Jewish Statement in Opposition to the Geneva Accord

a statement

A FALSE PEACE is no peace at all. A peace not based on human rights and justice will collapse and rekindle violence.

At the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the refusal to allow Palestinians to return to their homes and lands. Yet though the Geneva Accord gives lip service to refugee rights, it allows Israel to keep out virtually every refugee. Nor does the accord respect the rights of the internal Palestinian refugees, Israeli citizens who have been kept away from their homes for fifty years. Furthermore, it would allow Israel to permanently discriminate against its large and growing non-Jewish population. Such apartheid is completely unacceptable.

The agreement supposedly gives Palestine sovereignty, but the state established would be demilitarized and without control of its water or airspace. The accord specifically allows the Israeli Air Force to fly over Palestine at will for “training missions,” in perpetuity, an outrageous breach of sovereignty. Even the accord’s preamble is flawed. It is not the “logic of war” that drives the conflict, but the expulsions, discrimination, and land seizures. We know that Palestinians who reject the accord will be defamed as “extremists” or “rejectionists” so we as Jews say the agreement is fundamentally inadequate. Let another be constructed based on internationally recognized human rights including the right of people to return to their homes.

Signers: R. M. “Aaron” Aarons, Berkeley California; Miriam Adams, Albuquerque NM; Gil Anidjar, Columbia University, New York; Anthony Arnove, Editor Iraq Under Siege; Author, The Struggle for Palestine; Jesse Bacon, Student, Roosevelt University, Chicago IL; Dr. Abigail B. Bakan, Professor of Political Studies, Canada; Iris Bar, College teacher, Haifa Palestine; Yoav Bar, Computer programmer, Haifa Palestine; Keren Batiyov, Harrisburg PA; Jan Bauman, Member, Palestine/Israel committee of the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition, Mill Valley California; Jeffrey Blankfort, Former editor, Middle East Labor Bulletin, Ukiah CA; Steve Bloom, New York City–poet and activist; Hanna Braun; Lenni Brenner, Author, New York City; Mike Cohen, Lecturer in Philosophy University of Wales, Swansea UK; Ken Cornet; Elias Davidsson, Composer, Reykjavik Iceland; Adam Scott Davis, Urbana Illinois; Dr. Uri Davis, Sakhnin Israel Chairperson of the Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine (MAIAP); Benjamin Douglas, Austin TX; Paul Eisen, London UK; Mark Elf, Local Government Officer; Marc Estrin, Writer; Shirley Franklin, School of Lifelong Learning and Education, Middlesex University, Trent Park, London; Barbara Gaines, New York, New York;
Ron Ganzfried, Bern Switzerland; Samuel Goldberger, Historian and college instructor, West Hartford CT; Bob Green, Vermonters For a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel; Jennifer S. Greenstein, Seattle Washington; Stanley Heller, Chairperson Middle East Crisis Committee, New Haven CT; Louis Kampf, Cambridge MA Prof. Emeritus of Literature, MIT; Alisa Klein, Israeli-American anti-Zionist Palestine solidarity activist, Leeds Massachusetts; Herb Kline; Adam Levenstein, Co-editor LeftHook.org, member Atlanta Palestine Solidarity; Andrew Levine, Professor, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison; Henry N. Lowi, Toronto Canada; William Mandel, Author, teacher, broadcaster (Pacifica Radio), Oakland California; Henry Norr, fired San Francisco Chronicle journalist, Berkeley CA; Nick Paretsky, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, University of Missouri; Andrew Pollack, New York; Steve Quester, teacher Brooklyn NY; Roland Rance, Jews Against Zionism London UK; Dr. Brian Robinson, retired NHS psychiatrist, Milton Keynes, UK; Stewart Robinson, Cleveland Ohio; Marta Romer, Sydney Australia; Emma Rosenthal, Executive Director, The Writing Empowerment Project; Executive Producer, Cafe Intifada; Janice Rothstein, San Francisco CA; Marc Sapir, MD MPH, Executive Director Retro Poll; Jonah Seaman, Student, New York; John Sigler, One Democratic Secular State for Israel and Palestine (ODSSIP), Denver CO; Judith Stone; Uri Strauss, Palestine Action Coalition, Northampton MA; Inbar Tamari; Tirtza Tauber, Tel Aviv Palestine; Baylah Tessier-Sherman, Hartford CT; Merry Tucker, New York, NY; Naomi Binder Wall, Member, Jewish Women’s Committee Against the Occupation, Toronto Ontario Canada; Jonathan Weinstein, Graduate Instructor in Psychology, Oxford Mississippi; Abraham Weizfeld, Jewish People’s Liberation Organization, Montreal; Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Review editorial board, Chicago

ATC 109, March-April 2004