Pages

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

"Jewish Voice for Peace" supports someone who calls for war

The definition of "peace" at "Jewish Voice for Peace" is very, shall we say, flexible.

They have a video and website supporting a Palestinian poet named Dareen Tatour who wrote a poem inciting to violence and genocide against Jews in the Middle East, and who was arrested as a result. JVP decides to say that she just supports "resistance."

Here are excerpts of what she wrote, translated into English:

Resist, my people, resist them.
In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows
And carried the soul in my palm
For an Arab Palestine.
I will not succumb to the “peaceful solution,”
Never lower my flags
Until I evict them from my land.

I cast them aside for a coming time.
Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist the settler’s robbery
And follow the caravan of martyrs.

Resist, my people, resist them.
Resist, my people, resist them.
This is a call to violence and war. It is incitement. And incitement is not protected speech. In fact, on the contrary, it is explicitly prohibited under human rights law!

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 20, paragraph 1, states it as clearly as possible: Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.

It doesn't say that it "may" be prohibited. It says that it shall be prohibited.

Tatour's poem calls to violently evict Jews from Israel, and to die while trying. That is what she means by "resistance."

So why would an organization called "Jewish Voice for Peace: support someone who is violating human rights law by calling for war?

It must be that "Jewish Voice for Peace" cares as little about peace as it does about, well,  Jews.

Even more incongruous is that the JVP petition on her behalf was signed by over three hundred people who pretend to care about Palestinians under the guise of human rights, and hey are supporting someone who explicitly renounces human rights for Jews as well as someone who calls for them to be ethnically cleansed. Tatour is a criminal under human rights law, yet all these people who signed  - including some prominent academics, writers and entertainers - are supporting violations of human rights!

(h/t EP)


We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.