Israel has broken the ceasefire by massacring Gazan civilians in darkness. Israel turned from talks to utter slaughter, with the reported agreement of US president Trump. A surprise Israel-American attack killed more than 400 Palestinians, entirely without warning and without the slightest chance to save themselves and their children.
Israel’s barbaric choices are beyond human tolerance. For more than two weeks, Israel’s government has again cut off Gaza’s supplies of food and fuel. Hunger and thirst again prevail among civilians, despite their most basic right to humanitarian supplies. This is not warfare; it is genocide. Calamity is escalating in the West Bank. More than 40,000 people have been displaced as Israel destroys civilian communities.
Alongside other Aotearoa organisations, we call for peace and we call yet again for our government to represent our outrage by acting in the name of law and the rights of human beings. Act as the highest UN court has already instructed us to act: stop pretending that this is normal. Expel Israel’s ambassador, cease the trade and reciprocal actions that we enjoy with decent states. Israel has removed itself from the community of decent states.
In the disbelieving silence, we ask each other what we can do. For Aotearoa, this assault revives our anger and our fear that nothing we do will be sufficient.
We at AJV urge our friends and neighbours not to yield to despair. Peace is the work of generations, not days. Find your community among people who are not afraid of that commitment. Take your lead from Palestinians and other Indigenous struggles. Learn from their long vision. If you have never waved a Palestinian flag, join one of the dozens of weekly gatherings. Be uplifted by their company in firm solidarity. This genocide will overwhelm anyone who sits alone with the things we are seeing.
Our Jewish community must urgently confront this new era. Hollow claims of “antisemitism” are by now merely the instruments by which Trump dismantles law and pursues his demons. Jewish institutions which defend Netanyahu’s politics by endless slaughter or imagine that Donald Trump is their protector, are worse than blind. Such Jewish institutions have failed the ethical test of our lifetimes. We need new institutions and we will build them.
Our message is to walk beyond horror into action: into the streets, into government’s inboxes, and into community with those who will see this nightmare through to something better.
Alternative Jewish Voices
Sh'ma Koleinu - Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ) 