rabbi Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, Wheaton College (MA)
Rabbi Tad Campbell
Professor Noam Chomsky, University of Arizona
Molly Crabapple, Artist and author
Rabbi Meryl Crean, Jewish Voice for Peace
Rabbi Michael Davis, Congregation Makom Shalom, Chicago
Rabbi Art Donsky, Renewal
Eran Efrati, Director, Researching the American-Israeli Alliance (RAIA)
Ben Ehrenreich, Author
Sophie Ellman-Golan
Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Greater New York Labor Religion Coalition
Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari
Rabbi Shifra Freewoman
Rabbi Shai Gluskin
Rabbi Borukh Goldberg
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Shomeret Shalom Global Congregation
Rabbi Miriam Grossman
Lara Haft, Rabbinical Student
Rabbi Linda Holtzman, Tikkun Olam Chavurah
Rabbi Margaret Holub, Mendocino Coast Jewish Community
Xava Juárez, Rabbi in training
Rabbi Ariana Katz
MJ Kaufman, Playwright and TV writer
Rachel Kipnes, Rabbinical Student
Rabbi Alan LaPayover
Martin Levine, Former CEO, JCC Chicago
Emily Mayer, IfNotNow
Alan Minsky, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Rabbi Malka Mittelman
Rabbi David Mivasair, Ahavat Olam Synagogue
Rabbi Dev Noily, Kehilla Community Synagogue
Rabbi Salem Pearce
Eve Peyser, Writer
Rebecca Pierce
Rabbi Lucia Pizarro, Jewish Liberation Theology Institute
Jackson Potter, Trustee Chicago Teachers Union
Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Theoretical Physicist and Feminist Theorist
Rabbi Michael Ramberg
Rabbi Mackenzie Reynolds
Professor Corey Robin, Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center
Rabbi Brant Rosen, Tzedek Chicago
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg
Rabbi Ken Rosenstein
Audrey Sasson
Professor James Schamus, Columbia University
Rory Schonning, Rabbinical Student
Professor Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor, City University of New York
Rafael Shimunov, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Rabbi Meaghan Simpson, Jewish Voice for Peace
Professor Dean Spade, Seattle University School of Law
Jessie Spector, Former Executive Director, Resource Generation
Rabbi Shifrah Tobacman
Eli Valley, Artist
Ayelet Waldman
Rabbi Brian Walt
May Ye, Rabbinical student
Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Mishkan Shalom
Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman, Congregation Shaarei Shamayim

Click here to see the rest of the signatures.