Israel’s Occupation Violates Traditional Jewish
Values of Justice and Equality, Says Tony Klug
at J Street Conference
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
April 2017
Speaking to the J Street annual conference in Washington in February, Tony
Klug, a special adviser on the Middle East at the Oxford Research Group,
said that support for Israel’s “never-ending” occupation is changing the
nature of what it means to be Jewish. “We used to be people devoted to
justice,” he declared. “Now we have become enablers of Israel’s injustices.”
Klug told J Street that, “If Israel does not end the occupation sharply, and
if organized Jewish opinion in other countries appears openly to back it,
there will indeed almost certainly be a further surge in anti-Jewish
sentiment … Israel’s never-ending occupation of the land and lives of
another people, is not just seriously endangering Israel, not to mention
deepening the despair of the Palestinians. But it is also making the
situation of the Jews around the world increasingly precarious … Time
honored Jewish ideals — justice, freedom, equality, peace, mutual respect —
have made an extraordinary contribution to human civilization. They lie at
the very core of Jewish identity … We now face the major reality of a state
that describes itself loudly and often to be Jewish as … withholding
fundamental human rights from millions of people indefinitely. A standpoint
that is in total defiance of quintessential Jewish principles.”
In Klug’s view, “If we are not prepared to speak out resolutely, we may be
on the cusp of Jewish identity being redefined for all of us. To start with,
supporters of Israel could openly clarify that their affection for the
country, however deep, does not extend to supporting the occupation. They
could consider adopting a slogan like, ‘Love Israel, Hate Occupation.’ …
When all is said and done, the bottom line is that the conflict with the
Palestinians has dominated and distorted the Jewish world for too long. It
is time to bring it to an end and stop the infamy of a half century of
military occupation of another people and allow us all to get back to the
business of being ourselves.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also addressed the J Street conference and
noted that one could be sharply critical of the Israeli government’s
policies but still be supportive of Israel. He criticized President Trump
for retreating from a commitment to a two-state solution and discussed the
time he lived on a kibbutz near Haifa in 1963 and recalled “the progressive
values” nurtured there.
“But,” he declared, “as you all know, there was another side to the story of
Israel’s creation, a more painful side. … the founding of Israel involved
the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people already living there,
the Palestin¬ian people. Over 700,000 people were made refugees … We can
oppose the policies of Netanyahu without being anti-Israel.” •
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