A Time to Speak Out: Independent Jewish Voices On Israel, Zionism and Jewish Identity [Paperback]

I have not yet read all of this book yet, but what I have read is inspirational and a very important opportunity to hear the Israeli voices who are speaking out about the situation in occupied Palestine. Those who have contributed to this book are serious,well informed and with first hand and deep knowledge of the situation.

My own view is, 231 years on from the American Revolution, 219 years after the French Revolution and 218 years on from the death of Emperor Joseph II, the terms `Jew', `Jewish' and `Jewry' should be reserved for adherents to Judaism, as `Christians', `Muslims', `Hindus' and `Buddhists' are reserved for adherents to those faiths. However, few, if any, of the 21 contributors to this sparkling collection of essays would agree. Some are religious (one is a rabbi), most are secular, some are Zionists, many not, two are Americans, two South Africans, two Australians, one a Swede, one an Iraqi, the others British, but all are proudly, resolutely Jews. They belong to Independent Jewish Voices, launched by Harold Pinter, Mark Leigh, Stephen Fry, Zoe Wanamaker, Eric Hobsbawn, Geoffrey Bindman, Nicole Farhi and others on 5 February 2007, and these essays are their testimonials. As Jews, they feel compelled to reject the claim of successive Israeli governments and self-appointed `community leaders' such as the Board of Deputies, American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, American Jewish Committee, Council of Australian Jewry and World Jewish Conference to repreŽsent them.

They have been criticized for `acting to deprive Israel of its means of defence'. `Legitimate self-defence', counters Jeremy Montagu, sometime president of West Central Liberal Synagogue, `does not mean oppressing a whole community or people. It does not mean demolishing their houses. Nor does it mean uprooting their olive trees, something that is specifically forbidden in the Torah (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). It does not mean preventing them and their children from getting to hospitals or subjecting them to humiliation. When I, as a Jew, see such things happening, how can I not speak out?'

They are told that they should be `ashamed to be Jewish'. `If they are ashamed of anything,' Anthony Isaacs counters, `it is of what is being done purportedly in their name.' Labelling Israel's critics as `Jews for genocide', malshinim (informers), `anti-Semites' and `self-hating Jews', adds Richard Kuper, are attempts `to reframe the debate' by rendering criticism suspect before it is voiced. Criticism `should be evaluated on the basis of evidence put forward', not on the presumed motivation of the critics.

They believe that the `Israel right or wrong' polemic of Alan Dershowitz, Melanie Phillips and other `ideologues' of the Zionist right serves neither Israel's nor Jewry's interest. Conflating Israel and Jews `spill[s] over into unjustifiable attacks on Jews as a whole.' They `find themselves increasingly the object of scorn, or worse.' `Have we forgotten?' asks Jeremy Montagu?

The South African contributor Gillian Slovo perhaps best sums up the view of the brave Jews who have spoken out in this book. `The tradition of ethics in which I was brought up says that it is not enough for you, and the people you love, to be safe and comfortable. It says that you must not close your eyes to the pain of others just because they do not have the same colour of skin, or the same religion, or the same ethnic background as you. It says that to argue against the injustice of Palestinians being walled into enclaves, or against the way that circumŽstances of birth dictate which roads can be travelled and which passes carried, or to point to parallels with apartheid, is not knee-jerk antisemitism [sic] (or self-hatred). Rather it is the responŽsibility we all have to make an effort to ensure equality and justice for everybody. It is for this reason that I am happy to be part of the Independent Jewish Voices initiative.'