Anya Topolski

Published originally in Dutch in Knack 22/12/2024

Another Jewish Voice was founded a decade ago in Flanders in response to the
2014 Gaza War, when Israel killed more than 2,000 Palestinians
and wounded more than 10,000. Leaders in Europe have defended
Israel’s occupation of Palestine and attacks on Palestinians and
activists as a way to demonstrate their own concern for
“the Jewish community” (thus justifying their role in the Holocaust)
and as a justification for their Islamophobia.

Our response now is the same as it was ten years ago:
Not in our name! It is tragic enough that ten years ago,
seventy-nine years after the Shoah and seventy-six years after the
Nakba, we had to create Another Jewish Voice to make it clear
that we – a diverse group of Jews – refuse to remain silent
when injustice occurs, whether in Belgium or in Palestine.

We realized that due to a lack of unbiased media coverage,
education and informed political discourse, non-Jews in Belgium still
hold problematic and anti-Semitic views such as seeing
“the Jewish community” as a monolith, assuming that we all think and often
even look the same. We have made an effort to educate
about our diversity in terms of ideology and origins,
history and religious practices, while working with partners
and allies to educate, develop policies, and protest injustice.

It is equally tragic today that the State of Israel, supported by many
Western allies (including Belgium), instrumentalizes the fight against
antisemitism to justify what the ICJ has identified as a plausible
ongoing threat of genocide.

Israeli military brutality has not changed but worsened in the last decade,
involving not only Palestinians but also Lebanese citizens,
as well as Israeli Jews in unprecedented bloodshed with no end in sight.

Judaism in Europe has experienced a long, violent, and at times
tragic history. Its lessons are the basis for the most basic human rights enshrined in international law. Yet these lessons are forgotten, neglected, and violated by the
brutality of Israel. While we might prefer to establish communities and organizations to care for and celebrate Jewish life, we understand that today more than ever we must insist that “never again” applies to everyone.

We must speak out against injustice, here and in Palestine,
especially when it is justified in our name. Our goals,
which we wrote ten years ago, are unfortunately more urgent
now than ever. Let us hope that ten years from now we will no
longer be needed.

Our goals:
We are a Jewish group, working for peace and social justice,
believing that all people are equal and entitled to a free and
dignified existence. We wish to propagate this vision in Europe and
in Israel-Palestine, two places historically linked and important to us,
as Jews. We reject all forms of oppression and dispossession and all forms
of racism, both institutional and grassroots, including anti-Semitism,
Islamophobia and xenophobia.

We subscribe to the Jewish precept of tikkun olam, tikkun ha-adam:
in order to repair the world, we must begin with ourselves. We wish to
approach these problems both at home and in the Middle East, from a
comprehensive view of the past and present. Through collaboration with
local and international organizations that share our objectives, we hope to
put an end to these spirals of exclusion and violence. We call for an end to
occupation (apartheid and genocide), for respect and dignity for all Israelis
and Palestinians, and for a lasting peace.

Over the past decade, we have sought to educate, engage and empower –
and we are grateful to all with whom we have been able to work.
We have done this directed to the general public, but also and
(very much needed today) within the Jewish community.
We have also sought to educate ourselves about the situation in
Israel/Palestine. We have questioned our own position. We have also
done outreach to other Jews in Belgium, who cannot
relate to Israeli politics and feel they have nowhere to turn.

Since the genocide began, we have seen more and more individuals
and groups within the Jewish community in Belgium who want to be
part of the fight against the genocide. We receive messages from
interested parties from Limburg to the Belgian coast. We meet
Israeli citizens living in Belgium who refuse to be part of the
Zionist policy of colonialism and militarism. We protested together
with other organizations in the national demonstrations over the past year.

Looking back, we hope that our contributions to protests against fascism, racism, antisemitism, and the occupation, the policy documents we worked on, and the our networking and media appearances on BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions),
that all of those things somehow helped achieve that goal. What is clear, however, is that there is no hope for justice in Palestine without the support of a broad Belgian public.

We now call on everyone who has not yet spoken out, or in some way expressed support for Palestine and anti-racism activism in Belgium such as against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, to do so now. It is never too late to learn about what anti-Semitism is, or to learn why the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is highly problematic, and really confuses anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel or Zionism. It is also never too late to learn what BDS is–the Palestinian nonviolent movement for freedom, justice and equality.

Yet another option is to urge public representatives to support a
full arms embargo. To demand that the Belgian state, European institutions,
companies, as well as research, education and cultural institutions,
honor human rights commitments and support the UN, the International
Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

We do not want our children, and their children, to have to
live with the shame that many Europeans now live with, because
they remained silent when their state, and they therefore
indirectly, were complicit in genocide.

Ten years ago, I felt that I could not remain silent and
founded EAJS with some others. Ten years later, I wonder
if we have made a difference, both for the Palestinians and for
the victims of racism here in Belgium . . . . What we could
or should do differently now?

Is there any hope for justice in Palestine? How can we, as
Jews living in Europe after the Shoah, continue to live in a
world where genocide is not only possible, but supported by so many?
This is an injustice rooted in European history, the responsibility
lies with all of us. We cannot do this alone and are looking for
more partners and coalitions; only together is change possible.

Een Andere Joodse Stem/ Another Jewish Voice

Published originally in Dutch in Knack, 15/08/2024

Ten months have passed since the Hamas-led attack on Israel took place on 7 October, and more than 300 days since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza. Yet, Israeli PM Netanyahu remains disinterested in seriously negotiating a prisoner exchange deal and any form of ceasefire. World leaders, including US President Biden, and even the majority of the Israeli public, do not believe anymore that Netanyahu is interested to end the war.

As if the current crisis is not enough, Netanyahu decided to use the killing of 12 children in the occupied Golan Heights as a pretext for the extrajudicial killings of prominent Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr and Ismayil Haniyeh, the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau. Regardless of the possible justifications or reasoning behind Israel’s killings of these leaders, targeted assassinations in breach of the sovereignty of third countries are illegal under international law. The recent assassinations also make a horrendous regional war in the Middle East ever more likely (as Netanyahu has undoubtedly taken into account). Disregarding international law and attempting to resolve conflicts by military means causes harm to all parties involved, and to civilians most of all. 

The lack of respect for the humanity of civilians is unfortunately already a reality now, in Gaza and the West Bank, but also around the border of Israel-Palestine and Lebanon. The Israeli media is full of reports about the roughly 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern villages that were evacuated from their homes since October 2023, but the experiences of roughly 90,000 Lebanese residents who have had to flee their homes in the vicinity of the Israeli border are seldom covered. The same goes for the numerous civilian casualties caused by Israeli attacks on what Israel’s military spokesperson routinely describes as “Hezbollah infrastructure” or “terror activists.” In the Israeli and international press, these anonymous civilians in Lebanon go unnamed, and there is minimal explanation of why and how they were killed. Israeli casualties’ experiences are investigated by state authorities, and the life stories of the dead are reported by the media. Unfortunately, it seems necessary these days to state the obvious: humanity and dignity should not be limited to one side in a conflict or to a certain category of people. 

Civilian voices could form an alternative to the warmongering of political and military elites. To prevent a wider war, we need a deal now to guarantee the release of Israeli and Palestinian hostages and prisoners. Israeli hostages are dying in captivity in Gaza, and B’Tselem reports on the systematic torture of Palestinians captivated in Israel, more than 60 of whom have died since October 2023. A deal is more urgent than ever. Those who have enabled these atrocities must be held accountable, and the ICC proceedings in this case must continue. Furthermore, this deal could finally stop the daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people living in Gaza, as the situation worsens beyond what the International Court of Justice described in January as a “real and imminent risk of genocide”. Yet the international community has failed to take action. Accountability and respect for the humanity of all civilians is an essential step toward justice and a longer-lasting peace beyond the immediate need to reach a ceasefire and prevent the widening of the war. 

The Israeli government, unfortunately, works actively to undermine any humanistic perspective. Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s primary coalition partner,has stated that it is a moral act to starve two million Palestinians in Gaza. A prominent journalist in a daily newspaper identified with Netanyahu stated that Palestinian captives should be raped as a state-led retaliation. Parliament members from the ruling coalition and the Minister of Homeland Security have joined right-wing protesters and armed soldiers in attempts to forcefully prevent juridical proceedings against Israeli soldiers suspected of raping and torturing prisoners, and storming an Israeli Supreme Court hearing related to the conditions in the quasi-legal detention camp where the Israeli military is holding these Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu remains silent in the face of  these racist and fascist statements and actions, while he is quick to define any protest around the globe defending Palestinian rights as “antisemite”. A regional war will enable him to deepen the hold of this fundamentalist and fascist political camp on the entirety of the Jewish-Israeli public. 

Now the international community, Western governments, the pro-Israel lobby, Israeli-Jews and other communities around the world that have granted their support to the Israeli state need to decide how they want to respond to this reality. Will they continue supporting this ultra-nationalistic and racist project, or stop? Will they withdraw from any cooperation with the Israeli military and weapon industry that enable this terrifying project? Will they put diplomatic and economic pressure on Israel to halt this course of events? Will they work on a respectful and equal basis with the people of the region, first and foremost the Palestinians, towards a future of decolonization, justice and peace?

We are Jews living in Belgium, many of us with strong connections to Israel-Palestine, where some of us grew up and have close family and social relations. As members of Een Andere Joodse Stem/Another Jewish Voice we wish to say loud and clear that war is not our way. We will do whatever we can to prevent an escalation into war and to work toward peace and justice for all. We know that to achieve a lasting peace in Israel-Palestine, we must dismantle the structures of occupation, colonization, and apartheid that Israel has instituted in the West Bank and Gaza, structures the ICJ has declared illegal according to international law. These changes are a key component of a future when Israeli Jews can become part of the region not as representatives of a colonizing power but on the basis of equality and mutual respect: a future of living together rather than dying together.

We are Jews, We are angry, We stand in solidarity with Subversive Film

EAJS – Een Andere Joodse Stem / Another Jewish Voice
UPJB – Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique

To support the statement: https://linktr.ee/eajs

We, Jews living in Belgium, stand in solidarity with the Brussels-based Palestinian collective Subversive Film and with all of the lumbung community, against the unjust scrutiny and attacks they have been subjected to since documenta fifteen was launched, in particular unfair and misleading accusations of antisemitism.

The inspiring contribution of Subversive Film to the exhibition with Tokyo Reels (among others contributions) are valuable for their historiographic as well as artistic merit, and are of extensive significance.  

We wish to make very clear that Anti-Zionism, as well as critiques of Israeli colonial expansion and militarist violence in violation of international law, are not antisemitic. We reject the use of antisemitism as a cynical tool to silence any legitimate criticism of the injustice that is happening on a daily basis in Israel / Palestine.

We refuse the instrumentalization of antisemitism by European conservative forces attempting to silence and/or discipline the voices and actions of collectives and individuals from the Global South, and to undermine the growing movement of racialized communities in Europe and in the Global South that demands decolonization and justice.

Some of us were born and raised in Belgium or elsewhere in Europe and have experienced antisemitism first hand. Some of us have migrated to Belgium from Israel, where we witnessed first hand the violence of the Israeli state against Palestinians. Together, we declare that we do not support the Jewish conservative organizations or self-declared “antisemitism experts” who took part in this instrumentalization exercise – not in our name! 

We condemn the European and particularly German attempts to deflect guilt for their own historical crimes by projecting responsibility for antisemitism onto people coming from the Global South and people of colour more broadly. This insidious and racialised dynamic casts people of colour and those from the Global South as the root cause of antisemitism, and the German state, alongside white Europeans, as the well-meaning and innocent protectors of Jews from the antisemitic migrant. This narrative conveniently encourages a form of collective amnesia for where the root cause of antisemitism and the Shoah really lie and serve to obscure our true common enemy: the steep rise of the extreme right and white nationalism across the continent – including in Germany. 

We reject the use of the IHRA definition which has been scrutinised and discredited by many antisemitism scholars and Jewish intellectuals due to its conflation of antisemitism with legitimate critique of the State of Israel. Around 350 signatories, including many renowned scholars, have now signed the alternative Jerusalem Declaration, developed in response to the IHRA definition in order to provide “clear guidance to identify and fight antisemitism while protecting free expression” – holding that the IHRA failed to get this balancing act right and has been used far too often to strategically silence critique of Israel and the occupation.

We reject the projection of conceptual and political tools that were developed to fight antisemitism in Europe – the place where antisemitism is historically rooted and further developed with genocidal consequences – on the Global South. Attempts to apply these to the Global South follow in the footsteps of European intellectual imperialism.

We are angry that actual, physical attacks on artists of color who participated in documenta fifteen at the hands of German individuals and groups were minimized and ignored by those who simultaneously placed themselves at the forefront of the fight against antisemitism. Let us be clear, our struggles are interconnected: antisemitism is but one form of racism which must be tackled alongside all forms of racism.

We cherish the anti-colonial movement in the art world, in the academia and in other public arenas, and the necessity of supporting power building and resistance against Western hegemony in the Global South. We welcome any reflection on the role of Europe and the West in the continuous undermining of these efforts.

The generous proposal of ruangrupa and the invited collectives of documenta fifteen is a long overdue shift in the focal point of the art world that we embrace and continue to learn from as this exhibition continues. We are grateful for the immense efforts that are being made daily to ensure that this edition of documenta withstands (with dignity and humility) the smears and attacks it is currently experiencing.

We extend our hand to the communities that have been the target of European colonialism and genocidial enterprises, of European racism and exploitation, of European disciplining and silencing. As indicated in lumbung’s statement, “we are all in this together.” 

Let this be the beginning of true comradery in the face of those who try to pull us apart.

To support the statement: https://linktr.ee/eajs

Letter to Keren Kayemet Le’Israël (Jewish National Fund) Belgium – Luxemburg

L’Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique (UPJB) and Een Andere Joodse Stem (EAJS) call on the KKL-JNF to refrain from uprooting the Sumarin family, a Palestinian family of 18 members, from their East Jerusalem home.

In these times of a global health crisis, the importance of a home is clear. Nevertheless, the KKL-JNF is intensifying these days its efforts to evict the Sumarin family from the home in which they have been living for several generations. On June 30^th, the KKL-JNF will demand the evacuation of the family in Jerusalem’s district court.

The attempts to evict the Sumarin family are based on a draconian application of Israeli legislation that was imposed on the Palestinian residents in the territories occupied by Israel in the June 1967 war, which ended exactly 53 years ago. Within the severe injustice and the wide range of human rights violations that this ongoing occupation creates, evicting the Sumarin family stands out as an act of abject cruelty, especially in these times. The KKL-JNF should  immediately renounce all claims to the property, cease all legal proceedings against the family, and let the family live in peace and safety in their own home.

As the official representatives of KKL-JNF in Belgium, you are carrying responsibility towards the Belgian public to the activities of the organization that you represent. We therefore ask you to publicly renounce the evacuation of the Sumarin family, and to announce the central bodies of KKL-JNF that you stop your fundraising activities in Belgium until this issue is resolved. Otherwise, you will be perceived by the Belgian Jewish communities and the wider Belgian public as complicit in this severe case of human rights violations and injustice.

Sincerely,

Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique (UPJB) | info@upjb.be

Een Andere Joodse Stem (EAJS) | infoeajs@gmail.com

Friday, 14 February 2020, 20:00

Elcker Ik Centrum, Breughelstraat 31, 2018 Antwerpen

On January 28th, US president Trump presented a plan which he claimed could solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From the moment of its presentation, the inability of the plan to achieve this aim was evident. Only Israeli prime minister Netanyahu was present. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian National Authority, refused to accept the plan, which did not take into account any of the Palestinian concerns or interests. Critiques of the plan denounced it as normalizing a reality of apartheid and denying the rights of the Palestinian refugees. Indeed, Israeli politicians were quick to announce that the plan supports their long-awaited aspirations to officially annex parts of the West Bank to Israel, intentions that are partially supported also by Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main challenger in the coming Israeli elections on March 2^nd. Belgian and European leaders have kept an ambivalent position towards the plan, refusing to pose a significant challenge to American hegemony or to the continuous violation of Palestinian human rights by Israel.

To reverse the manner in which Trump’s plan and Israeli policies ignore the Palestinian people, Een Andere Joodse Stem/ Another Jewish Voice is inviting two prominent Palestinian activists to express their views on the plan, as well as on the current impasse in which Palestinians are given and the possibilities to move forward. We are proud to host:

Inès Abdel Razek, advocacy director for the Palestine Institute of Public Diplomacy, a Palestinian advocacy NGO based in Ramallah 

Mahmoud AbuRahma, who managed the international advocacy and litigation program at Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza for 18 years, and is now working on anti-racism in Europe.

They will be joined by Dr. Itamar Shachar, a member of Een Andere Joodse Stem. He has previously worked in the Israeli human rights organization Gisha – Legal Center for the Freedom of Movement, and is currently an FWO postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Sociology at Ghent University.

The discussion will take place in English, but we welcome the participation of the audience also in Dutch, Arabic or Hebrew.

You are all welcome to join us on Friday, 14 February 2020, at 20:00, at Elcker Ik Centrum, Breughelstraat 31, 2018 Antwerpen. The entrance is free of charge.

In a glaring spectacle of colonial hubris, American and Israeli leaders – without any Palestinian partners – have presented a plan allegedly aimed to settle the historical conflict in Israel-Palestine, completely ignoring Palestinian needs and interests. The plan aims to suppress Palestinian aspirations for independence and freedom, to confine the Palestinians to an Apartheid-like system of Bantustans, and to null the rights of the Palestinian refugees.

This spectacle is aimed to assist Trump and Netanyahu to gain public popularity as they both face serious corruption allegations and upcoming elections. At the same time, the unilateral character of their steps is aimed to put the blame on Palestinian leadership for their refusal to take part in this futile spectacle. It nurtures the Israeli sense of entitlement to annex parts of the occupied territories and trade the citizenship of its Arab-Palestinian residents, which unfortunately seems to be shared both by Netanyahu and his main contester in the coming elections Benny Gantz.

The denial of the basic human rights of Palestinians is against the most fundamental values of humanism and equality that Een Andere Joodse Stem/Another Jewish Voice is committed to. We share this commitment with the United Nations and with most countries across the globe, and call them to reject Trump’s plan outright. EAJS will continue to struggle against the oppression and de-humanization of Palestinians, and for justice in response to the historical wrongs committed by the state of Israel. This is the only way to establish the basis for equality and mutual respect between Palestinians and Israelis, and to secure peace and prosperity in the area.