February | 2024 | Labor for Palestine

NOT IN OUR NAME: NEVER AGAIN IS NOW

A Statement by Jewish Members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys-UAW Local 2325
February 8, 2024

“To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed, never with the oppressors.”

-Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

In light of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza which has murdered 27,000 Palestinians and counting, we the undersigned Jewish members of UAW Local 2325 ALAA state the following:

We stand with the Palestinian people because of our Jewish values, not despite them. Many of us believe that traditional Jewish values speak to the supreme sanctity of all life- that every human being is created b’tselem Elohim, in the image of God. For many of us, too, a core tenet of Judaism is that it encourages questioning and debate, and guides us towards a universal vision of peace, justice, and freedom from oppression.

We reject any notion that Jews are a monolith. We represent a diversity of Jewish identity— religious and secular, raised with and without Zionism, from different parts of the world, some who have Israeli family members, and some who have never set foot there. By contrast, Zionism has suppressed diasporic Jewish cultures that don’t conform to its goal of a monolithic, hebraized, Jewish-supremacist ethnostate^,^,. Zionists claim to speak for all Jews- we do not.

We condemn antisemitism. Antisemitic attacks in the United States and around the world have increased, predominantly from white nationalists. We recognize that white nationalists are exploiting Israel’s ongoing violence to recruit to their antisemitic and racist cause. We condemn organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, that conflate pro-Palestine speech with antisemitism, and in doing so distract from real violence and discrimination.

We decry the smear that Jews who oppose Israel’s racist, apartheid state are somehow “self-hating”. We are united in our opposition to Zionism, which values a Jewish ethnostate more than Jewish life^,, and exploits Jewish death and trauma to garner support. Anti-Zionist Jews, both religious and secular, have existed in the Jewish community for as long as Zionism.

We categorically reject the dishonest conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism that has been used for decades to shield Israel from any and all criticism. We will not allow our Palestinian and other non-Jewish comrades to be falsely charged with antisemitism for simply advancing the rights of Palestinians to live in peace and freedom in their own land.

We reject any notion that Jewish safety requires the murder and displacement of millions of Palestinians. As long as Palestinians are oppressed, no one can live in safety and peace. The only way forward is a free Palestine, from the river to the sea, with democracy and equal rights for all.

We condemn Christian Evangelical Zionism, which prays for the ultimate destruction of Judaism through conversion and massacre^,. Christian Evangelical Zionism is antisemitic and a key force for US support of Israel.

We condemn Zionism’s embrace of antisemites such as Wilhelm Marr, Arthur Balfour, Steve Bannon, Viktor Orban, and John Hagee. Antisemites throughout history have falsely claimed that Jews cannot live alongside others, and should emigrate to Palestine. Zionism promotes this same antisemitic claim.

The Holocaust taught us to “never again” allow the world to stand by and do nothing while genocide and ethnic cleansing are taking place. We will not be silent and watch as Gaza is decimated before our eyes, armed and funded by the United States government, and purportedly in our name. One holocaust does not justify another.

We will not cower in the face of a new McCarthyism that attacks all who speak out against the current atrocity in Gaza and throughout historic Palestine. We proudly stand by the ALAA-UAW 2325 Ceasefire Resolution which was passed by a membership vote of 1067-570. Despite attacks on our union from bosses, right-wing press, and US Congressional Representative Virginia Foxx^,, Jews and our allies will not remain silent for fear of name-calling and doxing. As Jewish people, we have faced far worse, and we do not scare so easily. Our numbers are only growing.

Our work is indelibly intertwined with our demands. As legal aid workers, we defend our clients and communities against state violence in all its forms, including mass incarceration, family separation, deportation, surveillance, and eviction. Injustice knows no borders— our fight for humanity does not stop at the courtroom door.

Therefore, we demand:
1. That Congress overturn House Resolution 894, which states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
2. An immediate permanent ceasefire.
3. An end to all military, economic, and diplomatic aid to Israel.
4. One democratic Palestine, from the river to the sea, with freedom and equal rights for all.
5. Right of return for all Palestinian refugees.

Signed as Jewish members of ALAA:

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