Letters
Independent Jewish Voices
16 February 2007
Dear Sir
Let’s start with the obvious. Firstly, the Independent Jewish Voices are not a persecuted body of dissenters. As far as I am aware, no one stops these individuals from disseminating their views, as any Guardian reader will tell you. Instead they are a group of disgruntled attention seekers falsely claming to be a stifled minority. Secondly, as one reads their advertisement, one is hard pressed to disagree with most of what they write. Which Jews do not hope that Israelis and Palestinians can live ‘peaceful and secure lives’ or that the Middle East can be free from racism? But this is a clever ruse designed to mask their real agenda. For these principles are ‘contradicted’ when Jewish groups ‘consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people.’ If they are right, the battle against racism and for peace is undermined, not by the Islamists like Hamas and Ahmadinejad, but by the Israeli occupation. In effect, they are declaring that unless Jews actively and publicly oppose the Israeli government, they cannot claim to be committed to peace or anti racism, a charge that is as ignorant as it is obscene. It won’t be long before they call themselves ‘the new Jews.’ Far from being the victims here, this group seeks to victimise anyone who disagrees with them. As for their perspective on the occupation, the nuance is conspicuous by its absence. There is no admission that the perilous position of the Palestinians is largely self inflicted. There is nothing about the barrage of Palestinian rocket attacks following Israel’s handover of territory in 2005. They fail to grasp that the reason why there is no two-state solution, which Israel has offered, is that the Palestinian leadership remains intent on a one state solution, aided by the demonisation of Jews in the classroom and mosque and the promise of a ‘right of return’. It is wholly understandable then that the IJF’s one sided viewpoint finds little echo in mainstream Jewish opinion. I only hope it remains that way.Yours sincerely
Jeremy Havardi
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