The Muslim News - Launch of a new Jewish group

Issue 214, Friday 23 February 2007 - 5 Safar 1428

Launch of a new Jewish group

By Safa Suling Tan

A new UK Jewish group has been launched and its signatories boast well-known Jews in British society. More than one hundred Jewish intellectuals and prominent figures – writers, academics, doctors, lawyers, actors and others – are publicly declaring their independence from mainstream Jewish support for Israel. Signatories to the group include cultural celebrities such as Harold Pinter, Stephen Fry, Mike Leigh and Zoe Wanamaker.
Unlike most, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) is a network of individual Jews in Britain from a wide range of backgrounds and with a wide range of views. It is not an organisation with a corporate identity or membership. Nor does it have a head. IJV provides a platform for critical debate on major political questions, the situation in the Middle East in particular.
The initiative was born out of a frustration with the widespread misconception that the Jews of this country speak with one voice - and that this voice supports the Israeli Government’s policies. The group seeks to position itself as a response to perceived pro-Israeli bias in existing Jewish bodies in the UK.
Speaking to The Muslim News, one of IJV’s initiators, Dr Brian Klug, a senior research fellow and tutor in Philosophy at Oxford said, “We are challenging the conventional idea that the Jewish community is a collective entity with its ambassadors or representatives like the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Chief Rabbi, etc, who are authorised to speak for British Jews on all issues. The signatories to the IJV statement are united by their commitment to a set of principles…All of us oppose any attempt by the Israeli Government to impose a solution on the Palestinians.”
Dr Klug rejects and resents the accusation of “traitors” by fellow Jews, “It reflects the idea that the debate about the Middle East should be based on ethnic or group loyalties rather than the principles that we affirm in the IJV statement. Moreover, when we criticise Israel for violating human rights, many of us draw on the Jewish tradition of social justice and the Jewish experience of persecution. We are turning to our Jewish identity, not against it.”
In its declaration, IJV states, “Human rights are universal and indivisible and should be upheld without exception. Palestinians and Israelis alike have the right to peaceful and secure lives. Peace and stability require the willingness of all parties to the conflict to comply with international law. There is no justification for any form of racism, including anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism or Islamophobia, in any circumstance…These principles are contradicted when those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people. The Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza Strip face appalling living conditions with desperately little hope for the future. We declare our support for a properly negotiated peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people and oppose any attempt by the Israeli Government to impose its own solutions on the Palestinians. It is imperative and urgent that independent Jewish voices find a coherent and consistent way of asserting themselves on these and other issues of concern. We hereby reclaim the tradition of Jewish support for universal freedoms, human rights and social justice. The lessons we have learned from our own history compel us to speak out.”

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