In this week’s Action for Peace, we focus on efforts to:
🕯 Seek justice for a murdered Palestinian human rights defender
📰 Challenge media denial of genocide
🛑 Defend Palestinian community spaces under attack
📖 Learn from an Israeli leader turned truth-teller
🔥 Uplift Jewish voices demanding food aid to Gaza
Take Action
🕯 DEMAND JUSTICE FOR AWDAH HATHALEEN
Beloved Palestinian human rights defender Awdah Hathaleen was murdered by Israeli settler Yinon Levy. His body is being held hostage, while press and observers are blocked from his community. Just one month ago, the Trump administration denied him entry to the U.S. at SFO to speak about this violence in Bay Area communities. Tell your representatives to condemn his murder, demand the release of his body, and end the U.S. aid that arms his killers.
👉 Take action now for Justice for Awdah
📰 TELL THE NEW YORK TIMES: STOP DENYING GENOCIDE
The New York Times continues to publish genocide denial while ignoring Palestinian voices and global human rights experts. Demand they stop platforming propaganda and start telling the truth. While we’ve circulated similar petitions recently, this new action is a continued effort to ensure the New York Times hears our collective demand to report the truth.
👉 Send a message to “The New York Crimes”
🛑 DEFEND JERUSALEM COFFEE HOUSE
Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland, a beloved Palestinian-owned café and community space, is under attack by the government. Last week, Rabbi Cat Zavis stood in fierce solidarity at a press conference, calling out the injustice of targeting a space of care while genocide unfolds in Gaza. Read Rabbi Cat’s words below in “Explore & Learn More”.
👉 Demand US Department of Justice Drops Lawsuit
Explore & Learn More
📖 Read: Avrum Burg’s Moral Reckoning with Zionism
A one-time leader within Israel’s political establishment, Avrum Burg now questions the moral legitimacy of the Israeli state. In his recent essay, he declares that a new covenant of shared humanity and equal citizenship is the only path forward.
👉 Read the essay
🙏 Watch: Rabbis Pray for End of Starvation
Rabbis from across denominations and across the country were arrested in Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office for sitting down and praying for food aid to Gaza.
👉 Watch on Instagram
🗣️ “When the government tries to silence Palestinian voices, we stand with them” – Rabbi Cat’s Words at Jerusalem Coffee House
On July 30th, Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland held a press conference in response to repression and targeting of their community space. Rabbi Cat, alongside many others, spoke in defense of Jerusalem Coffee House, its owners, Palestinians, and the dignity of human life. Read news coverage of the press conference here and read Rabbi Cat’s words below.
This describes Gaza today. Eicha? How? How dare we turn away? Rather than persecute those who are suffering unimaginable loss, we should turn our gaze towards and prosecute those who are committing genocide. I stand in solidarity with Palestinians and with Jerusalem Coffee House because I know that my liberation is bound up with their liberation; and my humanity and dignity are bound up with their humanity and dignity. And because it is the only right thing to do.
Countless Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and thousands lie buried under the rubble. Over 1000 have been shot dead while trying to obtain morsels of food for themselves and their starving family members. Judaism teaches each person is a universe unto themselves.
The images of starving Palestinians hauntingly remind us of the images of Jews starving in the Nazi ghettos and concentration camps. Genocide scholars throughout the world have called this a genocide. And just this week, two Israeli human rights organizations have done so as well.
Yet what is the US government concerned about? The genocide and starvation of children? No. They are concerned about and are targeting a Palestinian owned cafe in Oakland, CA. A community space where people who share values for justice, and stand against fascism, genocide, and starvation come together across differences of religion, gender, sexuality, and race to share common values of human dignity. They have created a safe space that nourishes our hearts, souls, and bodies in these incredibly challenging and horrific times.
As a rabbi, I stand in community and solidarity with them.
Judaism is a religion that values community above individuality. We are taught to build a community and a society grounded in values of love, care, kindness, generosity, justice, and peace. Jerusalem Coffee House and those that come here are doing just that – building a community that counters the values of empire – of domination and power over, exploitation, violence, and genocide.
The Talmud command us to speak out against injustice in our family, our community, and even the world. If we fail to do so, we are responsible for the injustice.
Standing in solidarity with Palestinians here and in Palestine is the most jewish thing we can do. When the government tries to silence Palestinian voices, we stand with them because efforts to silence their voices are really efforts to dehumanize them. And Judaism recognizes the divinity in each and every person.
This Saturday night, Jews around the world will honor Tisha b’Av, a day of mourning. We will read from the Book of Lamentations, attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, a book that captures the suffering of the Israelites in ancient times. It is impossible to ignore the connections between Jewish suffering in the past and the suffering inflicted on Palestinians today by the nation state of Israel. The words of the past pierce the heart and speak to us today.
It begins with the question: Eicha? How? And it continues: The tongue of the suckling cleaves To its palate for thirst. Little children beg for bread; No one gives them a morsel. We lay parched in the desert Denied water Worn away our flesh and skin Shattered our bones Children cry for their mothers, seeking the comfort of their breasts, the warmth of their hearts, yet they too are dying.
