As we approach the Jewish New Year and as we come upon almost a year of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, Global Jews for Palestine–a coalition of organizations from 16 countries across the globe–releases (see link below) a 5.5 minute collective video speaking to the moment we are in as well as a statement attached (Al Het: confession of sins recited during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement).
October 1, 2024
“Ashamnu” – We are culpable”
On Yom Kippur, Jews traditionally confess our sins in public. We confess in the plural, and we do so not only for our own sins, but for those of the community we live in and for those of the Jewish people as whole – for even if we did not personally commit each and every sin listed, we are responsible for stopping our fellow Jews, and the Jewish communal institutions that act in our name, from committing these sins. According to the great medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar Maimonides, the person in whose power it is to prevent sin and does not undertake to prevent it is ultimately responsible for the sin since it was possible for them to prevent it.
This year as Jews worldwide recite the Al Het (list of sins) and the Vidui (confessional) under the shadow of a genocide being carried out in Gaza in which nearly 50,000 Palestinians have been killed let us consider some of the sins that have been committed in our name by people and institutions claiming to act on our behalf – namely by supporting and defending the oppression, historical erasure, degradation, dispossession, and killing of Palestinians in the name of Jewish self-determination.
Every day during the ten days of repentance, we will post one sin that our community must rectify in the quest for justice and moral accountability- heshbon nefesh.
אָשַֽׁמְנוּ
“Ashamnu” (we are all culpable for the transgressions of our community). “Jewish communities must make a choice. We cannot continue to deny the injustices committed in our name against Palestinians. We must engage in the work of teshuva (repentance) by facing the truth about Palestinian suffering and by recognizing our complicity and ending our silence.
בָּגַֽדְנוּ
“Bagadnu” (betrayal) We have betrayed Jewish tradition by failing to acknowledge the humanity and rights of the Palestinians and by supporting the state of Israel as it carries out a genocide.
גָּזַֽלְנוּ
“Gazalnu” (robbery) We have participated in the theft of Palestinian land by supporting the Jewish National Fund and the ever-expanding Israeli settlement project.
דִּבַּֽרְנוּ דֹּֽפִי
“Dibarnu Dofi” (slander) We have slandered and defamed those with whom we don’t agree including Jews who oppose Israel’s violence and human rights abuse
חָמַֽסְנוּ
“Chamasnu” (acting zealously)
In our zeal to protect Jews and Israel we have distorted, misused and weaponized charges of antisemitism.
טָפַֽלְנוּ שֶֽׁקֶר
“Tafalnu Sheker” (lying) We have distorted and denied the truth about Israeli crimes against humanity and justified policies such as the withholding of water, medicine and basic necessities to the people of Gaza.
פָּשַֽׁעְנוּ
“Pashanu” (perverting justice) We have wrongfully exerted influence on institutions so as to prevent legitimate criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
קִשִּֽׁינוּ עֹֽרֶף
“Kishinu Oref” (stubbornness) Even when confronted with the deaths of nearly 17,000 children, Israel supporters continue to claim that there are “no innocents in Gaza”.תָּעִֽינו
“Tainu” (straying from a righteous path) We have abandoned the fight for justice by refusing to acknowledge the Nakba – the ongoing Palestinian experience of violence, expulsion and dispossession’
תִּעְתָּֽעְנוּ
“Titanu” (causing others to stray from righteousness) We have caused others to stray from righteousness by miseducating our community and our children about Israel’s role in the Nakba and Palestinian suffering alongside the history of Jewish suffering.
• • •
May the spirit of justice guide us in the new year so that we may open our ears to truth, open our hearts to the oppressed, and speak our minds courageously in order to begin to stop our community’s complicity in the, oppression, suffering and attempted destruction of the Palestinian people.
In this season of atonement Jews must take an ethical stand:
*Demand an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza.
*Demand that our religious, educational and cultural institutions acknowledge and speak truthfully about the Palestinian Nakba.
*Demand that Jewish institutions stop attacking, maligning and punishing those who speak their conscience about Israel’s genocidal violence and dispossession of the Palestinian people.
*Demand an end to the malicious vilification of fellow Jews who name and oppose Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
*Demand an end to Jewish communal funding for organizations that promote Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism.
*Demand an end to Jewish communal funding for organizations that support and enable illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land and which defend settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Written by Sheryl Nestel, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Global Jews for Palestine
Sh'ma Koleinu - Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ) 
email me glieberman@lessings.com
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