Statement on the massacre in Gaza

We mourn the deaths of the 16 Palestinians killed and the over fourteen hundred reported wounded by the Israeli Army yesterday, 30th March 2018, when Palestinians’ Land Day coincided with the first day of Passover, our own festival of freedom from oppression. We support the UN Secretary-General’s calls for an independent and transparent investigation into these incidents.

We stand for justice for all. Many Jews across the world have felt unable to fully share in the usually joyous nature of our Seder nights while these events were unfolding. Each year we are asked to recite the words of the Haggadah as though we ourselves were slaves in Egypt. Many families link those words to recent and current struggles – the anti-apartheid struggles, those for civil rights in the US, and, increasingly, the plight of the Palestinian people living under Occupation. We hope that other Jewish organisations mindful of our historic suffering will join with us in condemnation of the Israeli actions.

We call for an unconditional end to Israel’s inhuman siege of Gaza and its illegal and brutal occupation of the West Bank which has destroyed the lives of generations of Palestinians. DAYENU. Enough is enough.