A group of British Jews have formed a human rights group aimed to campaign against apartheid system enforced by Israel on Palestinians, challenging the idea that all Jews support Zionism and Israel.
Adam Hurst, 65, is a spokesman for Sheffield based Jews Against Israeli Apartheid and has been active in the Labour party since 1979.
At the age of 17, he used to work in a Kibbutz in Israel. It was not until 1982 when the Sabra and Shatila massacres occurred when he became anti-Zionist.
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“Initially I wasn’t anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. I knew I didn’t want to be conscripted into the Israeli army for three years,” he told Asian Image.
“I didn’t have strong views one way or another. It wasn’t until 1982 that I became an anti-Zionist after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did nothing while massacres happened in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.
“I wasn’t at all religious. However, on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), I was invited to a synagogue where the Rabbi made excuses for the IDF inaction during the massacre.
“This went against everything I had been bought up to believe about Judaism. I am still a member of a reform synagogue in Sheffield and am a member of Jewish Voice for Labour. JVL was set up in opposition to the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel.”
After a visit to Palestine in 2017 with Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine, he and another member of the group decided to set up an organization initially called Sheffield Alternative Jewish Voices “to challenge the idea that all Jews support Zionism and the belief that all Jews hold the same views.”
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(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The Big Lie
Sheffield Alternative Jewish Voices is now called Jews Against Israeli Apartheid.
“If you look at the state of Israel there is a lot of discrimination. For example, the issue of the Palestinian right of return,” Adam said.
“Since I am Jewish I have the automatic right to citizenship in Israel although I am married to a non-Jew and my children aren’t Jewish. If I have grand-children they will also have automatic citizenship in Israel.
“If you’re a descendent of a Palestinian refugee you don’t have that right… These immigration laws treat Jews very different to Palestinians.”
Adam says Palestinians in the West Bank can’t even move around freely.
“They are forced to travel on separate roads and live in separate areas to Jews. Undoubtedly these are features of an Apartheid state.”
“Israel has never shown any intention of allowing the Palestinians to have full sovereignty. Israel has its own army but the PA does not. It controls who goes in and who goes out. In occupied East Jerusalem there are 350,000 people who don’t have basic citizenship rights.”
Alan Deadman, 76, the chair of Jews Against Israeli Apartheid, said the group has already hosted several events to show the truth about the situation in the Middle East.
“We emphasize that criticism of Israel is not necessarily antisemitism. Our first event was a book launch where we hosted the author Tony Lerman. 70 people attended the event. Lerman’s book is about how Israel takes any criticism on an international level as antisemitism.
“In another event we showed a film titled ‘The Big Lie’ about Jeremy Corbyn and how he was destroyed by accusations of being an anti-Semite. About 100,000 people have viewed it across the country.”
At least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The number includes at least 5,500 children and 3,500 women who have been killed in the ongoing war in Gaza.