Four prominent American Jews condemned the march of some 20.000 Israelis through the West Bank and called on “Jews who support a militarily and morally strong Israel” to reject the notion “that territories are more important than peace,” and called on Israel to “prohibit further Jewish settlement in the occupied territories.”
Rabbi Joachim Prinz, chairman of the World’ Conference of Jewish Organizations, David Tulin, chairman of the Philadelphia Zionist Federation, Rabbi Max Ticktin. assistant national director of B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundations, and Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of the department of interreligious affairs of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, issued the condemnation and appeal in a statement on behalf of Breira. a national Jewish educational organization. The four signed the statement as individuals, not as representatives of their respective organizations.
Breira, which means “alternative” in Hebrew claims it is “promoting an overall peace settlement in the Middle East as the foundation for Israeli security and hopes to revitalize and democratize American Jewish life.”
CONSEQUENCES OF THE MARCH
In condemning the two-day West Bank march by more than 20,000 followers and sympathizers of the Gush Emunim, the four Jewish spokesmen declared: “Coupled with recent violations of civil rights and loss of life on the West Bank, this march serves only to strengthen Arab nationalism and to weaken faith in Israeli and Jewish commitment to the human and national rights on which Israeli society was founded and maintained.”
The statement added that “we who believe fervently in the right of national self-determination for the Jewish people in Israel must offer an alternative to Israeli occupation of territories inhabited by over one million Palestinian Arabs and recognize the parallel right of the Palestinian Arab people to national self-determination in a state of their own alongside Israel.”
Breira said it proposes to “challenge all elements in the Arab world to make peace with Israel on the basis of Israel’s pre-June 1967 border, with special provision for open access for all to a united Jerusalem.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
