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How is this recruitment fundraiser for the IDF possible?
25 April, 2019 CAMDEN NEW JOURNAL letters page
• GARIN TZABAR – a programme to encourage young people to join the
Israeli Defence Force (IDF) – will be fund-raising at the JW3, Jewish
Community Centre, on April 30, (Celebration concerning the IDF is a
shame, April 18 - see below).
According to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s report, between
March 30 and December 31 2018, during the Palestinian Great March of
Return and Breaking the Siege, the IDF unlawfully killed 189 people,
including 35 children, and injured over 9,000, including over 1,500
children. (NB: Israelis suffered no fatalities and only four injuries.)
The report states that Israeli snipers “intentionally” shot unarmed
children, medical personnel, journalists and people with disabilities,
using “high-velocity weaponry at close range resulted in killings and
long-term, life-changing injuries, including paralysis and amputation”.
Medical personnel included Razan Al-Najjar (aged 20), who was wearing a
white paramedic vest and standing with other volunteer paramedics
approximately 110metres from the separation fence. Shot in the chest,
she died in hospital.
Israeli forces killed two journalists and wounded 39 others. Four were
shot in the abdomen, just under their vests marked “Press”, including
Ahmed Abu Hussein (aged 24) while he was taking photographs,
approximately 300 metres from the separation fence. He was wearing a
blue helmet and a blue vest clearly marked “Press”. He died of his
injuries 12 days later.
Israeli snipers shot Fadi Abu Salmi (aged 29, double amputee) in the
chest where he was sitting in his wheelchair 300 metres from the
separation fence. He died immediately.
One-hundred-and-twenty-two demonstrators had to undergo amputations,
including 20 children: Abed Nofal (aged 11), a schoolboy, was shot by
Israeli forces while he was playing football near the separation fence.
His leg had to be amputated.
Can it be true that JW3 will help recruit the young to become involved
in such action? As Jewish people how can we allow ourselves to be
associated with this barbarism?
SELMA JAMES
MICHAEL KALMANOVITZ
SAM WEINSTEIN
International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network UK
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Celebration concerning
the IDF is a shame
18 April, 2019
• IT has come to our attention that the JW3 cultural centre is hosting
an event to celebrate British young people and residents of the UK who
volunteer for service in the IDF, the army of the state of Israel.
Some of your readers will be concerned by the thought of young Britons
fighting wars within foreign armed forces. The fact that these young
people are lending their armed support to the Israeli government is
particularly troubling.
Israel has been occupying Palestinian territories for over half a
century and maintains two different systems of apartheid, one in its own
territories and one in the territories it occupies.
Israeli apartheid is constitutionally enshrined in its “nation-state”
basic law. The atrocities committed by Israel’s armed forces have been
widely described in the press.
An independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in
Gaza established by the UN Human Rights Council, for instance, recently
found reasonable grounds to believe that, with two exceptions, “the use
of live ammunition by Israeli security forces against demonstrators was
unlawful” (report A/HRC/40/74, paragraph 94).
In the recent parliamentary elections in Israel, the combined vote of
the three parties that actively oppose the occupation (Hadash-Ta’al,
Meretz and Ra’am-Balad) reached less than 12 per cent.
In other words, the continued occupation of Palestinian territories is
supported by over 88 per cent of voters.
The JW3 centre is a cultural institution of which everybody in Camden
can be proud. Jewish culture is a key ingredient of Camden’s cultural
mix.
It’s a shame, though, that such a distinguished institution as JW3
should host a celebration of Britons who fight in support of a racist
regime.
Camden has a proud history in the fight against all forms of racism,
including during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
SABBY SAGALL, chair
LUCA SALICE, press officer
GEOFF LEE, treasurer
Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Camden branch
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