What we believe

About Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JJP) is a network of Jews who are British or live in Britain.

We were formed in 2002 in response to Israel’s denial of rights to the Palestinian people and have continued to say ever since, loud and clear, that Israel’s actions are Not In Our Name.

Our task is campaigning for Palestinian rights in the face of the Israeli regime of occupation, ever-growing settlement, oppressive rule and institutional discrimination. We:

• join with other Palestinian support groups in campaigning for Palestinian rights;
• campaign for the right to support Palestinian rights and criticise Israel without being accused of antisemitism;
• lobby the UK government and other governments to support Palestinian rights; and
• seek to convince our fellow UK Jews that campaigning for Palestinian rights is in accord with core Jewish values and is in the interests of both Jews and Palestinians.

We are committed to full equality in human, civil and political rights irrespective of nationality, citizenship, ethnicity, religious belief or identity, for all people who live between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Any viable resolution to the long conflict must be in accord with human rights and with international law, to which Jewish lawyers made a major contribution, responding to the Holocaust and the recognition that its central lesson was “Never Again – to Anyone!”.

The Palestinians right to self-determination is enshrined in international law, expressed in United Nations resolutions mandating the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians have been prevented from exercising their right by Israel’s occupation of those territories, which has been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice.

Israel is a sovereign state with full United Nations membership. For as long as Palestinians want to have their own sovereign state with full UN membership, there is no justification for this being denied to them or delayed. And in the absence of a Palestinian state, they have the right to equal rights now under whatever political regime they live.

It is clear that Israel is in breach of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to which it is a signatory. Several respected human rights NGOs have produced reports concluding that Israel has created a system of apartheid, defined by the Apartheid Convention as “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them”. We concur with their reports.

The infamous Nation State Law should be rescinded – and Israel should become a genuinely multicultural multi-faith state of and for all its citizens.

Equality requires peace. A lasting peace requires:

• an end to Israel’s illegal occupation, theft and settlement of Palestinian land – and an end to its oppression and impoverishment of the Palestinian population;
• the dismantling of Israel’s apartheid system, including the repeal of all laws and administrative practices within Israel which discriminate against its own Palestinian citizens and other minorities;
• acknowledgement by Israel of its responsibility in the creation of the Palestinian refugees, and its obligation to negotiate a just and practical resolution of the issue;
• creation of an environment of mutual recognition and respect between Palestinians and Jews and commitment on all sides to negotiating a just and sustainable way forward.

Violence against civilians is unacceptable, no matter who commits it. However, we believe the long occupation, the repression of peaceful Palestinian resistance, the continually expanding settlement project and the siege of Gaza are the causes of the recurring violence. Our statement on this website, “Genocide in Gaza – Not in our name” presents our views on the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on 7th October 2023 and Israel’s war on Gaza in response.

We support the International Criminal Court in seeking to bring all those guilty of war crimes to justice.

We affirm the right to organise and support boycott, divestment and sanctions initiatives against Israeli and foreign organisations which maintain, promote or profit from the illegal occupation or undermine the human, civil, economic and political rights of the Palestinian people.

We believe that giving a voice to Jewish opinions supportive of Palestinian rights and critical of Israeli policy that transgresses those rights is important in challenging antisemitism and the claim that opposition to Israel’s destructive policies is antisemitic, as well as in supporting justice for Palestinians.

We believe conflating unconditional support for Israel with Jewish safety pits Jews against other minority groups, helps demonise Arab and Muslim communities vulnerable to state repression, strips Palestinians of the protective shield of international publicity, and imperils fundamental liberties of speech and association including among Jews themselves.

This statement was last updated on 12th October 2025